I'm a more recent purchaser of a RAW HM1000x LRT, and it's my 6th airgun (4th PCP). I really wanted to love it (especially after the 3 month wait), but it wasn't to be. I wanted something accurate, American made, with a left handed bolt that had the power to easily take down a rabbit. I also wanted something that I could pass on to my kids. The HM1000x LRT seemed like the perfect choice. It’s a whole lot of money, but if I wanted to get a Rolls-Royce grade airgun, this seemed to be a great fit. I was wrong. A few years ago, this may have fit the bill, but things with RAW have changed.
First, the gun came in a generic shipping box that was too small for it and didn’t have a much-needed cutout in the foam for the airgun itself, but it came to me mostly unscathed (the shoulder pad had rubbed itself against the cardboard to the point where there is a flat spot. Better that than the front of the barrel I suppose). I tried to read the manual that came in the box with the gun, but the printer that it was printed on was so low on ink that all of the color sections were unreadable. I went online to find an electronic copy, but it’s unavailable on their website. So, I look for articles online about the gun, and find that the max pressure is 230 bar, so I pump it up until my pump reads 225 bar. Then I look at the gauge on the gun, and it’s at almost 250 bar. Oh heck… Turns out that the gauge on this $2100 gun is inaccurate. RAW sent me a new gauge that was within 5 bar of my other gauges, but should I have to do this with a $2100 gun? Finally, I try to shoot it, using 3 different JSB pellets (18.13gr, 25.39 gr and 34.0 gr). The heavy JSB pellets I bought for it (25.39 gr and 34.0 gr) are very hard to get into the RAW 12-shot magazines. I have to force the first one in with a 2nd pellet. So, I call RAW and they tell me they will look into it, but multiple emails asking for updates have gone unanswered. I ended up having to use a drill bit to open up the hole on the top clear part of the magazine. I shouldn’t have to do this with a $72 magazine on a $2100 gun. Finally, the sticker that displays the shot count on one of the two magazines I bought was never put on correctly (it’s off by about 15 degrees, making it unreadable). I decided to take the whole magazine apart and use a razor blade to fix the problem. After an hour I had it fixed, but I shouldn’t have to do this on ANY airgun, let alone a $2100 airgun.
Regarding shooting the gun, it needs a lot of air pressure – it falls off its regulator at 150bar, so it’s only useful between 230 and 150 bar. The trigger is excellent. It’s accuracy is just OK – it’s a little worse than my Benjamin Marauder (which I could buy 3 of for the price of this gun), and a little better than my Hatsan Nova QE. RAW has recommended that I turn up the hammer spring a bit to increase the power for better accuracy (they said that my chronograph speeds were a little low for the JSB 25.39gr pellet, which is their benchmark), but I haven’t had a chance to do so yet. Again, though, should I have to do this myself on a $2100 gun, or should RAW have done this before they shipped the airgun to me?
In summary, I think that the gun is fundamentally well designed, but ever since RAW was sold, it seems that someone has chosen to try to sell $2100 airguns with a customer support and QA budget befitting a $210 airgun. In retrospect, I would have purchased my 2nd choice, an Air Arms S510 XS. I would have saved more money than a new Benjamin Marauder costs, and I likely would have received a much better sorted out machine.
First, the gun came in a generic shipping box that was too small for it and didn’t have a much-needed cutout in the foam for the airgun itself, but it came to me mostly unscathed (the shoulder pad had rubbed itself against the cardboard to the point where there is a flat spot. Better that than the front of the barrel I suppose). I tried to read the manual that came in the box with the gun, but the printer that it was printed on was so low on ink that all of the color sections were unreadable. I went online to find an electronic copy, but it’s unavailable on their website. So, I look for articles online about the gun, and find that the max pressure is 230 bar, so I pump it up until my pump reads 225 bar. Then I look at the gauge on the gun, and it’s at almost 250 bar. Oh heck… Turns out that the gauge on this $2100 gun is inaccurate. RAW sent me a new gauge that was within 5 bar of my other gauges, but should I have to do this with a $2100 gun? Finally, I try to shoot it, using 3 different JSB pellets (18.13gr, 25.39 gr and 34.0 gr). The heavy JSB pellets I bought for it (25.39 gr and 34.0 gr) are very hard to get into the RAW 12-shot magazines. I have to force the first one in with a 2nd pellet. So, I call RAW and they tell me they will look into it, but multiple emails asking for updates have gone unanswered. I ended up having to use a drill bit to open up the hole on the top clear part of the magazine. I shouldn’t have to do this with a $72 magazine on a $2100 gun. Finally, the sticker that displays the shot count on one of the two magazines I bought was never put on correctly (it’s off by about 15 degrees, making it unreadable). I decided to take the whole magazine apart and use a razor blade to fix the problem. After an hour I had it fixed, but I shouldn’t have to do this on ANY airgun, let alone a $2100 airgun.
Regarding shooting the gun, it needs a lot of air pressure – it falls off its regulator at 150bar, so it’s only useful between 230 and 150 bar. The trigger is excellent. It’s accuracy is just OK – it’s a little worse than my Benjamin Marauder (which I could buy 3 of for the price of this gun), and a little better than my Hatsan Nova QE. RAW has recommended that I turn up the hammer spring a bit to increase the power for better accuracy (they said that my chronograph speeds were a little low for the JSB 25.39gr pellet, which is their benchmark), but I haven’t had a chance to do so yet. Again, though, should I have to do this myself on a $2100 gun, or should RAW have done this before they shipped the airgun to me?
In summary, I think that the gun is fundamentally well designed, but ever since RAW was sold, it seems that someone has chosen to try to sell $2100 airguns with a customer support and QA budget befitting a $210 airgun. In retrospect, I would have purchased my 2nd choice, an Air Arms S510 XS. I would have saved more money than a new Benjamin Marauder costs, and I likely would have received a much better sorted out machine.
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