Tale of a Ruger Air Hawk

[microsalmo]

Here in central Florida, a Ruger Airhawk can be bought at the local Walmart for $108.  Being that I am a frequent visitor, and air gun enthusiast, how could I resist, right?  In OEM form, mine came with a badly gouged piston seal, hence was spraying everything... even at close range.  For $11.80, a Vortek Pro28 piston seal made quick work of that issue. 



As long as I was in there, I did a debur, cross-hatch, and lube.  After all, a rifle that looks as pretty as this one, deserves to shot good too.  On that note, one would be hard pressed to find much evidence of this rifle being manufactured in China.  The internal parts were all of pretty good quality, and finish.  Had it not been improperly assembled, this gun may have been great out of the box.



The wood stock is wonderful, and the bluing is deep, clear, and smooth.  Atop, I mounted the OEM scope that came with my Remington NPSS, a Center Point 3x9x40 AO.  I found it to be an excellent choice for this gun, as weight was kept down, and it balanced out nicely.





A few hundred shots later, the OEM spring broke.  Granted, I was testing all sorts of very heavy .177 pellets, up to 13+ grains (yes, I printed & chronographed every single type in the below tray).  I guess I have to take back a little of what I said about the nice Chinese internal parts.  Perhaps, if I had stuck with 8gr pellets, this issue would have never arisen, so I don't know... these parts may be perfectly adequate for the intended design.  I was certainly pushing my luck 



A $17 heavy duty .130 drop in RWS spring from Vortek resolved the spring issue.  And I am happy to report, that this one stood up to all of the heavy pellets.  Hundreds of shots later, the Vortek spring is still going strong.  Speaking of strong, this Airhawk has turned out to be a little moster.  I had a few that were averaging in the 15+ fpe range across 10 shot strings    After a tune, the cocking & shooting stoke are silky smooth.  It is absolute pleasure to shoot.  Prior to the tune, the shot cycle was a little twangy & buzzy.   The OEM cocking stroke was pretty smooth, and required less effort than did the .130 spring from Vortek.  But even with the better spring, it's a peach to cock compared to a magnum springer like the Hatsan.  The trigger was very predictable, and had a clean brake after a smooth first stage pull.  I detected no creep in the second stage.

The real triumph turned out to be the accuracy.  For $137 total investmnet, who could ask for more than .24" groups at 35 yards!    Ok, ok, so only 4/5 went into a .24" hole.  Even with the flyer, the group still measured .71", but that was likely not the guns fault.  At 20 yards, the rifle did manage to squeeze 5/5 into a .17" hole.  So I'm calling it a quarter inch grouper at 35 yards.  Couple that with 15.481 average fpe, and this gun has an absolute Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde personality 

Here are the 20 yard & 35 yard groups respectively (chrony included)...







Of course, not all of the pellets tested this well.  I had to go through all of them to find the right one.  By comparison, most grouped in the .50"-.75" range at just 20 yards.  So if you have not realized the accuracy you are after yet, keep on experimenting.  Some of the better performers in this rifle turned out to be the Crosman Premier Lights, Crosman Destroyers, Beeman Crow Magnums, and a few of the lighter weight JSB offerings.  The Supermags from RWS were good too.  Outside of that, I didn't have much luck getting inside of an inch consistently.

So, "all is well that ends well," as they say.  This review was long overdue, and I collected the data months ago.  I am happy to report that well over 500 shots later, and this little tug that could is still holding it's head high.  I believe the moral of this story, is hang with it.  That's what air gunning is all about. 

I hope you guys enjoyed this - Thanks, Steve.

[Bryan Heimann]

Wow.  That makes me want to go buy a air hawk right now!

[Donny]

Wow.  That makes me want to go buy a air hawk right now!

you wont be sorry

[dukemeister]

Wow.  That makes me want to go buy a air hawk right now!

Me threeeee. I've wanted one for a long time, just waiting for my chance to get one on sale and it will be an Elite - thumb hole stock.

[deadsquirrle]

The crow magnums are great in my BlackHawk! Also, try the H&N FTT as they seemed to group well.
I currently use Beeman Coated hollow point. Good ole cheapies at $4.95 for 500

I was low on cash and bought 2 tins from PA. They work really good for their price and I use them for my hunting pellet

[Paul68]

Seems you had a little bad luck with this one Micro. Mine had a chunk of metal in the seal, no major damage to the sealing surface.

I've been shooting 10+ grn Air Arms heavies out of mine for awhile now with good results. Stock spring and its holding up well. I did give it a nice tune though.

[microsalmo]

Hey guys.  I'm glad you enjoyed the review.  For the money - wow. 

Hi Paul.  Yes, could have got a bum spring from the get go - who knows.  I can tell you that I never had any detonation.  These are great little guns from Ruger - China 

[Johnny Z]

Steve, great post and tune on the Ruger.   Did you have to take apart the trigger to improve it?

thanks
John

[fortyshooter]

Great story!  The Air Hawk is a great buy for the money. Had mine out this evening and it is a nice accurate gun with good power. I have no troubles hitting my targets at 30 yds. even with the cheapie scope it came with.
No issue with the scope so far.
The 30 yd. chip shot.....

[Dick Tracey]

AGD just put the blackhawk refurbished on sale for 54.99 no scope.  My Air Hawk Elite was a AGD Refurbished and I have really enjoyed it.  It sems to really like CPHP's.  I have forgot the chrony numbers but I was impressed with them.  I haven't run more then 100 pellets through it. 
DT

[Lambchops]

Wow.  That makes me want to go buy a air hawk right now!

Me threeeee. I've wanted one for a long time, just waiting for my chance to get one on sale and it will be an Elite - thumb hole stock.

Me four! I've always wanted one.

[microsalmo]

Steve, great post and tune on the Ruger.   Did you have to take apart the trigger to improve it?

thanks
John

Hi John, no. I didn't mess with the trigger group - don't know how.

[microsalmo]

Great story!  The Air Hawk is a great buy for the money. Had mine out this evening and it is a nice accurate gun with good power. I have no troubles hitting my targets at 30 yds. even with the cheapie scope it came with.
No issue with the scope so far.
The 30 yd. chip shot.....

 
Thanks Fourtyshooter. I'm glad you enjoyed the read.  Good shooting!

[Johnny Z]

thanks Steve, good to know the trigger is decent without having to tear into it.

[Paul68]

Chronied mine today, with the tune and stock spring it's averaging 788 FPS with 10 gr Air Arms Heavies for 14.2 FPE. Looks like I'll be trying the .130 spring you used as well to see if it wont do 15 FPE.

[microsalmo]

... Like I said; "All's well that ends well."



This little guy decided he wanted to sample some sunflower seeds out of my wife's bird feeder.   For his effort, he got 15+ FPE of Baracuda Match in the side of the neck.  He dropped like a lead brick - only the whiskers on his left cheek were quivering.  What a great riffle.

[microsalmo]

... that didn't take long.  While I was entering the above update, my wife called me to the window.  Dang-blangett! Score two for the Airhawk today.  This one took it in the neck too - what a mess.  These 10.65gr Baracudas are a nasty combo with this Riffle.  Now that's what I call a happy ending 

[Johnny Z]

Nice shooting, how far away?

[microsalmo]

Thank you.

The smaller one on top was out just 5 yards.  The larger one on the bottom bolted into the woods when I opend the door - He was 25 yards out or so.  All he gave me was his head, as he watched me from a notch in a tree.  So it was easy to focus on his neck.

[Johnny Z]

Even a 5 yrd shot is tough when you have a scope zero'd at 25 yrds.   I just order a Ruger AirHawk from FlyingDragons and picked up the .22 barrel from AdventuresinAirguns, looking forward to addition to the stable.

Thanks
John