I gotta do something with this HW98, it's a bloody scattergun

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MonsterMaxx

MonsterMaxx

Member
Jul 27, 2017
352
5
South Carolina, United States
I'd sort of pushed this gun to the back of the safe because it performed terribly, but now that I'm 'in the zone' with my Impact, I'd like to dust the '98 off and and figure out why it's so bad.

It's a beautiful .22, no question, a real eye catcher.

1581954124_4116210545e4ab44c525c05.89689200_HW98 - 1 (Large).jpg


It's just got horrible accuracy. At 50yds I expect hole on hole accuracy from this kind of a gun, but my '98 is more like a shotgun than anything else. I've tried every .22 pellet we have and it does best on a polymag, but even that isn't great.

Yes, I know about Artillery Hold and it's hard, but I have guys in our club who only do springers and they can't hit the broad side of a barn with this thing either.

Very frustrating.

It has been tuned (spring, piston and all that) buy a guy that knows his stuff (not me). It pushes a polymag around 680fps.

Another PCP guy in our club (who's a big time FT competitor) has this same gun with the same issues and he just leaves his at home.

I'd love to have this gun in the truck so I have an always ready .22, PCP just isn't truck friendly with all it's support gear.

Anyone out there able to help me solve these issues? 
 
A lot of the newer HW .22s seam to have over sized bores and I've heard of this plenty! H&N FTT in 5.53 or 5.54 head size are a cure for some and definitely worth a try....keeping an eye on those stock screws is a biggie too but I'm thinking with all those shooters in your corner that's been covered!

Have you chronographed the thing?

Checked shot consistency? Every now and then weihrauch's have a bad compression tube that is out of round and will never shoot right! Doesn't happen often but it does happen...

James from Michigan 
 
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The HW95/R9 have the same power plant and I've had several in 177 and 22, plus I've done home tunes on all of them. With medium weight lead pellets the 95 typically runs in the upper 800's while the 22 gets mid to upper 600's. The R9 in 177 is my overall favorite springer. By the way - I'm around 3000' elevation and that can make a difference.

Since you had other shooters try it who got similar results and it's been tuned shooting in a normal range for 22cal, the pellet size as mentioned is suspect. Have you tried pushing pellets thru the bore to see how each fits? The barrels are press fit into the breech and the bore is usually tighter in that area but the choke at the end should feel similar. I have no experience with the new barrels and have wondered if that star like nut plays a part in retaining the barrel or not.

One of out local shooters a couple years ago had two R9's, one in 177 and the other in 22. He wanted to reduce the felt recoil of the 177 without losing speed and thought a barrel from a HW98 would be worth a try so he ordered one and when installed the accuracy was not as good. We tried several pellets and like you, some were better than others but still not good. I tried pushing pellets down the bore but didn't feel anything strange however I noted the pellet didn't have much resistance when loading the pellet into the bore.I tried seating the pellet until I felt resistance and it was deeper than I am used to seeing. Repeating that seating method we found it improved the accuracy. It's a wild shot but worth a try to see if yours is similar.

Also consider the scope in your quest. I had a Hawke on my R9 that had served me well for years but last spring on the first outing of the year, I had problems hitting anything at 40 yards. No obvious signs of failure but changing scopes brought it back to what it was.

Hope you find the problem.


 
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Has the same scope been on the rifle since day one, if so it may be worth a go trying a new one. Also do you recall what was the heaviest pellet shot from it and did that provide the best accuracy.

A loose pivot bolt can make your rifle scatter its shots. The bolt should be tight enough so that the barrel will not fall down once the rifle is cocked and placed at 45 deg to the stock.

I hope you find the problem soon as it is a looker.

Gary


 
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