ISP HW77 .177

[Heathrow]

Getting familiar with this new to me sweetheart with customizations performed by ISP but I can already tell she’ll be a cherished shooter.
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Had a go at 38 yards, seated FT over the knee using JSB 8.4 and all the concentration I could muster, you can deduce a wee bit of wind was present:

5 pence 18mm OD (same as our dime) for reference:

Surely I can get a tight bughole of a group, come on, let’s get it together! So another 5 shot group was in order and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Still not the tidiest, but at 38 yards with the intermittent wind, the earth’s rotation and crappy BC of airgun pellets, what else do you want?
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All 5 covered cleanly with a 5 pence coin, that’s fine with me.

Enough of this 38 yd shooting, how about a go at 55yds:

I biffed shot #4 and felt my ancestors cry, this should have been well under .5”, oh well - next time perhaps.

More to come,

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[Heathrow]

Well this post is absolutely butchered - hard time with the pic uploads!

 

[moodyblues]

Man it looks good to me, I was able to follow along just fine. Beautiful rifle and excellent shooting. I’m just getting back to my R9 after 15-20 years, damn good fun!

Beau

 

[Heathrow]

That is a looong hiatus, you must feed your rifle tins and tins of lead to make up for the years of neglect

 

[moodyblues]

Well dad actually bought it for me when I was 12, and I quit giving it attention when I moved out. Dad kept her company during my springer vacation so I don’t think there’s any long term emotional damage lol. I’m doing my best to make it right by her now, she got a tune kit and a Hawke Airmax with lots of shooting.

 

[ChuckHunter]

Sweet rig!!!
I have to ask who is ISP?

 

[Heathrow]

Just shot a lovely bughole of a group with ONE errant pellet that refused to hold hands with the others- despite this all 5 impacts well covered with a dime/5pence at .41” c-t-c. Shot from an elevated position muzzle pointing down the hill at target 55 yards away in a steady headwind, FT position off the knee. The target itself looks old and weathered because it is- been outside for at least a couple of weeks, lol!

Spent .22LR casing thrown in for a poops n giggles reference.

This is the kind of rifle I enjoy the most - an accurate shooter, first and foremost, of superb build quality that is a joy to shoot. Embellishments such as skipline checkering, fiddleback and tiger striping, bits of brass bling, deep black mirror polished blueing and engraving have their time and place, but at the end of the day accuracy reigns supreme for me.

In one of the pics below you can see me holding up fingers in the reflection off the polished/reblued safety button, because that’s how I roll.

English walnut one-off CS thumbole target stock with flowing grain - adj cheekpiece riser, flat FULL LENGTH underside from forward of TG to tip of foreend with deep heel and adj buttpad, Harris Engineering (John Harris) monolithic full length 10 screw picatinny riser rail with “in built tilt” to keep the March 5-32 in low mounts near optical center at 27 yds.

 

[Heathrow]

Sweet rig!!!
I have to ask who is ISP?

Shooting the ISP Spartan Classic air rifle with Andy McLachlan - Airgun Magazine

While Andy McLachlan usually loves throwing plenty of lead downrange, he slows down the pace so he can savour a rather special rifle

www.airgunmagazine.co.uk

ISP Air Rifles is UK based, they build quite possibly the world’s finest and best looking air rifle: The Spartan (short video above). They also handbuild the Airstream, a FT specific rifle which has won many trophys in the UK as well as some USA FT National Championships as well!

Everything Shaun Hill touches is brilliant, he even dabbles in leatherwork:

 

[maxtrouble]

Sweet rig!!!
I have to ask who is ISP?

Very nice shooter. Thanks for the link on ISP! I have never seen a scope mount like that. Who makes it?

 

[Heathrow]

Very nice shooter. Thanks for the link on ISP! I have never seen a scope mount like that. Who makes it?

Are you referring to the mount in the video? Not sure about that one

 

[maxtrouble]

Are you referring to the mount in the video? Not sure about that one

You described the mount as a monolithic rail. Is this a droop mount? It looks heavy.

 

[Heathrow]

John Harris (Harris Eng) Uk made the picatinny riser rail- built from solid block of aluminium, with machined in droop

 

[maxtrouble]

John Harris (Harris Eng) Uk made the picatinny riser rail- built from solid block of aluminium, with machined in droop

Is this a popular mount for competition shooting? Does it provide additional benefits other than droop compensation? Extra weight to lower recoil?

 

[Heathrow]

It’s simply a well made, custom piece . For me the extra weight is welcome, but I can’t put it on any 77/97 - the rig has to be balanced or accomodating.

 

[maxtrouble]

It’s simply a well made, custom piece . For me the extra weight is welcome, but I can’t put it on any 77/97 - the rig has to be balanced or accomodating.

I like the idea, my 77 had a serious problem with scope movement. I ended up using BKL Mounts to solve the problem.

 

[specie]

Curious that an airgun introduced forty years ago still attracts so much interest and financial investment? Of course many airguns are much older than that, but mostly as "collectibles" for collectors but this HW77 was upgraded as a gun for actual competition? Beautiful airgun.

 

[Heathrow]

Curious that an airgun introduced forty years ago still attracts so much interest and financial investment? Of course many airguns are much older than that, but mostly as "collectibles" for collectors but this HW77 was upgraded as a gun for actual competition? Beautiful airgun.

They’re not rhetorical questions but are difficult to answer, I’ll try:

You’re asking why one man would be attracted/interested in a specific older air rifle and want to invest in it financially by way of upgrades…The obvious is this, it’s what I enjoy and choose to do. Why would someone buy a high mileage (or even low miles) Porsche Cayenne, why would someone want to modify a vintage muscle car, why would I want to eat an angus beef hamburger cooked in bone marrow from free range beef?

The HW77 is a legendary rifle and has passed the test of time, in stock form and with modification; the latter taking place since its inception by the “golden age” UK custom houses such as Airmasters and Venom. An older one with 25mm internals is already a sweet rifle but it can be reincarnated into something much more - it happens all the time really in the UK with the likes of Nick Simmons, on rare occasion ISP and Paul Short but the springer die-hards are a small minority.

I tried to answer your questions. It boils down to personal taste. “Whatever floats your boat” , ya know?

 

[maxtrouble]

The HW77 rifle is timeless. Heirloom quality rifle capable of dime sized groups at fifty meters. Perfection lasts for ever.

 

[Heathrow]

Yes, and the older 25mm guns are especially sweet - quality inside and out.

 

[Heathrow]

Hocus pocus I’m focused while in ketosis and I’ve had a phenomenal double espresso and the ultimate dark roast pour over at Starbucks.

Shooting this rifle at 55yds has given me the warm fuzzies and it’s a rare feeling when that happens. Since the last post I’ve fine tuned the balance with several ounces of iron wheel balancing weights and debuted some brand new cold weather leather shooting gloves - I bought from Lowes and cut the finger tips off the shooting hand.

The group on the upper left is from a Cooper 57m LVT .22LR prone at 55 yds, center of image is work of the ISP HW77 off the knee. The first shot damn near hit the right point of the diamond (POA), must have been a lull in the crosswind/quartering tailwind because the other 5 got blown a wee bit to the right. 3 shots covered by a .22LR brass case standing up (ragged hole), 5 shots at .36” c-t-c, all 6 opened up to monstrous .66” c-t-c off the knee @ 55 yds.

Another 5 shot group, see what happens when the reticle dips low when you pinch off the shot- the pellet follows suit

And a couple more.

Top group - yes I bobbled a couple high - this rifle keeps me honest!

Bottom group - the waterline of the 4 pellets strung out is so tight it brought a tear to my eye

All shot out for now.

PyramydAir pellet packing foam, I put that $#!t on everything (fitted underneath the cheekpiece and if you zoom in it’s packed underneath the scope, too - I told myself it would dial out any residual vibrations to enhance follow through and I believed it