RWS Excalibre/ Tarantula

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Yrrah

Yrrah

Member
Apr 1, 2015
462
86
NSW, Australia
These were variations of the FX 2000.

My Excalibre is nearing voting age. This was the better (marginally) of just two 50 yards groups shot late afternoon today Australia Day here in OZ .

28.5 fpe, JSB .22 Heavies 18.1 gr. 5 shot group. CTC 0.25-".

Unregulated and FX should never have stopped making these beautiful superbly accurate rifles. Regards to all the owners who may remember them. Harry.

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The ol' gal still has it Harry! Looking good.

I'm just now discovering how well some of these old rifles can shoot. Just acquired a nice .177 Logun Solo that slings the 13.43 monsters at 830 fps for 30 good shots at the top of the curve with a 2600 psi fill shooting down to 1500 psi. Quite amazing for an older gun that doesn't even have an air gauge! I would suppose the Tarantula comes without an air gauge as well?

The paper work I got with it say's she was tuned in 2007 by AZ, but not really sure of the manufacture date? Need to get a good picture of her.



Fuss
 
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Years ago Neil Mc Phail, a Kiwi lawyer, was goingto sell his Falcon F19 and get something new. We talked, he kept it, we discussed longer range shooting technique and strategies; within a month or so Neil shot his first sub inch 100 yd 5 shot group and others followed. He started nailing rabbits out to that range, then more than one European hare beyond 130 yards.

The master airgunsmith John Bowkett in England had much do do with the original Falcon design so you have a true classic and your groups show it.

Hang on to that rifle and exploit its hidden qualities. I think in later years the manufacture migrated to India.

Kind regards, Harry.
 
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Fuss,

The Tarantulas were shipped to the USA and they did have an air gauge and grade 4 and I think some grade 5 walnut. The RWS Excalibres like mine did not have an air gauge. I just fill it to 200 bar and carry 4 extra magazines. That gives me 32 shots plus another 8 which are still fine for rabbits to 60 plus yards. The reservoir is 203 cc.

It has shot 9 rabbits beyond 140 yd and over 70 sub inch 5 shot 100 yards groups.

Best regards, Harry.
 
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I whole heartedly agree with you harry, FX should have never stopped producing these guns, the Tarantula in particular. They shoot as well as they look! I see your Excaliber sports the same eloquent stock as my Tarantula. I also have a RWS Excaliber but doesn't sport the same stock, though beautiful, it mirrors the stock of the FX Timberwolf.Oh and by the way both the RWS Excaliber and Timberwolf I have do have an air gauge but the Excaliber does not have the RWS Excaliber insignia embossed with the white letters. Must be many variances in the FX 2000 family all great examples of the FX 2000 Classics.

I would love to post pictures but being computer illiterate doesn't help. Can email pictures, got that figured out just can't post pictures.

Thanks for posting Harry, you own two of my favorites, Tarantula/Excaliber and the FWB 124 Deluxe.

Cheers,

Mike




 
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zx10wall, here is mine.

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As an Advert, that pic could have sold lots of rifles. 

I hope all the other owners of these actions, in whatever woodwork adorns them, treasure them for their simplicity, aesthetic and handling balance, and wonderful shooting ability. Then there was the tuning possibilities well ahead of their time. Some of it only recently being rediscovered like external hammer stroke and spring preload adjustability; short spring free flight hammer throw to reduce or eliminate hammer bounce and improve efficiency, and tranSfer port adjustability to fine tune for further efficiency gains. The last was highlighted and explained many years ago by the Belgian Alain Typpens. 

LW hit a peak with the accuracy of these skinny little barrels and FX did them justice in the way in which they were anchored to kill harmonics exactly where it counted. The well known US guru Larry Durham once wrote me, that if ever I was passing mine on, he would very much like that barrel.

If any readers have Tarantulas with the top grade walnut stocks, you are very welcome to show them off in this thread. ... Best regards to all,

Harry in OZ.

Click to expand...


 
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Aloha Harry,

Hope this counts! My First PCP that got me hooked! I used to Oogle the pics of the Trantula back in the day but as a younger man, didn’t have the funds for that Beauty! I read everything on the Yellow and Dreamed of someday owning one. Then Marty at Silver Streak started importing the Thor’s. I believe they were based on the same action but the Thor came with a much more affordable Beech stock. Long story short I saved up my pennies and bought the Thor and a hand pump. After Marty install his moderator all I could hear is was the ping. Accurate as all get out and I even managed to take two Toms which then got me hooked and latter ended up with a Tominator.... HAHAHA Guns come and go but this one has a Special place in my heart.... A LOT of Fond Memories AND Muscles were invested! 

Aloha

Mark
 
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The first air rifle to shoot 5 shots into less than one inch at 100 yards was an RWS shuttle 2 shot Rapier shot by Aussie Chris Thomas in Bendigo Victoria in June 2002. My Excalibre was the second. Chris shot three sub inch groups at 100 metres /109+yards in front of a number of incedulous bench rest powder burners. The smallest group of the three was 17 mm.

It says a lot that so many companies sold these variations re-badged or with minor changes of stocks and a few other small differences. I would like to see a list of all the FX 2000 variations. If you have one please add a pic here. Thanks to those who have responded, ... Kind regards, Harry.
 
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I'm checking out air rifles again after purchasing my FX Tarantula perhaps 10 years ago shooting it twice and putting it away in my gun vault. The gun is now coming back from FX Air rifles with a full service and guage replacement. A tech at FX Air rifles suggested JSB pellets and recommended the 18.13 gr JSB Diabolo Exact Jumbo Heavy 22 caliber pellet. I also purchased the Exact sample pack as well.

Air rifles have really changed since I purchase my FX Tarantula and it seems FX Crown Safari is the top of the line FX air rifle, however, the Daystate Red Wolf Safari looks like an exceptional air rifle too.

I have no real experience with air rifles, but have been shooting long distance rifles for many decades and plan on shooting my Tarantula to see if air rifles are my thing. As an unregulated rifle, I'm going to see if I can utilize my LabRadar Doppler chronograph with air trigger along with a Sig Sauer Kilo 3000 BDX laser rangefinder and Kestrel 5700 Elite AB (Applied Ballistics) wind meter to create custom pellet profiles and dope settings. Once set I can then shoot the pellets at long distance to true the ballistic profiles for drag.

My thought was to charge the rifle at max, shoot pellets are various power settings for precision and review the individual muzzle velocities for pellets from full charge. Once I see if and where a velocity node may be I can then calculate dope settings. Actually the Kestrel with Applied Ballistics will calculate the dope settings and via bluetooth send the correct firing solution to the Sig Sauger laser range finder visible in the heads up display.

I plan to pull the action out of the stock and place it in a rifle vise and see at what power settings give the best precision with various pellets and find out where the power drop off becomes to low to be viable. Tuning tips for the FX Tarantula are appreciated.

Again, I have no experience with air rifles, but based on 40 years of precision rifle shooting, this is my initial approach to see if I like air rifles enough to invest in a modern day air rifle and accessories.

At the moment I'm leaning towards the Daystate Red Wolf Safari if I go with a current air rifle and quality optic. My optic of choice for my precision rifles have been Nightforce ATACR series optics with FFP and TReMoR 3 reticles. My scope mount of choice have been Spuhr mounts, but they don't make mounts for air rifles, however, they are the best of bred for precision rifles.

So from someone with no real knowledge of air rifles your comments on my initial approach are welcome.
 
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James I found your post interesting, but I am confused. You mentioned Black Widow with walnut stock, so this gun coming with two stocks? Reason why I asked is the FX Black Widow was brought to us through Straight Shooters and had a synthetic stock but you mention the rifle has grade 4 walnut. Had it been changed from synthetic to walnut at some time or am I in twilghtzone here. I know there is quite a large family amongst the FX2000 family. I believe the Tarantula was through AoA. Then there was Fx Timberwolf, RWS Excaliber and a couple others that slip my mind. 

I tried to post a picture, will try again tomorrow, oh how these rifles are ever so beautiful, especially those grade 4 Turkish Walnut stocks. Easy to shot, balances nicely and accurate, mine shots well with JSB 15.89's.

It's late, I'm signing off - cheers
 
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