FWB Sport- Update with pictures, data!

Duckfish, what did the tune accomplish for your rifle? I started out assuming I would want to tune my Sport but now I'm not so sure. There is a little "twang" to the shot cycle, but I don't find it annoying really. I took a look through the cocking slot and can see that the spring is pretty liberally coated with a moly grease of some kind. Maybe FWB changed their lubrication procedure for the later shipments and eliminated the "twang". I do have to say that the shot cycle is a little harsh, probably due to the light weight of the unscoped rifle, so not ideal for offhand. But for any kind of rested position the rifle behaves very well, just slides straight back. If I were to shoot it a lot offhand, I might look at tuning it down but I don't think there are any tuning kits out there for it right now.

And nice shooting!

Well I have had my FWB Sport for a couple days now and have had a chance to give it a closer look, do some chrony testing, and shoot it a bit more.

The rear sight is indeed CNC machined from aluminum, then vibratory deburred and anodized. The windage adjustment consists of twin rails with a separate lead screw. Who does that on a gun where most buyers will probably slap a scope on it anyway? But it is beautiful, jewelry for those who can appreciate such things. And that wide, flat housing not only blocks out distracting background, it also helps indicate when the rifle is level. It reminds me of an Olympic pistol sight, could it be?







And this theme of almost over-engineered excellence continues throughout. The pivot has bearings sitting in recesses, the pivot screw can be locked in place without affecting the adjustment, there are horizontal mating surfaces on the barrel assembly and fork that guarantee the barrel will return to exactly the same position each time it is closed, side clearances are controlled between barrel assembly and fork so you don't get that unsightly rubbing I've seen on every HW break barrel I've owned, the safety is another CNC machined assembly and it can be set on or off at will, the piston rides on the seal at front and a polished ring at the rear to allow better fit and reduced friction, and I'm sure there are more examples I haven't discovered yet.

Does all this produce a gun that is more powerful? No. Does it make for a more accurate gun? Maybe. But it does give the impression that someone set out to design an airgun that would be the best of its type, with only minor consideration to cost.

So how about power? I did velocity tests on three pellet weights and obtained results that are consistent with values from Tom Gaylord's testing of the FWB Sport

Pellet Velocity (fps) Energy (ft-lb)

JSB 7.87 858 12.88

JSB 8.44 837 13.15

CP 10.65 703 11.71

Theoretically, the pellet that produces the greatest energy should be the smoothest shooting since there is less wasted energy going into noise and vibration. I did think the JSB 8.44 was the best behaved of the three, with the rifle coming almost straight back and only a small rise at the muzzle. I would need to do more testing to be sure, but would give the nod to the 8.44 at this point.

How accurate is it? I am not sure I will ever know since I don't plan to put a scope on it. But as they say, it can outshoot me, at least when I'm using the open sights. Groups at 25 yards are about 3/4" sitting with sticks. I do have trouble lining up the top of the front sight with the bottom of the bull, and it gets worse as light fades. I am thinking about getting the Williams WGRS-54 and putting a 1/8" aperture in it just to clear up the sights a bit. It looks like the height is compatible with the existing sights on the Sport.







I have about a tin of pellets through it now and cocking is definitely smoother. The shot cycle is still abrupt, but shooting off of sticks, which is mostly what I do, it doesn't bother me at all. For me it is a keeper. It has been a long time since I have used open sights and I really enjoy the experience of owning and shooting a simple, high quality airgun. For someone who sees it as just an overpriced R9 or D34, it is probably not the gun for you.

Seven, if you are referring to the $799 list price I found at AOA, that is too steep for my pocketbook. That is not to say that it isn't worth that much, given the money that went into designing and making it. It is a premium product targeted at the consumer willing to pay to have the finest light sporter available. Fortunately, at the lower price even us ordinary Joes can now afford one. Here are a couple more pictures highlighting some of the workmanship.

The CNC machined trigger block and safety:





The ledge on the breech block that contacts a mating feature in the fork to assure consistent lockup:





I have spent some more time with the rifle and have a few other pieces of information. First, read the manual! I didn't and failed to note that I was supposed to check the tightness of the stock screws before using the gun. One of the front screws fell out while I was chrony testing, but fortunately it landed on the bench where I could recover it. The manual suggests 20 lb-in for all three screws. I tightened the front screws to 20 and the rear screw to 30 lb-in like I do on my other springers.

Having put a tin of pellets through the gun, I thought it was time to do some more velocity testing of the JSB 8.44. Power was up, and consistency was also improved. For a 20 shot string, average velocity was 848 fps, average energy was 13.52 ft-lb, and extreme spread was 9.5 fps. Not too bad.

I also put in some time trying to figure out how to get the best results from the supplied open sights. I discovered that if I started with the sights off the bull I was able to concentrate better on sight alignment. While holding that sight alignment, I then moved the front sight under the bull and fired before my focus drifted off the sights. It seems to work. Here are the two targets I shot using that technique. I shot the left target first, then tried to concentrate a little harder on the second after raising the rear sight a bit. I am very satisfied with these groups, and right now plan to leave the rifle as it is.







Finally, I tried to estimate the piston stroke and came up with around 85 mm. With a bore of 30 mm, that puts this gun in the R1 class, which is to say a little more volume than is needed for .177 caliber. Since the Sport was originally offered in both .177 and .22 I can only imagine that FWB was trying to provide for the possibility of also producing a .22 version of the new Sport. If they ever do, I may be buying a second one!

Barrel diameter behind the front sight mic'd at 0.6205", or 15.76 mm. LOP is about 14.25 inches.