I'm so burned out on springers

[Lone Star]

 Not sure what "good quality" is but I have to say the new Diana 34 is a sweetheart. Don't yet have anything but the stock fiber optic sights but today I was able to hit a 2" spinner at about 25 yards. Didn't hit every shot but had far better success than I thought I would.

[lizzie]

Excellent Rick!

[Bryan Heimann]

I have to admit, my favorite is a springer, my beat up hw35

[Steelontarget]

For a long time, the only springer I had in the house was the FWB 300S.  Then I got a Beeman R9.  It wasn't long before the two of them got together and gave birth to an R7!

One look at my equipment list below will tell you that springers have a lot in common with rabbits.

There is a rumor running around the springer crowd that one of them may give birth to a Pro Sport.  They're taking bets on whether it's going to be a .22 or a .177.

Some of us were hoping it would be a pre-me but it looks like it might be a late-term delivery.

[45flint]

I’m a vintage collector and to understand why the love for springers, it helps to go back in time to the 1950’s.  Try a Webley Mark 3, Diana 50, BSA Mark 1 or 2.  These were made by craftsmen of another age, when power wasn’t even thought about.  They are wonderful works of machining art.  The last 20 years has ruined Springers by the endless pursuit of power, in the hands of CNC manufacturers.  Your left at Walmart with cheap uncontrollable rifles.  The PCP fits this environment cause there is less need for a finely machined powerplant and higher power fits the modern mentality. More power has to be good?

Give me grace and 6-10 FPE.

[SpiralGroove]

Yeah Bryan,
Back in 2015 I was kinda burned out on Springers.  I had just finished tuning about 15 different Hatsan models and was not overwhelmed by their fit & finish, and my shooting with them.

So I went over to the Dark side for about a year and had great fun tuning and shooting various rifles.
I never intended to go back to Springers period, because PCP are superior shooting machines - right .

To make a long story short, I went to Arizona in 2016 to care for my Mother in Sun City.  I was there for about 2 months with nothing to do for fun.  So I went down to Airguns of Arizona and bought a .177 HW35E.  I pick-out one with a beautiful stock and refinished it in my hotel room using dollar store sandpaper and Tru-oil.

I took the gun to a local range and was amazed how well it shot with a Williams peep sight at 50 yards.
Plus, the gun is a mechanical masterpiece.  Wind forward 2 years, I now have almost the entire line of Weilrauch airguns and really don't shoot my PCP's that much anymore.  I realized, I'm more of a mechanical tinkerier and enjoy working on and shooting the fine German airguns best.

[JoeKool]

Been following this thread since it started, and refrained from replying because I didn’t want to appear to be bragging on my “high dollar springers”.  But...  Someone else mentioned the Air Arms Pro-Sport.  Well, I own two walnut variations  in .177 & .22. In no way am I burned out on these beautiful spring powered air rifles.  Pictures below include 20 yard target (mix of single and 5 shot groups), the .22 (top), .177 (bottom), and chronograph results.  They love .22 Predator GTO (11.75gr) & .177 AA Diabolo Field Heavy (10.34gr), both Vortek SHO tuned with Hawke scopes.  They’ll shoot the same groups at 45 yards.  It’s not bragging when its the truth...

[bandg]

No AA's guns here but they certainly seem to be quite nice.  I have 2 Walther's  (1 LGV and 1 LGU) and both are extremely accurate and well made.  Also have a Diana 460 and HW97KTS and both are very nice as well.  Shooting PCP's more frequently as time goes by since they are newer to me but it's good to know I can pick up one of the springers, cock it, and hit exactly what I shoot at. 

[allan_wind]

One look at my equipment list below will tell you that springers have a lot in common with rabbits.

... when you shoot them they shake? 

[SpiralGroove]

My only comments to this thread was to remind folks "if you get a good Springer, they shoot better and are more user friendly".  Hence, burnout is less common, but we airgun nuts need variety, so PCP's are usually in the mix too.  There are a number of good knock-off Chinese clones, that with a little TLC can be great too .
Plus, Springers constantly challenge you to be alert or everything falls apart quickly.

[Steelontarget]

The photo says it all...

[Steelontarget]

One look at my equipment list below will tell you that springers have a lot in common with rabbits.

... when you shoot them they shake? 

I would not call it a shake.  It's sort of like a dog when it wags it tail.  Just like a dog that wants to go for a walk, they like to be shot.  That's not a good analogy but the best that I can think of now.

In the interest of full disclosure; I've said it numerous times.  I have a love-hate relationship with the Beeman/Weihrauch line of springers.  I've had to work on everyone of them right out of the box but once they are tuned, they are phenomenal.

[DanD]

One look at my equipment list below will tell you that springers have a lot in common with rabbits.

... when you shoot them they shake? 

I would not call it a shake.  It's sort of like a dog when it wags it tail.  Just like a dog that wants to go for a walk, they like to be shot.  That's not a good analogy but the best that I can think of now.

In the interest of full disclosure; I've said it numerous times.  I have a love-hate relationship with the Beeman/Weihrauch line of springers.  I've had to work on everyone of them right out of the box but once they are tuned, they are phenomenal.

They are worth the effort!

[mac]

Beautiful guns 45flint.

[lizzie]

The photo says it all...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[soolio]

I’m a vintage collector and to understand why the love for springers, it helps to go back in time to the 1950’s.  Try a Webley Mark 3, Diana 50, BSA Mark 1 or 2.  These were made by craftsmen of another age, when power wasn’t even thought about.  They are wonderful works of machining art.  The last 20 years has ruined Springers by the endless pursuit of power, in the hands of CNC manufacturers.  Your left at Walmart with cheap uncontrollable rifles.  The PCP fits this environment cause there is less need for a finely machined powerplant and higher power fits the modern mentality. More power has to be good?

Give me grace and 6-10 FPE.

Ahhh this makes sense. All the springers I’ve tried are modern POS! Thanks for leading me down the right path. Beautiful rifles btw;)

[nced]

I’m a vintage collector and to understand why the love for springers, it helps to go back in time to the 1950’s.  Try a Webley Mark 3, Diana 50, BSA Mark 1 or 2.  These were made by craftsmen of another age, when power wasn’t even thought about.  They are wonderful works of machining art.  The last 20 years has ruined Springers by the endless pursuit of power, in the hands of CNC manufacturers.  Your left at Walmart with cheap uncontrollable rifles.  The PCP fits this environment cause there is less need for a finely machined powerplant and higher power fits the modern mentality. More power has to be good?

Give me grace and 6-10 FPE.

Ahhh this makes sense. All the springers I’ve tried are modern POS! Thanks for leading me down the right path. Beautiful rifles btw;)

"All the springers I’ve tried are modern POS!"
Hummmm.....I've been buying HW springers for a few decades starting with a HW50 (no safety at all) which was sold to help finance a new leather sealed HW35. I then bought a Beeman R10 and then several Beeman R9s over the years.

More recently (perhaps a decade ago) I bought a new .177 Beeman R9 and found it to have several redesigns including a bolt on bracket that included the front stock mounting threads and the fixed barrel latching detent instead of the un-removable the fixed detent of the older R9s, a different method of securing the barrel to the barrel pivot block, a cocking shoe that was supported on the cocking shoe slot instead of the piston liner and a redesigned piston seal that didn't use a thin edged parachute seal. Actually, function, fit and finish was better than any of the older R9s I bought in the past. Then I bought a new HW95 a few years ago and found the same design improvements as the R9, however the fit of the parts was even better. My personal opinion of the newer Beeman R9 and HW95 is that they perform better than they did in the "good old days". If I were buying another HW springer I would opt for a new HW95 rather than an "old design" used HW95!

Here are a few examples of old HW95 construction vs new HW95 construction (the R9 is simply a rebadged HW95 with different "furniture").
Old design..........
Piston seal progression


Old piston seal with factory installation damage........


Here is a new HW95 piston after shooting a box of CPLs. I do prefer oring sealed piston caps I make but I did test out the new HW piston seal design for comparison. I do have to say however that the newer design thick parachute edge is more critical of fit to the receiver than the old thin parachute edge design. When installing a couple new HW95 factory seals from my parts bin it was discovered that the molded seals can vary enough in diameter to create "seal to receiver fit issues" where one new seal can be rather loose fitting but a different new seal from my parts bin would fit the same receiver perfectly......


Older vs newer methods of supporting the cocking shoe..........
Cocking shoe supported by the piston liner and what can happen with "ham fisted" cocking of a HW break barrel..........


Newer design cocking shoe supported by the edges of the receiver cocking shoe slot...........


The old and new barrel latching arrangement.........
Old design.........
In years past I've had the rather thin "stock mounting welded on tab" threads strip out with use which needed repair. LOL....part of my HW home repair work was fixing stripped holes for owners.........   


Newer HW95 barrel latching design..........
I've never had the deeper threads of one of these sintered metal brackets strip out, if they did the solution would be to replace a bracket rather than a whole receiver tube. Years ago Beeman replaced the receiver tube of my brother's R9 because the fixed detent wore very rapidly due to a sharp burr on the spring loaded detent which "machined away" a bit of metal with each unlatching and relatching of the barrel when shooting.......


Older method of securing the barrel to the barrel pivot block..........


Newer method of securing the barrel to the barrel pivot block with a lock nut rather than a dowel pin (well, I can't SEE a dowel pin in the new design, could be wrong here )..........


Here are my two HW springers, a .177 Beeman R9 and a .177 HW95, both are superior to the old design R9s of the past..........

[Hoosier Daddy]

Been lurking for a long time but now posting to get notifications of updates... Gotta go.

[soolio]

I only meant the ones that I’ve tried which are Gamo, Crosman, etc...you know, true POS springers.

Thanks a lot for all that info to go on. This thread is packed full of good stuff.

[nced]

I only meant the ones that I’ve tried which are Gamo, Crosman, etc...you know, true POS springers.

Thanks a lot for all that info to go on. This thread is packed full of good stuff.

Hummmmm.....I do know what you mean because I once owned a .177 Crosman Quest 1000 break barrel and after a lot of internal work plus a trigger insert I was able to reduce the 1 1/2" ctc @ 30 yards accuracy down to an still unacceptable 1" ctc @ 30 yards. I figured that the problem was the fact that the Quest was a Chinese clone of a Gamo220 so I bought a new Gamo 440 on sale. LOL....the "sales pitch" in the Gamo literature claimed "1/4" accuracy at 30 yards" but the best I got was 1" CTC at that distance. Being very annoyed I literally "land filled" both the Quest and Gamo out of disgust.

LOL.....at that time I bought two Cummins Truckload sale Chinese B3s for &19.95 each, cobbled together one B3 from the best parts, made a few parts of my own like an oring sealed piston cap that increased the 8.4 grain JSB Exact velocity from 550fps to 700fps., and shot these 25 yard groups from that bore that was "rough as a corn cob"..........
Using factory irons.............


After stripping off the factory sights and mounting a 6x Burris Compact scope that cost several times more than both B3s together.........