For my most recent "project rifle", as posted last week, I purchased a new .177 Weihrauch HW97K Blackline SST from Krale.
Upon arrival, I removed it from the box and inspected. I always clean the barrel first, and as typical, this barrel had some oil and residue in it, but nothing four or five cleaning patches and ballistol didn't quickly resolve.
Using Sportsmatch vertically adjustable 30mm rings, I mounted a new Vortex 6-24x50 Diamondback Tactical scope on it, dialed the turrets to perfectly centered to the available number of click adjustments vertically, and proceeded to site it in. The vertical adjustment available in the ring set certainly helps to preserve scope clicks available for adjustment.
As you can see from both the attached performance chart and photos, I fired two groups each of several different pellets before tuning, with the rifle shooting very well with some, and like a shotgun with others. The rifle had a significant amount of recoil "buzz" and was rather harsh with the report. Additionally, the cocking lever was very hard to lock-up against the barrel and the trigger had significant drag.
I ordered a Vortek PG4 Steel HO kit from Tom, complete with the Vortek Vac piston seal. Upon receipt, I stripped the rifle completely down, removed the factory seal and installed the new seal. While the cocking lever was under no tension, I took my Dremel tool and relieved some of the metal where it locks up once cocked against the muzzle break, and now it latches nearly without any effort. I cut one full coil off of the spring kit (in retrospect, would probably not have had to) based upon previous experience. There was about 2" of preload on the spring to compress in place. Finally, I polished and lubricated the trigger contact areas, and adjusted to where it now breaks very cleanly with zero drag or creep.
Once the trigger work was done, I fully reassembled the rifle, and re-zeroed it. I chose to only test the four best pellet results from the pre-tune testing, starting with the H&N Baracuda Match 10.65 as the heaviest pellets and worked downward. Note that the rifle had only had five or six pellets through it since installing the spring kit, which I believe is evidenced by the standard deviations experienced and indicated in targets 11 & 12.
The rifle is extremely smooth now. My target goal is always to achieve extreme accuracy in the +/- 14 fpe range. I believe I have accomplished that based upon the results of target #13. I pulled the #2 group 3 o'clock shot myself, felt it as the shot went off. But the combined SD, group averages, and velocity levels will be perfect for 95% of the shooting I do, and if I need something with a heavier pellet for a particular task, I have numerous other heavier shooting springers and pcps available.
In the end, even though the Baracuda 10.65 produced slightly tighter test groups, I feel like the flatter trajectory of the Predator GTO 6.79 pellets is worth the trade-off.
Finally, if someone purchases this rifle and doesn't want to go through the tuning process, with the right pellet as indicated, one can still get very good accuracy and results, but as evidenced in the performance chart, there was improvement with every pellet tested after tuning, with the exception of the H&N FTT 8.64, and even it was nearly identical as before and had a significantly improved statistical deviation result.
Upon arrival, I removed it from the box and inspected. I always clean the barrel first, and as typical, this barrel had some oil and residue in it, but nothing four or five cleaning patches and ballistol didn't quickly resolve.
Using Sportsmatch vertically adjustable 30mm rings, I mounted a new Vortex 6-24x50 Diamondback Tactical scope on it, dialed the turrets to perfectly centered to the available number of click adjustments vertically, and proceeded to site it in. The vertical adjustment available in the ring set certainly helps to preserve scope clicks available for adjustment.
As you can see from both the attached performance chart and photos, I fired two groups each of several different pellets before tuning, with the rifle shooting very well with some, and like a shotgun with others. The rifle had a significant amount of recoil "buzz" and was rather harsh with the report. Additionally, the cocking lever was very hard to lock-up against the barrel and the trigger had significant drag.
I ordered a Vortek PG4 Steel HO kit from Tom, complete with the Vortek Vac piston seal. Upon receipt, I stripped the rifle completely down, removed the factory seal and installed the new seal. While the cocking lever was under no tension, I took my Dremel tool and relieved some of the metal where it locks up once cocked against the muzzle break, and now it latches nearly without any effort. I cut one full coil off of the spring kit (in retrospect, would probably not have had to) based upon previous experience. There was about 2" of preload on the spring to compress in place. Finally, I polished and lubricated the trigger contact areas, and adjusted to where it now breaks very cleanly with zero drag or creep.
Once the trigger work was done, I fully reassembled the rifle, and re-zeroed it. I chose to only test the four best pellet results from the pre-tune testing, starting with the H&N Baracuda Match 10.65 as the heaviest pellets and worked downward. Note that the rifle had only had five or six pellets through it since installing the spring kit, which I believe is evidenced by the standard deviations experienced and indicated in targets 11 & 12.
The rifle is extremely smooth now. My target goal is always to achieve extreme accuracy in the +/- 14 fpe range. I believe I have accomplished that based upon the results of target #13. I pulled the #2 group 3 o'clock shot myself, felt it as the shot went off. But the combined SD, group averages, and velocity levels will be perfect for 95% of the shooting I do, and if I need something with a heavier pellet for a particular task, I have numerous other heavier shooting springers and pcps available.
In the end, even though the Baracuda 10.65 produced slightly tighter test groups, I feel like the flatter trajectory of the Predator GTO 6.79 pellets is worth the trade-off.
Finally, if someone purchases this rifle and doesn't want to go through the tuning process, with the right pellet as indicated, one can still get very good accuracy and results, but as evidenced in the performance chart, there was improvement with every pellet tested after tuning, with the exception of the H&N FTT 8.64, and even it was nearly identical as before and had a significantly improved statistical deviation result.
