Love those Euro Springers!

[AirNGasman]

Top to bottom- .22 Air Arms Pro Elite purchased from Paul Watts at an Arkansas airgun show, Steve Corcoran stocked .177 Feinwerkbau 124 purchased on a gun auction site, .22 Theoben Evolution (gas-piston) also purchased at an Arkansas airgun show. All three of these are accurate beyond my abilities.

Of course I also love PCPs, SSPs and Co2 guns; but something about high-quality European springers still touches a nerve... sometimes even in a good way.  Springers can be maddening, especially on a bad day, but so can red-heads! 

I don't bother trying to bench-rest them; but 3/4" to 1" groups at 50 yards from a sitting position with a nice springer are just so gratifying. It only happens when I'm really "in the groove"... and kind'a reminds me of the time I rode an unbroken mare until she finally stopped bucking! 

 

[EMrider]

Beautiful trio of springers you have there.

R

 

[Windmill01]

I wouldn’t want to be in your house, decisions, decisions, decisions. Must be horrible deciding on what to shoot. Lucky you.

Gary

 

[Stefanjan]

Shoot them all! What a beautiful trio. Someday i hope to own a springer as nice as those.

 

[RC1947]

An excellent collection. RC

 

[Bennett]

Beautiful trio!

 

[Osprey1]

Great springer combo!!!

 

[bubblerboy64]

Not many appreciate just how nice those guns are but WE DO.

 

[SlowTurtle]

Beautiful collection.

 

[USAFANG6799]

and kind'a reminds me of the time I rode an unbroken mare until she finally stopped bucking! 

Was she a red head too

 

[AirNGasman]

Reading between the lines is an almost-extinct skill nowadays, Fang. I wondered if anyone would get that veiled reference. Nice to know there are still a few folks that retain that skill... and obviously, a sense of humor! You must be about my age. 

 

[Macloaded]

I have several pcps and powder burners but I always come back to my prosport and old webley eclipse, both in 22 if I want a bit of fun. Springers are fantastic tools and if you can shoot one well you can shoot anything. Looking at your collection it does appear three is the magic number, may have to look into the hw97k in 177 again.. .

What power are you running the prosport at as I have found it shoots best around 12flb, probably because that is the power it was designed to shoot at. I can punch paper out to fifty yards on a windless day but restrict myself to no live quarry beyond thirty with the springers. I hasten to add not because they are not capable of being accurate enough past these distances, but I am not. 

 

[AirNGasman]

It's not a Pro Sport, Mac, it's a Pro Elite. That's AA's discontinued magnum springer. Mine was doing about 800 FPS/20+ foot-pounds before the cocking-shoe broke and I sent it to Airgunwerks for repair. I think Dave installed a new piston seal in the process, and she came home shooting 750 FPS. I expect velocity to come back up a bit with break-in, but even at 750 it's a hammer.

Paul Watts told me he and the previous owner of my PE used to do a lot of 100 yard shooting (of quart oil cans) with their .22 Pro Elites. I consider mine a very capable 70-80 yard rifle (against smaller soup cans), but have found .177s peter-out around 50-60 yards.

BTW, you can't go wrong with an HW97, though sometimes after-market mainsprings are in order. 

Happy Shooting,

R

 

[Macloaded]

Thanks R, never heard of a pro elite before, sounds like an interesting gun. I presume it was made for the high powered US market. Limited in the UK to how many fac airguns I can hold (currently two) so all my springers will be sub 12flbs. This is not so debilitating as springers don't tend to like being pushed too far, although clearly the pro elite could handle quite a bit. Was the recoil difficult to handle? 

HW97 is definitely on my shopping list although always open to ideas as love a good springer. It can get boring punching paper with a pcp but a springer can keep me entertained for hours. 

 

[AirNGasman]

I often forget the internet isn't just an American gadget, so also tend to take for granted some of our many gun rights. Don't know if the PE was primarily a U.S.-market thing, but it probably was.

Being pretty hefty and of extremely solid construction, it actually has a pretty tame firing-behavior; not at all obnoxious. Hard cocking though, but a LOTTA fun!