One of the best air rifles out there

“One of the best air rifles out there”

Written on: 31/05/2012 by Bunnyhugger (1 review written)

It's been a good few years since I last used an air rifle, in fact it's been since 1984 since I had my last one which was a Venom tuned HW80. I've used various types of shotguns and rifles over the years since then so after all of the stories about how super accurate PCP's are, I must admit I was a little sceptical of just how good these rifles are.

I called into my local gun shop and one of the guys there was good enough to give me a few shots on the range with his HW100 carbine. I was blown away! I just couldn't miss with it; completely accurate with pellet through pellet hole and 11.7ft on the chronograph, shot after shot. So that was it, I went straight out and bought the HW100S, much to the delight of my wife who could think of plenty of other things to use the money for...!

So, how does the bog standard rifle out of the box stack up? Well, the engineering is unsurpassed, typical German high precision finish on all of the metal work. The finish of the wood was pretty pants though so one of the first things I did was re-finish the stock with 5 coats of true oil (buffed between coats with 00grade wire wool) and then finished off with some good wax. The difference was startling.

How does it shoot? Accuracy was totally amazing, one small 6mm hole at 25yrds with a 5 shot grouping. The two-stage trigger is still one of the best out there and in my humble opinion is better than anything I have ever used on a rimfire or full-bore. The silencer that comes with it was so quiet the biggest noise you hear is the pellet hitting the target! Wheirauch have produced one of the quietest silencers I've ever come across and most in the industry seem to be saying the same too. The magazine was very easy to use as was the cocking lever and the best bit is that you cannot double load the HW100 unlike the rest of the competition out there.

I zeroed the scope that night and set off the following morning at dawn to bag some bunnies. All I can say is that I bagged two rabbits first time out at a range of 35yrds. The rifle was so quiet I even managed to reload and take another shot after I missed with the first shot, something I've never been able to do at that range with a bolt action .22 rimfire using subsonics and a silencer.

If you're in the market for a top quality PCP then I can honestly say that this one is certainly up there as one of the best.