Recent content by EMrider

I have a similar reaction to many of the questions posted here. Replies are often unrelated to the question, and just a cut and paste flogging of whatever the person owns or prefers. Some of that is just human nature, and no reason to get tweaked. If I think that I have something useful to...

Always interesting to read the many opinions that surface in these 'survival gun' threads. I'd take the gun that I currently have the most confidence in as a hunter, my hw50s in .177. I do appreciate that my diet would consist of nothing larger than birds, squirrels and rabbits. R

I have tried squirrel hunting with a lot of spring guns, and the hw50s in .177 is my favorite. Even with a sling, my pro sport and hw97k get quite heavy after an hour or two of walking. The hw50s is relatively light, and has plenty of power for shots out to 30 yards. In the woods I hunt, 30...

As a few others have suggested, go with an hw30s in .177. Light, easy to cock, accurate, and very effective on squirrels within 25 yards. Pistols are difficult to shoot accurately. R

Yep, clipping coils off a spring would reduce power. From my experience, the change is usually in the 5%-10% ballpark per coil. If you want to tame recoil, reducing power is usually required. Glad that you're happy with how the gun is shooing. R

Glad you were able to improve your gun's shooting characteristics. A little effort to properly lube internals and fit a spring guide can yield surprising results. Guns with strong recoil often need a coil or two clipped off the spring. If you feel the need to tame your varmint even more, that...

Nice collection of spring guns, and a great overview on the merits of each for hunting. I have been hunting with springers for years, going after squirrels, quail, rabbits and grouse. For years, my main hunter was my .177 hw97k. But even with a sling, that thing is a porker. Now I hunt with...

It may indeed be a weakness with HW springers, but the first thing I do with all my new guns is ditch the iron sights and mount a scope. R

If by "tax it unnecessarily" you mean break a spring, then you need to decide whether getting a thousand fewer shots from a spring is worth it to you or not. I could care less if my spring breaks at 9k shots instead of 10k shots. But in no way is the gun being damaged by shooting 9.1g pellets. R

No question your R7 can safely shoot 9.1g pellets, so if they are accurate, fire away. I often shoot JSB 10.3s with mine, and the gun uses the same powerplant in .22 where pellet weights get up to 18g+. It may be the case that your spring could wear out faster, but those are easy and cheap to...

After watching this, I'm curious to know how these guns actually shoot. R

I find one piece mounts to be easier to work with, and have never had any scope compatibility problems. R

In the past, I have also not used ARH seals because I'm not comfortable with sizing them myself. After this experience, I'm far more aware of the importance of proper sizing. But, I'm even less confident in my ability to get it right without a lot of trial and error, because I did not 'feel' a...

I've been tinkering with tune kits, springs and seals in my springers for more than a decade. No fancy tools and no sophisticated skills, but I consider tinkering to be part of the fun. I just got my first lesson on the importance of a properly fit piston seal. A few months ago, I bought...

I have a PW tuned .177 R7 that he did for me about 10-12 years ago. I don't have any records, but I think the tune cost something like $300-$350. In addition, it was a full 8 months from when I shipped my R7 to when it got it back, and I had to make several follow up calls to check status...