Too much time with PCP's, My HW50S Project

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Great looking gun. Glad you picked the right spring kit and stock to get what you wanted. The softer shooting guns feel so good, easier to cock, accurate, etc. However, I'm looking for something on the other side of the fence. I've got a relatively new .177 cal HW50 which I bought for Iguana hunting in South Florida. Chrono shows the rifle shooting 8.6 gr. FTT's at an average 780 fps for 11.7 ft.lbs. which I thought would be fine - after all, they're just lizards, right? After my second hunt I realized the Iguana's can get real big(they eat everything, including pets) and are VERY tough. I'm looking for an increase in power for my HW50 and curious how other air gunners would do it. Maccari sells a kit he calls the New Hornet XLD and I'm wondering if anybody has tried this kit in an HW50 and what were the results? Thanks...

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This is all I have so far. One of the last Macarri stocks for HW50. Some quick pics. It shows much nicer in daylight. This was in "Todays Specials" and the price was very right. Now I have to get an HW50. Krales is $300 delivered. Maybe I'll look for a little earlier model without the etching on the receiver. IDK. I prefer a traditional Monte Carlo style stock. I gotta get on this project

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Beautiful rifle ! Congrats! I use a Dremel to clean up all the areas that could damage the seal. Any edge that's 90 degrees get chamfered including the holes for the trigger block pins. Then I used the bit that came with my Dremel kit that's made for use with the polishing compound that also came with the kit. Turns out beautiful! 
 
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Great looking gun. Glad you picked the right spring kit and stock to get what you wanted. The softer shooting guns feel so good, easier to cock, accurate, etc. However, I'm looking for something on the other side of the fence. I've got a relatively new .177 cal HW50 which I bought for Iguana hunting in South Florida. Chrono shows the rifle shooting 8.6 gr. FTT's at an average 780 fps for 11.7 ft.lbs. which I thought would be fine - after all, they're just lizards, right? After my second hunt I realized the Iguana's can get real big(they eat everything, including pets) and are VERY tough. I'm looking for an increase in power for my HW50 and curious how other air gunners would do it. Maccari sells a kit he calls the New Hornet XLD and I'm wondering if anybody has tried this kit in an HW50 and what were the results? Thanks...

21.1644129404.jpg
20.1644130380.jpg








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I'd say you need more firepower for large iguanas ! 
 
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Great looking gun. Glad you picked the right spring kit and stock to get what you wanted. The softer shooting guns feel so good, easier to cock, accurate, etc. However, I'm looking for something on the other side of the fence. I've got a relatively new .177 cal HW50 which I bought for Iguana hunting in South Florida. Chrono shows the rifle shooting 8.6 gr. FTT's at an average 780 fps for 11.7 ft.lbs. which I thought would be fine - after all, they're just lizards, right? After my second hunt I realized the Iguana's can get real big(they eat everything, including pets) and are VERY tough. I'm looking for an increase in power for my HW50 and curious how other air gunners would do it. Maccari sells a kit he calls the New Hornet XLD and I'm wondering if anybody has tried this kit in an HW50 and what were the results? Thanks...









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I'd say you need more firepower for large iguanas !
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That's what I'm trying to accomplish. You can't use firearms on the Iguanas, and air guns are the leading favorite of the lizard hunters. I prefer springers, which is why I'm asking for advice on boosting the power of my HW50. I've got several magnum hunters in .17, .22, and .25, but they all have been carefully handled by myself when hunting because they all have fancy Walnut stocks. We hunt from a boat, and that's a very harsh environment for an expensive air rifle with a custom stock. I bought the HW50 because of the low price and the belief that it would easily do the job. And it does work for a majority of the lizards, but it has a problem with the bigger lizards needing multiple hits, and they usually don't hang around for that. PCP's will do the job, but you may have an air supply problem on a boat, and I don't like PCP's. I'm a springer man. I could buy a cheap "magnum" springer, but I'm a Weihrauch guy. So, my first choice is to remedy the low power of the HW50.
 
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The HW50 is designed to be -12ft/lb. You won't really improve on that. You might want to consider a Mike Mellick tuned RWS clone for a boat gun. Must be challenging to take accurate aim from a boat. Sounds like fun.
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Well said ! You're only going to squeeze out so much power from the HW50. Not enough more to responsibility take a 20lb lizard.
 
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The HW50 is designed to be -12ft/lb. You won't really improve on that. You might want to consider a Mike Mellick tuned RWS clone for a boat gun. Must be challenging to take accurate aim from a boat. Sounds like fun.
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KWK - Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it. And I know if you increase power too much, you lose accuracy. The Iguanas are usually 10 to 20 yards away when you spot them as they rely heavily on their camo. So at that distance, I'm not really looking for FWB accuracy. I wouldn't mind losing a little accuracy to gain some power. I may have to take your suggestion regarding another brand of gun. Another problem I have developed recently is cocking the magnum springers. On our first hunt, I fired over 300 pellets through the HW50 and that was quite a chore for an old man. And it is challenging to offhand shoot from a rocking, rolling, moving 18 ft. boat. To get ready for the hunt, I practice a lot of offhand shooting. And, believe it or not, it doesn't take too much practice to become fairly good at it. Thanks for your efforts to help me out. Good luck with your beautiful Walnut stock and your HW50. I really like mine and very glad I added it to my collection.
 
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Bravo1956 said:
Long_Gun_Dalla Thanks so much for posting your pic, after that I had to have one!
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Yes, very nice stocks. Unfortunately ya have to pay for quality. I just ordered the high power tune kit for my Diana 34 in .22. Cant wait to get it back together, get it broken in and do some chronograph work. Hope for some improvement in velocity over the old tired spring that sent 14.3s at 660. Hope I can get into the lower 700s or better would be nice. Did the kit smooth things up a bit?
 
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landmass said:
Great looking gun. Glad you picked the right spring kit and stock to get what you wanted. The softer shooting guns feel so good, easier to ****, accurate, etc. However, I'm looking for something on the other side of the fence. I've got a relatively new .177 cal HW50 which I bought for Iguana hunting in South Florida. Chrono shows the rifle shooting 8.6 gr. FTT's at an average 780 fps for 11.7 ft.lbs. which I thought would be fine - after all, they're just lizards, right? After my second hunt I realized the Iguana's can get real big(they eat everything, including pets) and are VERY tough. I'm looking for an increase in power for my HW50 and curious how other air gunners would do it. Maccari sells a kit he calls the New Hornet XLD and I'm wondering if anybody has tried this kit in an HW50 and what were the results? Thanks...

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landmass said:
I have not used a maccari kit but I have used a vortek SHO kit in my HW50 .22 and my power increased and the cocking feels lighter. It’s probably just smoother because I did a lot of deburring and polishing on the internals. I followed along with a YouTube video for the rebuild. I went from a rough shooting 9fpe to a smooth 11.7 fpe in with lead pellets. I get 14.5 fpe with the alloy pellets. If I had it to do all over again I would have bought a .177.
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