Today, I had an idea. If a little bit of weight was a good thing, maybe adding more weight to the pistol would be even better. Repositioned the scope in the rings, attaching the scope to the 13mm rail with the two rings behind the turret. That left the front half of the scope tube open, so added three steel rings on that part of the scope for even more weight. Admittedly, kind of a goofy setup, but if it worked, I decided I would look for a more permanent and better looking way to add weight.
Loren, sure sign of a springer addict! I know the feeling.
Always wanted an HW45, back in the day when it was better known as the Beeman P1. Since we already have an HW75 and love it, we thought it was high time to add the HW45 to our growing HW collection. Our new HW45 arrived, three weeks, ago, and I've been shooting it regularly ever since. Almost made it though two tins of pellets, in fact. Had a pretty good idea of what to expect as far as quality, given that we have the HW75 and, of course, the HW75 and 45 look similar in appearance and have a roughly similar design setup. Once you actually load these guns and shoot them, though, the similarity ends. I learned that real quick, shooting the HW45 at the full power setting. This was not unexpected, of course, given the two guns use different power plants. I knew that going in. It's just that I did not expect the HW45 to have quite so much recoil and be such a challenge to shoot. From the first couple of shots, I knew I had my work cut out for me and, for the record, I am a decent pistol shot. For comparison, this is what I can do with the much easier to shoot HW75 at 10 meters from a standing position, no rest. In fact, I have done similar work with all of our air pistols, even our old Benjamin pump up. The first week with the HW45 was not encouraging, even though I knew the gun was a springer and that it would be a challenge to shoot before I bought it. At this point I seriously doubted whether I would ever be able to put 5 consecutive shots into a one inch group at 10 meters, my expectation for accuracy with the HW45, given that all our other pistols can do half that. This equates to 5 shots in the 9 ring on a Gamo 10 meter target. Oh, yeah, I've learned a lot about shooting this HW45 gun in the few weeks I've had it. For one, it just might be the most grip sensitive air pistol I've ever shot. Any change in the pressure point with either hand and POI shifted, sometimes, dramatically. For another, this gun absolutely cannot be shot off a rest, though you can shoot it with a rest. By that I mean, if any part of the gun touches the rest, kiss your POI and accuracy good-bye. On the other hand, the gun can be shot by resting your forearms on the bag, assuming, of course, that you settle in with a consistent grip. This is a better way to sight in a pistol that you plan to shoot offhand, anyway, and I do plan to shoot this HW45 mostly from a standing position at 10 meters, this winter. First, though, I had to shoot the gun from a rest to see what the gun could do in terms of accuracy. Have to walk before you can run, so to speak. With factory open sights at 10 meters, using the above rest method, I finally managed some one inch and a half, five shot groups. An improvement, to be sure, but not what I wanted. Was even thinking my expectations were unrealistic. Had I made a $400 plus mistake? Kept at it, however. Added a Nikon 1x pistol scope (though have to say the factory fiber optics sights are very good). My thinking was that the extra weight of the scope might help tame the recoil a bit and it did, but the gun still refused to shoot a 10 ring sized group. Could now manage to get 5 shots in the one inch 9 ring, though, so any thoughts of selling the gun vanished. Today, I had an idea. If a little bit of weight was a good thing, maybe adding more weight to the pistol would be even better. Repositioned the scope in the rings, attaching the scope to the 13mm rail with the two rings behind the turret. That left the front half of the scope tube open, so added three steel rings on that part of the scope for even more weight. Admittedly, kind of a goofy setup, but if it worked, I decided I would look for a more permanent and better looking way to add weight. Did it work? Uh, yeah. Make no mistake, though, the gun is still very hold sensitive and nowhere as easy to shoot as the HW75, but I've now proven to myself that gun is capable of good accuracy in spite of the recoil. As always, each air gun is a work in progress and this one is no exception. Will report back when I start shooting it without a rest. Might even try the low power setting, too. Lots of work to do.
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