New-to-me Walther Force 1000 (refurb)

[JMJ in NC]

Greetings all. I'm new to GTA and wanted to introduce myself and post my impressions of a refurbished Walther Force 1000 I purchased through Airgunsdaily about 2 months ago. Price was $65 plus S&H, a deal to good to pass up. I wanted a higher power rifle, as the Crosman Powermaster 66  inherited was just not powerful or accurate enough to dispatch the squirrels who regularly raid my birdfeeder.

My airgun arrived in "like new" condition with only minor signs of use. Unfortunately, the 4x32 Walther scope had a broken windage adjustment. I registered the gun via the Umarex website and notified them of the broken scope. Even though the box the gun came in was clearly marked "no warranty", Umarex replaced the scope with a brand new one (still in it's packaging) at no charge. Umarex also provided the parts diagram for the Hammerli Titan (same gun) so I could order a replacement breech seal.

I picked off 3 squirrels in the backyard one afternoon, and the gun is very accurate shooting with iron sights (out to 15m or so). Louder than I expected, but not overly so. It is heavy, but a solid shooter. The Powermaster 66 is toy compared to this gun, and the Walther is even heavier than the Cooey 22LR I used as a kid.

I ran 12 cleaning pellets through it and gave it a thorough going-over, and snugged-up the 2 main forward screws holding the action in the gun. The trigger could probably use a tune, but is good enough for now.

It doesn't like Crosman wadcutters (cheap ones) but is pretty accurate with Crosman Destroyers. I purchased some Beeman, Gamo, and Crosman hunting pellets, as well as a Winchester (Daisy) 3-9x32 Airgun scope from Pyramyd; mounted the scope but have yet to try out the new pellets.

A friend has a Chrony to lend me, so once I get some free time, I'll do sight-in, trigger adjustment, and chrony the pellets I have, then post the results. I also bought a Caldwell Zero-Max rest from Optics Planet to use for sight-in and chrony.

In the meantime I'll practice the artillery hold.

Regards - JMJ

[Rocker1]

Welcome to the GTA JMJ in NC , Glad to have you I don't think its a good idea to use the cleaning pellets its almost like dry fireing it and that is horrible on the springs. for the most part we use goo gone and cleaning patches and weed eater line and no wire brushes, as you read the forum i am sure you will understand. Thanks David

[Skonion]

Welcome to the GTA. You found a real good place when you found this place. What David said is right on. Too bad I had just the opposite experience with Umarex, but we won't go into that.                         Cheers, Gene

[LADave]

Welcome to the forum and thats a great looking gun at a great price. Just received a new spring from Jim Maccari, E9870 Euro Universal, for my Hammerli Titan. Looks  identical. The only obvious difference is the amount of coils. The stock spring has 46 coils end to end and the Maccari spring 39 coils. Good info to know if you can't get one from Umarex. Looking forward to your future posts.  LADave

[JMJ in NC]

Welcome to the GTA JMJ in NC , Glad to have you I don't think its a good idea to use the cleaning pellets its almost like dry fireing it and that is horrible on the springs. for the most part we use goo gone and cleaning patches and weed eater line and no wire brushes, as you read the forum i am sure you will understand. Thanks David

I followed the recommendation on the package and loaded 3 cleaning pellets per shot to get the appropriate resistance. By the 4th round (pellets 10/11/12), they were coming out pretty clean.

[JMJ in NC]

Welcome to the forum and thats a great looking gun at a great price. Just received a new spring from Jim Maccari, E9870 Euro Universal, for my Hammerli Titan. Looks  identical. The only obvious difference is the amount of coils. The stock spring has 46 coils end to end and the Maccari spring 39 coils. Good info to know if you can't get one from Umarex. Looking forward to your future posts.  LADave

Good to know about the Maccari spring. Something to look at if/when I tune the gun. Any change in velocity with the new spring?
Thanks - JMJ

[Jonesin]

Welcome, and I just picked one up as well this week. A few things I noticed about the trigger...there is a main set screw that adjusts trigger pull. There are two screws set in the trigger for stage adjustment. See my review in the Review Gate. Glad to have you.

http://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php/topic,3493.0.html

[JMJ in NC]

Nice review - I guess I didn't search the site enough, as I didn't see the Review forum when I joined.

JMJ

[Onebaddj]

welcome aboard! This is a great place to hang out.  Nice pics. looks like you got some nice shooters.

[VINNY]

Welcome to the GTA!!

[Jonesin]

Nice review - I guess I didn't search the site enough, as I didn't see the Review forum when I joined.

JMJ

Bro, I wasn't giving you a hard time, that's not what we're about! It's all good. I am glad to see others with the same AG I have just acquired. I wish I had shot it this weekend but I didn't have the chance. I'm not sure I am going to use it for hunting as my BC, 890 and C series pumper hold that category. For the price, I can't complain at all even if it doesn't perform to my expectations. It is a full size AG and is actually as long as my Enfield sporterized .303. It is a full size AG that I am proud to own. Glad to see you are joining this fine group here as I did a few months ago. Welcome again!

[shadow]

Welcome to the GTA FAMILY were happy to have you aboard. You might want to try the Crosman Premier Hollow Point's also many airguns take a liking to them and they perform great on small game like Squirrels. If you do any more pest control or hunting feel free to post a story and or pic's in our Hunting Gate, got some airgun hunt junkies here too. Ed

[JMJ in NC]

I had some time today and shot some Crosman destroyers & premier pointed, Beeman pointed, and Gamo hunters. Best accuracy was with the Gamo pellets, and a lighter trigger pull force helped a lot too! Range was only at 10m from my Zero-Max rest on a B&D Workmate table, but the improvised setup worked fairly well.

Thanks for the warm welcome all and I'll keep you posted on my progress (gun tuning and "gunner" tuning).

JMJ