beeman hw-57 review

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Average Ratings

Accuracy	8/10
Handling	5/10
Value for Money	9/10
Overall rating	7/10

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By drysdalem on 5th Dec 2006

drysdalem's Ratings

Accuracy	8/10
Handling	5/10
Value for money	9/10
Overall value	7/10
drysdalem's recommendation

Good Points

Very compact
Light weight
Low cocking effort
Rekord Trigger (enough said)

Bad Points

Awkward loading procedure
Difficult to clean the barrel

General Comments

I have a Beeman marked HW-57. These rifles are no longer imported by Beeman but are available from HW as the HW-57. This is an underlever rifle with a pop up loading port. The cocking effort is very low, It does not feel appreciable harder to cock than an R/7.

The only real complaint I have is the loading port. Unlike An HW-77 or a TX-200 where the breech is exposed when the piston is moved into the rearward position, this rifle has a small port that pops up when the rifle is cocked. It is necessary to seat each round with a pellet seater. This is because the pellet must be absolutely flush with the rear portion of the port or the skirt will be shaved or deformed as the port is closed. Also the port must be manually pushed down into position after loading. If this were the only under lever rifle I shot that would probably be fine. However I have others and for the first several rounds I have to be very careful to get the sequence correct or I will discharge the rifle with the port open. This allows the piston to slam into the head of the cylinder body without any back pressure, which is a bad thing for a springer. This same loading port makes it necessary to clean the barrel from the muzzle, a procedure I really do not like.

My rifle has never been tuned or tweaked in any way but it is very smooth now and has no twang what-so-ever. I have fired about 4000 rounds through it so I guess it has settled in by now!!!!

The stock is uncheckered & somewhat plain, however for my uses I would not want a fancy stock. The blueing is typical HW quality, nicely polished metal and a nice deep blue.

If I were to pick a comparable break-barrel rifle I would pick the Beeman R/6. All in all this little rifle is a very nice entry level weapon. More punch than an R/7, but light weight of 7.5 pounds and 20 or so pound cocking effort.

My tests show this to be a 9 FP rifle.

Below are my test results. This rifle was fired outdoors in 30-35 degree F weather in sunny and dry conditions.

Pellet weight MV FP 35 yd vel FP
CPL 7.9 720 9.0 610 6.4
Beeman Trophy 8.0 730 9.3 590 6.1
Beeman Silver Bear 7.0 755 8.7 475 3.5
H&N Match 8.1 715 9.1 495 4.3
Beeman FTS 8.8 695 9.3 585 6.6

I also did some very non-scientific accuracy testing from a benchrest. I supported the weapon at both front and back with my hands and steadied my forward arm on a sandbag. Optics are a 4x Leupold rimfire scope with parallax corrected for 40 yards. I used a ruler any simply 'eyeballed' each group.

The groups shot with CPL's and Trophy pellets looked almost identical and hovered around .9 inches at 35 yards. Interestingly enough both of these pellets shot to almost the some POI. The FTS pellets were not as tight at around 1.2 inches for a 5 shot group. The H&N groups were in the .75 inch range and approximately 2" below the POI of the CPL's and Trophy pellets. But the surprise of the group was the lightweight Silver Bear Hollow point pellet. I measured two groups of five shots in the .5-.6 " range The other three groups were around .8. Maybe a fluke or maybe not. But one thing I noticed was the sound of the spring with the light pellets. Every springer I have has a pellet that it really likes. You can feel the spring in it's "groove". A heavier pellet makes the spring feel slow and almost like it is laboring and something lighter makes the piston head slam a little too hard against the end of the cylinder. I know it sounds a little crazy but after you have shot a weapon for a while you begin to know how it feels when a pellet suits it firing cycle. This particular HW-57 just feels in its groove with the Silver Bear pellet.

As an entry level rifle or for someone wishing to expand their battery with a true utility springer the HW-57 is very capable. As a plinker or starling and sparrow gun it gets top marks from me.

Total Respect: +1