MATCH AIR RIFLE TEST(2)

 Five high-performance spring-air target

rifles get a Test Report workout-Anschutz,

Winchester and three different Feinwerkbaus.

by JOHN T.AMBER/THE GUN DIGEST

             

         Because of our extremely wet spring this year, I haven't been able to get in as much shooting with these 5 air rifles as I'd hoped, but I have done enough, I believe, to let me find out just how they perform--at least in my hands and with my aging eyes, I'll have to admit. All of this shooting was done with iron sights, of course, in that these are the only type of sights legal for organized competitive shooting, as in the Olympics or in ISU matches. I was rather surprised myself by making some fairly good groups at the standard 10-meter distance using flat top posts, but I feel more confident when I'm using aperture fronts; and I think I did do just a bit better with the apertures.

         Just about all of this air rifle shooting had to be done on weekends, and I sim;ly could not get the wind to stay still on any day. I tried to shoot when there was a minimum of wind but invariably there was a bit of a breeze blowing, even if only of a few miles per hour. In spite of the breezes, I got 10-shot groups that were almost always in one ragged hole, but very few of them would have made possibles--the new ISU target is a tought one!

          These match air rifles don't require the break-in period that lower-cost air arms do if the latter are to perform at their best. It generally takes some 1,000 rounds to get the average air rifle to operate at its smoothest and to schoot most accurately.

        However, I did notice a gradual easing of functioning with four of the rifles, as you'll read later. Accuracy itself was excellent from the very beginning.

MATCH AIR RIFLE TEST(1)

 Five high-performance spring-air target

rifles get a Test Report workout-Anschutz,

Winchester and three different Feinwerkbaus.

by JOHN T.AMBER/THE GUN DIGEST

          I've had an opportunity this spring to make a side-by-side comparison of 5 different target-grade air rifles, all in 177 caliber, and all in perfect working order.

          Several years ago, while in Germany. I bought one of the Model 150 Feinwerkbau air rifles in target-grade, this one with the lighter barrel, and with the Tyrolean form of buttstock--that is, the one we would normally call a schuetzen-type with a cheedpiece that lets the cheek lie snugly in possition for offhand shooting. A year or so later, John Weir(then with Winchester-Western's German office), knowing of my new intersest in match air rifles, obtained and sent to me another FWB 150 model, this one with the heavier barrel, and with the regular target stock--the one with the straight, high-comb line.
          Toward the end of 1969 Winchester sent us one of their Model 333 match-grade air rifles, along with the proper array of target sights, etc. This is of break-down barrel type, as opposed tto the solid-berrel systems of he FWB rifles, a system also used by Anschutz.
          Then, early this year John Marsman of Savage sent me one of their Model 250 Anschutz 177 match rifles, and a bit later Robert Law of Air Rifle Headquarters, following a phone talk with him, shipped over to us one of the new model Feinwerkbaus, now designated the Model 300. The Model 300 shows a number of refinements over the earlier M 150, but in all mafor essentials it's the same rifle.
photo by http://airgun-academy.pyramydair.com/