This weekend in Indiana dawned very cold and windy with wind chills hovering around zero. I decided this was a good weekend to shoot springers on the indoor range.
One of the rifles I have been working on for some time now is a .22 Weihrauch HW80. Just after receiving it, I installed a Vortek PG4-steel HO spring kit and vac seal, cutting off a coil to "tame" it a little bit. While I did achieve considerable accuracy improvement, as the guests that have visited my indoor range will attest, the challenge comes from three sets of RX targets with 1/4" steel knock down panels, with several of the pass through holes either 10mm or 15mm. To consistently knock these down, one has to have a rifle that will shoot average groups of 3/8" or less.
The HW80 is a "hammer," and knocks the targets down with real authority when the pellet makes it through the hole. The problem was that this rifle was still grouping at an average of just under 1/2" - not good enough to consistently knock down the paddles on the indoor range. So this morning, I decided to tear it down once more and remove another coil from the spring kit, in an attempt to improve the group sizes.
I did so within an hour and was back to pellet testing. One coil removed took about .75 FPE energy off but this rifle is still shooting +/- 16 fpe. With the JSB 14.35 gr pellets, I was able to reduce the average of two 10 shot groups down to .37", and upon final testing, knocked down six of the RX Target panels, shooting through through (3) 10mm and (3) 15mm holes, with only six shots required.
The tuning history to date and the most recent round of test targets can be found below.
One of the rifles I have been working on for some time now is a .22 Weihrauch HW80. Just after receiving it, I installed a Vortek PG4-steel HO spring kit and vac seal, cutting off a coil to "tame" it a little bit. While I did achieve considerable accuracy improvement, as the guests that have visited my indoor range will attest, the challenge comes from three sets of RX targets with 1/4" steel knock down panels, with several of the pass through holes either 10mm or 15mm. To consistently knock these down, one has to have a rifle that will shoot average groups of 3/8" or less.
The HW80 is a "hammer," and knocks the targets down with real authority when the pellet makes it through the hole. The problem was that this rifle was still grouping at an average of just under 1/2" - not good enough to consistently knock down the paddles on the indoor range. So this morning, I decided to tear it down once more and remove another coil from the spring kit, in an attempt to improve the group sizes.
I did so within an hour and was back to pellet testing. One coil removed took about .75 FPE energy off but this rifle is still shooting +/- 16 fpe. With the JSB 14.35 gr pellets, I was able to reduce the average of two 10 shot groups down to .37", and upon final testing, knocked down six of the RX Target panels, shooting through through (3) 10mm and (3) 15mm holes, with only six shots required.
The tuning history to date and the most recent round of test targets can be found below.
