No Hatsan Love around here ?

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M

Moe M.

Member
Oct 14, 2020
173
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Massachusetts, United States
I've just scanned through 12 pages in this sub forum and haven't run across one thread discussing the pros or cons of Hatsan air rifles, there's plenty of mention of other brands good and bad, but Hatsan doesn't even draw an honorable mention, I'm fairly new to this forum as is my renewed interest in air rifles, so what am I missing about Hatsan ?

I was reintroduced to Air Rifles last spring and have been enjoying shooting them ever since, I have a Sheridan 5mm pumper and three nitro piston break barrel's, two in .22 cal. and one in .177 cal., I've been thinking of trying a spring powered air rifle, being pretty fussy about my guns (I can't get into plastics or powder coated surfaces), rich looking wood stocks and deeply blued metal are more my thing, in doing a bit of research I found that Hatsan mod.95's are quite popular in either power system (gas or spring piston).

So, it leaves me a bit puzzled as to why they pretty much seem to be ignored on this forum, anyone care to enlighten me ? 
 
Hello I can not speak for other people but my experience with Hatsan has been fair at best, are they accurate? somewhat yes, are they powerful? very much so, but quality control is not there, at least on the 130 30cal (front sight canted and gas piston failed in 1st month) and Barrage 22cal gun was accurate and cycled well but every mag had to be modified and adjusted to feed correctly. I personal am not a fan of a gun I have to work on out of the box to work, or were visible defects are not picked on before going to the customer. Well just my opinion. If you want a spring gun I would look at a HW very happy with mine. Hope this helps Eric
 
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I have a few Hatsans. They were the only brand who really put out a selection of .25 cal springers and I wanted to learn about .25 cal springers. You could say the novelty influenced me.

Hatsans can be nice guns and are better after tuning. A Hatsan 95 can be a nice gun. The walnut stocks can be very nice after refinishing.

Even high end guns can need some work on them when you get them new. My Hw97kt was very boingy and needed powerplant tuning. The rail sled system on my Diana56 just didn't work well and I'm still trying to figure out a good solution for it.

Our lack of talking about any specific manufacturers has little to do with what we actually think about their products. Rather, our discussions are about whatever we are doing at the time with whatever particular guns we have in our collections.
 
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I have owned only one Hatsan And it is a model 95 gas piston. They are nice looking guns.But as already mentioned their quality control is horrible. Mine had razor sharp edges on it At the forks right where I had to load a pellet and sliced my finger wide-open.The barrel will not lock up tight on it either. And that’s because the hole Where the chisel detent goes in is much too large and allows the detent to wobble around. I can’t mount a scope on it because of that reason. It shoots OK with open sights but my eyesight isn’t that good anymore. I bought it to Mount a scope. Some people like their model 95s. I do not like mine at all. I bought a HW 50 and the craftsmanship is night and day compared to the Hatsan.Mine has a smooth shooting cycle with no twanging. If you like a nice Wood stock with hi polished metal and deep bluing HW is the way to go.
 
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Nice wood stocks? Check. They make very nice Turkish Walnut ones and can look even better refinished.

Deeply blued metal? Nope. Nothing like you'll see on better quality stuff but still not bad. 

Trigger? Nope, it's no Rekord or Diana T06 (yes I have both along with my higher end rifles) but still a nicely adjustable 2 stage trigger and once you get used to the odd pull of one since it's an up and back pull unlike most triggers, they aren't one bit bad.

Springer vs Vortex gas ram? I've had and still do have some of both. Springer is easier to tune and smooth out than the gas rammed version but power levels are about the same regardless of which you get.

While you'll find posts here, AGN tends more to the higher end guns like Air Arms, Weihrauch and Diana to name a few but you'll still find a few and guys who have some, which I do...lol.
 
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I bought a HW 50 and the craftsmanship is night and day compared to the Hatsan.
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And I'm sure the price tag was too. You get what you pay for. Only one of my Hatsans I've never done any tuning work on, not that it wouldn't benefit from it- .22 Striker.

As for me, I really hated my Hw97kt. I really didn't like that gun and won't buy another HW. I just do not like that safety on rekord triggers at all. that's my preference.

The only high-end gun I've bought that I've actually liked is my Walther LGV. But they aren't made anymore. Even that gun gave me issues with a sticking trigger. It was easily sorted out but jeez.

All of my high-end guns have presented problems too. Disappointing for sure considering the price tags. With low-end guns, having issues to sort out is expected. 

Whatever you shoot, I hope you have fun with it. We don't always get the fun we hope for from the guns we buy. Sometimes, we are surprised by the fun we get from a gun like my .22 Hatsan striker. I bought the gun on the cheap for parts and now won't change a thing about it. You never really know what you'll actually end up liking.
 
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Yes the Hatsan has a nicer looking stock and it is walnut. But are you interested in a nicer looking stock or better machining practices in all the mechanicals of the gun? If you seeing how mine was machined you would know exactly what I’m talking about. The lock up is much better on a HW and there is no razor sharp edges to slice your fingers open. With all that being said no matter what you pay for a gun there can be issues sometimes. Mine came with a junkie scope also that didn’t have positive clicks and wouldn’t hold POI.So the scope was useless. And the gun is useless to use with a scope.I paid 100 more dollars for the HW and it was worth every penny of it. It was a open box deal. And although the HW isn’t Walnut, it’s still a nice looking stock. And to complain about the safety of the Record Trigger although the Quatro trigger Isn’t near as good on the Hatsan. If you talk to a lot of the more experienced air gunners on here, then ask them which gun they think is better. I’m the kind of person that cannot afford high price guns. But I don’t feel like I paid a lot of money for the quality that I got. 
 
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Simple way to put it: it's like comparing a Chevy to a BMW. You can't. There is no comparison. Fit, finish, quality, accuracy...I own 5 Germans between HW/Beeman and Diana and twice that between Hatsans and Turkish built Webleys so I can easily do a side by side. Of course they don't compare. 5 years back into airgunning and I still see shooters trying to "compare". Simple fact is there are a lot of shooters who aren't going to pay $350 to $500+ for a German made gun that's going to sit by the door just to whack pests and a good lot of the time, that's exactly what buyers want to do so they're looking for a less expensive but solid rifle that will do what they want.

I haven't bought a newer Hatsan rifle in 3, almost 4 years so I can't speak for current quality but my older ones were all well made, no rough outside edges, quarter group accurate at the 25-30 yards I shoot and I wasn't looking for something I could possibly compete with when I bought them. I just wanted to whack squirrels and they do that and very well. I'm happy when I can park 5 under a quarter since just so happens that's also the size of the kill zone on a squirrels head. I'm not fanatical about the one hole groups some shooters demand.

I shoot for fun, to relieve a little stress, to whack an occasional pest. I want to be more accurate, I grab one of my Germans, but either way, I'm still just out to enjoy myself regardless of what I paid for the rifle in my hands.
 
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Well I’ll just say one more thing. Maybe I got a stinker but I have heard many other people complain about them also. And I have heard people that have liked theirs also. But the people that don’t like them outweigh the people that do. I’m just saying I wouldn’t recommend one. Maybe their quality was better years ago. But I was a machinist for 32 years and the first thing I was taught was to completely deburr your parts. And you was only told one time .Only time you left a sharp edge is was for actual cutting edges like in tool and die work.And it just wasn’t that. It was the sloppy machining of the chisel Detent.And I Had to hold the tolerances that the blueprints required. And after I made the parts I’ll double check them and then they went off to the QC department to be inspected. I have over 20 air guns and it is my least favorite gun. Don’t even shoot it anymore. These are just facts. But if anybody wants to roll the dice and buy one, go Ahead.And I’m not trying to ruffle the feathers of the Hatsan lovers.
 
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No ruffled feathers at least from me, Ripper. Bought mine because they were solid rifles for the money and at the time, better than what Crosman was and still does churn out. 

Had over 40 rifles and a few pistols at one point and sold off about half because it got to be too much of a chore to keep up with a 40+ gun rotation...lol.

Still have the 5 Germans, a dozen in Hatsan (2 are PCP's) and Turkish built Webleys, plus a Mendoza, Norica, a Sheridan Silver Streak and a couple pistols tossed in the mix.
 
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No ruffled feathers at least from me, Ripper. Bought mine because they were solid rifles for the money and at the time, better than what Crosman was and still does churn out. 

Had over 40 rifles and a few pistols at one point and sold off about half because it got to be too much of a chore to keep up with a 40+ gun rotation...lol.

Still have the 5 Germans, a dozen in Hatsan (2 are PCP's) and Turkish built Webleys, plus a Mendoza, Norica, a Sheridan Silver Streak and a couple pistols tossed in the mix.
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Yeah I have a mixed bag of air guns too.Some of them are vintage. All my PCP rifles are Benjamin with no issues at all.Now as far as Benjamin Springers , I don’t like them either. First one I bought lost all the gas out of the piston within a half hour. I actually gave up on Springers for a while.And now I own the HW & a few springer pistols. I also have a tempest but it’s the English made one. I kept reading that the accuracy wasn’t that good on them. I’m not really that good of a pistol shot but I was getting better groups then all these other people were getting. And before I got back into Springers ,I read a lot of reviews on the RWS and there was quite a few people complaining about the cylinders being bone dry and some of them had surface rust in them. I figured not that many people could be wrong so I decided not to buy that brand. But actually when I bought the Hatsan, there was quite a few good reviews on it. That’s why I think I got a lemon or whoever made it was drunk. But regardless QC should catch those things. Where I worked we made thousands of parts every day and they all got checked. We also manufactured things for the military. It wasn’t just making parts. So being from the background that I was from and seeing how it was machined, it just turned me off from that brand. I would only give them a second chance if I was to find one dirt cheap. And usually I’ll give a second chance. Just like one time with pyramid air not giving me a refund after I did everything properly . They even said they was going to give me one but never did. PayPal took care of me. But I decided to give them a second chance and have actually bought several since then. 
 
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And I'm sure the price tag was too. You get what you pay for.
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Buddy... I have a $900 Hatsan. Let me tell you... it is a steaming PILE. I could write several pages about what was and still is wrong with it. While I have worked out most of the issues. There's still this lingering feeling of just outright being cheated. The poor finish is inexcusable. The barbaric laziness of the design, and the machining... deplorable. 

I did not get what I paid for. And I paid half price. Still did not get what I paid for. 
 
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Hatsan 900X owner here. Very happy with it too.

Trigger is a bit crap, but thats a matter of feel rather than performance. Much like one would with a Chinese rifle I've had a play and at zero cost its much improved.

Its was a noisy, rough old thing, but once again thats a matter of feel rather than performance. A strip, clean, polish, lube and piston sleeve has made a big difference to its manners for zero cost.

Blueing looks ok, nothing spectacular, but close up one can see that the blueing is actually pretty good but it appears dull because Hatsan leave a slightly ridged, machined finish on their extranal parts. As a practical matter its pretty robust - not as bling as the deep blue on my Weirauch, but its just as rust resistance and doesn't look grim and horrible from fingerprints.

Nice wooden stock, walnut, not much to worry about there.

Lothar Walther barrel with a very nicely cut crown.

Last time I was at the indoor range my friends HW35 developed a fault halfway though the session and wouldn't cock. Being the generous soul that I am I was happy to take it in turns and share my Hatsan with him, so despite being a Weirauch owner myself Im not as smug about it as some UK HW owners can be - ive had my 97 apart and internally it looked like it had been machined with a knife and fork and was full of swarf, and it took a good bit of deburring to make it acceptable, so I'm not as full of confidence about Weirauch's "quality" as some seem to be.

Like any basic air rifle its simply a steel tube with a spring in it, and ive every confidence it will still be a steel tube with a spring in it in 50 years time, and (given a sensible maintenace regime) will still be functioning just fine.

But the bottom line is this - it cost a quarter the price of my 97K, and it may be a little rougher in use, but the end result is that it puts lead on target with astonishing accuracy and at 30 metres is every bit as accurate as a gun costing 300% more. When viewed with that perspective theres very little not to like, and thats from one of the cheapest models in their catalogue. Its like owning a Corvette - although it has its rough edges and its quirks it still gets up the road every bit as smartly as a Ferrari costing much, much more.

It's cheap for sure, and in some ways it shows, but there is also plenty of cheer.
 
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