A bit of background.
I shot 25m bench rest competitively for quite a few years here in South Africa. My weapon of choice for the HV class has been a Theoben Vanquish in .20 fitted in a dedicated left hand bench stock.
This rifle has always been insanely accurate and can still compete with the best out there.
Recently the Unlimited air rifle competition has really taken off over here.
The competition is similar to EBR/RMAC, we shoot bench rested at 100m/109yards, 50m/54yards and 25m/27yards.
The speed silhouette is also shot.
I decided to start shooting the Unlimited, and my search for a capable rifle started.
My criteria was simple. The rifle needed to be extremely accurate out of the box.
I do not tinker with my rifles, so external adjustability was not needed or wanted.
The rifle had to shoot JSB 25.39 RDS accurately out to 100m. I have not gone down the slug rabbit hole, and do not see myself doing so anytime soon.
I tried a few rifles, none lived up to my criteria in my hands.
On the 10th I received an unassuming brown box from my favourite air rifle dealer. Inside was a .22 RAW HM1000x in the black laminate LRT stock. No fancy gun-case, bag or other unneeded but nice to have stuff. Just the rifle, container holding the mag and an instruction manual.
I immediately fitted my Hawke Frontier 5-30x56 to it, filled it with air and sighted it in at 25yards.
The first 10 shots after zeroing looked like this with the Monsters.
On Saturday the 12th I had the opportunity to set it up for the Mastershot competition held this past Saturday.
This was done inside a warehouse at 25, 50 and 80m(maximum available).
A very good friend of mine, and our No1 FT shooter helped me work out the clicks to 100m. I must say he was spot on!
After shooting some groups at 25, 50 and 80, I realised this was one very special rifle. The groups were shot with pellets from the tin, and looked like this.
25m 3 shots
50m 5 shots.
80m 5 shots
Saturdays competition started with the 100m. Two cards are shot at all 3 distances.
My first cards total was 229/250. I managed to shoot probably my best 100m group ever, with 5 shots measuring 15mm center to center.
Second card I managed a 214.
In the 50m I shot a 233 and 228.
In the 25m I shot a 242 and 245 for 4th place.
The RAW helped me win the 100, 50 and 3 Gun.
I simply cannot praise this rifle enough!
I took it out of the box, cleaned the barrel, fitted a scope and managed some very good groups before winning the Mastershot competition with it.
To the guys at RAW/Airforce, thank you for building a rifle that is a match winner straight from the box!
A special thanks to Martin who still sets up, and checks every rifle before it leaves the factory. You care and expertise shows in how this rifle is performing.
This one is going to stay with me a long, long time!