Yesterday a friend brought his new $299 HW95 with scope and mounts to be set up.

[nced]

We had a good day "tweaking" and then shooting his new toy and here are a few comments...........

His barrel had a lot of droop like my HW95 so we spent some time at my back yard practice lane bending the barrel till the poi at 30 yards was within an inch of the point of aim with his optically centered Optisan Viper scope. The final adjustments were done via the scope turrets and all is just fine.

Before shooting I chronied his new HW95 and the velocity prior to the "tweaking" was 865ish fps with 7.9 grain CPLs so we went to my back yard shooting lane to bend the barrel so the poi was within an inch of the aim at 30 yards. Both of us did a LOT of shooting with his new "95" so after the shooting session I re-chronied the velocity and for some reason the velocity dropped to 830ish fps verified by several shots over the sensors. Very unusual since the velocity from a new HW springer usually picks up a bit, not drops 30fps!!

We went upstairs to my "man attic" where all my springer springer surgery is done and disassembled the HW95 for a degrease and relube with Krytox. The first thing I noticed when pulling the piston was that the piston seal seemed rather loose fitting compared to my last R9 and recent acquisition of my own HW95. Everything looked good so being puzzled I removed the new piston seal from his piston and replaced it with the new piston seal from my HW95 that's not being used since I replaced my seal with and oring sealed piston cap. I measured the two HW95 piston seals and indeed my friends HW95 piston seal was .015 smaller in diameter than the piston seal from my new HW95!! Real strange and after replacing the smaller piston seal with the larger one the fit to the receiver was indeed restored to the tightness I was accustomed to for a factory seal. Real strange for sure!!

After the degrease and relube with LocTite Krytox RFE (half a 1 pound cartridge was a gift from a friend) and a installing a spring kit based on the factory spring from my new HW95 (my spring was replaced with an old Maccari spring) and tight fitting guide and top hat. After stripping the patient of all factory lubes, relubing with the Krytox RFE, and reassembling it was back to the chrony which again showed a CPL flying over the sensors at a consistent 865fps. Shooting upstairs at 18 yards both my friend and I were able to "touch pellet holes" shooting from "bucket and sticks"!

Anywhoo.....my friends HW95 cocks and shoots smooth just like my HW95 and I do believe he got a GOOD ONE!

[Yogi]

Thanks for the post!  I did not know that HW 95's were prone to barrel droop.  Any idea why his internals were so off?  Seems like they assembled the gun from parts for a different model?  What ever happened to German Build Quality?  I just order the same rifle for a buddy, I hope his gun does not have the same problem are the one that you encountered.....

-Yogi

[Lost]

Thanks for the post!  I did not know that HW 95's were prone to barrel droop.  Any idea why his internals were so off?  Seems like they assembled the gun from parts for a different model?  What ever happened to German Build Quality?  I just order the same rifle for a buddy, I hope his gun does not have the same problem are the one that you encountered.....

-Yogi

Agree
Not exactly a glowing report for those of us without a friend having Ed's expertise.

[nced]

Thanks for the post!  I did not know that HW 95's were prone to barrel droop.  Any idea why his internals were so off?  Seems like they assembled the gun from parts for a different model?  What ever happened to German Build Quality?  I just order the same rifle for a buddy, I hope his gun does not have the same problem are the one that you encountered.....

-Yogi

A couple comments.........

I did not know that HW 95's were prone to barrel droop.
LOL....I thought that this was a "feature" of most all break barrels...(LOL....ever look at a RWS34 barrel). Some claim that the droop is deliberately "built in" for iron sight shooters using tall front sights. Anywhoo......it's always been that way and decades ago I used to pay an extra dollar for the "scope barrel angle" option when I bought my R9s from Beeman. The geometry between the pivot bolt and the breech that compresses the breech seal is very critical for good sealing so I personally thing that the droop is indeed intentional to accommodate variations in part tolerances. Anywhoo......IMHO, not a real issue and it's so common that manufacturers even make adjustable scope mounts to compensate.

Any idea why his internals were so off?
I don't think the internals were "off"....simply that the molded "rubber" piston seal was a bit smaller so it fit the receiver looser than the HW95 I had. The gun still shot well straight from the box spitting out tight fitting 7.9 grain CPLs at 865fps.

What ever happened to German Build Quality?
IMHO it's excellent and HW has been improving the design of their springers over the years.

I hope his gun does not have the same problem are the one that you encountered
No real problems at all with either of the HW95s (mine and my friend's)! Factory HW springers always come with "twang" and most I've had needed the barrel bent to get the poi to agree with the poa if optically centering a scope is important to a person. My guess that optically centering a scope isn't on their "springer to do list" so barrel droop won't be an issue at all!

[Petey]

Thanks for the post!  I did not know that HW 95's were prone to barrel droop.  Any idea why his internals were so off?  Seems like they assembled the gun from parts for a different model?  What ever happened to German Build Quality?  I just order the same rifle for a buddy, I hope his gun does not have the same problem are the one that you encountered.....

-Yogi

Piston seals vary in size just like the tube diameters ....ordering seals= order four at a time and measure them ...you'll see.
In addition: ordering a few gives you the ability to pick the one closest to your needs = less time trying to size it. 


Droop= Happens to all ag's. not biggie and easy to remedy, as Ed pointed out.....Tweak barrels whenever it's needed.



Happy Shootin!
Petey.

[Jtlittle]

Ed thank you for educating us. I understand the time it takes for you to write the explanations and illustrations and pictures. I know you enjoy sharing but you time is appreciated.

[Yogi]

Ed and Petey,

Thanks for your responses.  I appreciate all the sage advice...

-Y