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| Accuracy | 10/10 |
|---|---|
| Handling | 9/10 |
| Value for Money | 10/10 |
| Overall rating | 10/10 |
Full review by
marcus ca
expert review 
on 12th Jun 2007
User Rating : 10
Respect :
0
Good Points: Accurate Superb Finish Good weight balance Flip Up Loading Port
Bad Points: Heavy trigger
General comments: Out of the box, the Hammerli Nova looks beautiful. The wood is vaporised beech wood, and the finish is nice with nice straight grains and no knots or blemish to be found. The checkering is detailed and well-crafted. The stock and barrel looks perfect.
The flip up loading port is nice and unique in its design. You can load it even when the rifle is not cocked. Its design eliminate the danger of accidental discharge with the piston slamming into your finger whilst loading.
Cocking is on the heavy side (listed is 36 pounds but it feels a tad more) and first few cocking was definitely feeling a bit rough and heavy. Although after cleaning/oiling and 30-40 rounds it seems to have settled down and smoothed out. The safety engages automatically when the rifle is cocked. Strange thing though, you cannot (at least I haven't yet found a way) to put the rifle on safety when uncocked or once you disengaged the safety after cocking.
On first shots with open sights in a FT seated position at 25 yards, it managed a 1.5inch CTC group. After some 20 rounds, and some small adjustment to the open sights elevation and windage adjustment, and after gotten used to the weight and the heavy trigger, the group shrunk down to a 1inch CTC group. The firing mechanism simply emitted dull thuds on firing with no twangs and I have not notice any significant recoil. In fact, it sounds way better than any of my rifles.
Did the normal cleaning and oiling (the wood comes out beautiful after a couple of treatments of Hobbe's Lubricating Oil). Cleaned the inside and reapplied with PellOil at all the normal points. The trigger is smoother and slightly better but not too much.
Mounted a Bushnell Sportsman 3-9x40 scope on it and zero-ed in the scope. The heavy trigger is definitely a hindrance to accuracy, I put it down to the "newness" of the rifle and after maybe 50 shots or so, it has significantly loosened up. I zero-ed the scope in in a heavily sandbagged vise and managed to obtain a 0.25inch CTC group.
200 shots later, I re-zeroed the scope since the trigger has definitely lost some of the stiffness by now. It went to a 0.2inch CTC group at 25 yards.
Without the scope, the rifle seems barrel-heavy noticeably. With the 15oz. Bushnell scope, the weight balance is perfect. The whole setup weights about 9 lbs with scope but handling seems to be good and target holding is good.
I have not put it through the chrony yet but from the condition of the target after the hits, I can say, rather unscientifically, it is "hard hitting". It literally disintegrated a 1inch PVC pipe, didn't just put it hole through it or ripe bits off, it disintegrated into rather lots of small pieces. Another indication is the condition of the metal backplate I am using to mount the Visi-shot targets, the holes seems to be significantly deeper when viewed from the backside of the board. I am using Beeman Silver Sting (8.61gr) at the moment. It will be interesting to see the results of some heavier hitters.
On to the trigger, when brand new, the trigger is definitely stiff and heavy with a fairly long 2nd stage. The 2-stage trigger is not adjustable in this rifle unfortunately. After some serious shooting ... (something like 300 rounds now), it has improved significantly and the trigger is getting significantly smoother, I expect further improvement after more rounds through it.
It is definitely an accurate rifle, the only hindrance being the heavy trigger. Once the scope was zero-ed in, it actually does hit round after round where the cross-hair lies, although of course, with the heavy trigger, your cross-hair might not be where you want it to be. With use, it is getting better.
I will report more on this after another 1000 rounds.
For me, this is definitely a "keeper".
PS: This is actually identical to Norica Quick without the loading gate safety.
marcus ca's review and ratings | 678 words
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