FWB Am I the only one who can't shoot a FWB 124...?

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razor62

razor62

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May 29, 2016
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Rhode Island, United States
I'm a collector of quality (mostly) piston powered airguns. I've had 4 different FWB 120 series rifles over the years and not one of them has ever shot well for me. I mention that I'm a collector because I want to stress the point that I have numerous piston guns and only 3 or 4 of them produce unacceptable accuracy. I've tried a soft hold, a loose hold, a firm hold, and a tight hold. I've tried countless types of pellets and ruled out scope issues. The only thing that I can think of is that although none of my other rifles have a problem being shot off of a bag, perhaps these guns do. Some of you have seen my channel and you've seen what kind of accuracy that I can achieve while shooting off of a bag.
I just picked up a 127D and cleaned out the old wax like remnants of what used to be the original FWB seal. I ordered and installed new seals ( piston and breech seals) along with an ARH full power kit.
Sat down this evening for the second shooting session with it to try to get it zeroed and I can't get any sort of consistency out of the POI. That's 4, 120 series rifles that I've owned now that I can't extract any accuracy from. Is it time for me to toss in the towel and accept that me and the old FWB Sports will never see eye to eye?
 
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They are very overrated guns.

Unbalanced powerplants and light weight combined with a floppy barrel lockup and a mediocre trigger.....doesn't make for an easy gun to shoot well.

I've had a few myself and never got the amazing results that others claim to get. And I'm not a novice at the spring gun thing.
 
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You might not be a novice but you are very unlucky. I have had two for forty years now and I don't know what you are talking about, floppy barrel lockup or a bad trigger. Mine shoot very accurately and smoothly for springers. The only thing that I never liked about them was that they were not a cold bore shot gun. I have to shoot them them about 10-20 times quickly to get the system seasoned before shooting and then they are as accurate as anything. They are also extremely easy to cock. I think springers are, in general, super over rated compared to shooting pcp, but the 124 isn't over rated at all for a springer in my book.
 
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PumaCarl said:
You might not be a novice but you are very unlucky. I have had two for forty years now and I don't know what you are talking about, floppy barrel lockup or a bad trigger. Mine shoot very accurately and smoothly for springers. The only thing that I never liked about them was that they were not a cold bore shot gun. I have to shoot them them about 10-20 times quickly to get the system seasoned before shooting and then they are as accurate as anything. They are also extremely easy to cock. I think springers are, in general, super over rated compared to shooting pcp, but the 124 isn't over rated at all for a springer in my book.
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I agree. When my friend and I got our first 124s, we were shooting twigs off trees and cutting blades of grass in half offhand @ 30+ feet -- with Williams peep sights! It's still one of the most accurate springers I own, and it's got the best power vs. cocking effort of any of them.

Sorry to hear the OP is having problems with his, though. Every model of airguns has lemons. Seems like plain ol' bad luck to me.
 
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PumaCarl said:
You might not be a novice but you are very unlucky. I have had two for forty years now and I don't know what you are talking about, floppy barrel lockup or a bad trigger. Mine shoot very accurately and smoothly for springers. The only thing that I never liked about them was that they were not a cold bore shot gun. I have to shoot them them about 10-20 times quickly to get the system seasoned before shooting and then they are as accurate as anything. They are also extremely easy to cock. I think springers are, in general, super over rated compared to shooting pcp, but the 124 isn't over rated at all for a springer in my book.
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I have to ask, what other springers are you comparing it to?

It's a very cheaply made gun, with a very good barrel.

The barrel lockup is extremely weak, mostly due to the ball detent arrangement and longish barrel.

The breech shim setup is also not the best for strength with it having a spring washer on one side that you can never actually take the slop out of.

As far as the shot cycle goes they are harsh. The piston is large and diameter and very heavy relative to the weight of the rifle.

They were also plagued with compression tube diameter inconsistencies over the years. Some would be very tight, some oversized, and some with a taper towards the muzzle.

I do still have one that shoots well after some work. But I've counterbored the breech block to take solid bronze shims to help the lockup, and lightened the piston considerably to help reduce the hold sensitivity.

In stock form, they aren't the easiest guns to shoot consistently accurately by any means. The OP isn't alone in that.
 
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Thumper is a well-known FWB 124 critic, and a guy with a ton of experience. But the fact remains that untold FWB owners have very good experiences with theirs.

I don't think the FWB 124 is meant for shooting off a rest. They scream off hand capability. Not all guns shoot worth anything off a rest, but it doesn't mean the gun wasn't accurate.
 
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I also have had a HW that my brother still has and it shoots a little smoother and a little faster but is much harder to cock and is not as easy to take hunting for a couple of hours. Very nice for a springer too, it is the 58S one. The 124 shot excellent offhand and I didn't use any ridiculous techniques like the artillery hold either. I only shot it offhand and if target shooting the gun rested on my hand, gripping it, and the butt was on my shoulder. I smoked chipmunks at 50y with it, and pigeons off of a multistory old school. My lockup has never gotten loose but I did button a piston on one. Lastly, they are springers, I have shot the 300S too, and they are all violent compared to a PCP. The harshest that I have shot is probably a nitro piston Crosman, but even that shot dimed sized groups at 20y. I have seen a Gamo Whisper that could not shoot anything under 3" at 20y, except for one pellet that gave nickle sized groups. It is highly possible that people who are having accuracy problems just have not found the right pellet either. I fixed a Benjamin once making brass barrel shims to replace the factory plastic ones, but even that didn't feel loose. So yeah, I shot and worked on a number of springers too and I have come to the conclusion that they were great in their time but if you are going after smooth and accurate your path should lead elsewhere. All the springers feel and sound different, that's why people seem to still like them, you don't get that feedback from PCP, and you don't get people asking how to shoot their PCP accurately either. Regardless, the FWB124D was great in it's time, and is still a good springer, that never gave me a build or accuracy problem in 40 years. Maybe I am just lucky, or I got ones made early in their tooling cycle. They are definitely a pain to take apart, very long spring. To the OP, I would say to keep trying different pellets in different weights, and seating depth.
 
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When shooting mine, I found that I always needed to place my off hand on the bag, palm up, and rest the forearm in my palm. I used a very light cheek weld and light shoulder pressure and a trigger pinch with only the thumb and forefinger on the wrist and trigger for best results. Direct resting on the bag never worked for me. Then you may need to experiment with the position on the forearm to place in your off hand; closer to trigger guard or farther away.

GL,
Feinwerk
 
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Sorry to hear your troubles with the FWB127. I probably know the one you bought.

JM's breech o-ring is a bit oversize and the OD needs reduced slightly to fit in the groove so it doesn't sit too proud preventing a solid barrel lockup.

This can be achieved by sliding the o-ring onto a wooden dowel and chucking it up in a drill and spinning against a disc sander. I have my fair share of FWB's so made a special tool out of delrin just for this purpose. You can see the before and after pics of the barrel next to a straight line. Of course, use tissue paper to check for blowby when you think you've got it.

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Paul Watts touches on the subject in this video. It's a good watch for FWB 12X owners.
 
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Have not noticed the design issues with the FWB 124 stated here. First I would say chono to check consistency and power, clean barrel and tighten screws. As far as quality, not much difference I notice from my HW 35E (but not as robust and certainly not as pretty) and I would say closer to my RWS 350 which is not that bad in quality of materials, looks and construction. Did not the Beeman catalog rate them as the most accurate break barrel sporter beating out the R1, R7, H35, Wischo and others back in the early 80s before the newer models which are dominating the springer FT competitions came out? I bought mine specifically because of that accuracy rating when the R1 in 1983 first came out and have not been disappointed. Why were they rated so high in accuracy if the design had all these problems? Not sure how the FW 124 compared in stated accuracy were when the R 9, HW 98, HW 97 and HW 77 came out. Probably the FWB 124 fell from 1st place. I had my supertuned Beeman FW 124B for 41 years and now can shoot nearly 1 hole 3 shot groups at 25 yards at times and clusters the majority of time off a bench with the artillery hold with JSB 10.34. This was after a new spring and tune from Airgunwerks which seemed made the shooting cycle smoother and faster, helped with accuracy and added more power. Not sure what it shot with the Silver Jets before as I did not shoot groups back then. I will say the gun is very hold sensitive and takes excellent consistency of hold, trigger pull and follow thru plus a lot of practice. When I delay in shooting the gun, accuracy initially is not that good. However cocking is smooth and just a solid thump. Maybe the length and time of piston travel makes it harder to shoot than say a HW 50 or R9 similar to the RWS 350. If I was buying now, I would probably pick the HW 98 or possibly the R9, RWS 54 or HW97 over a FWB 124D mainly for the more power but still with very good accuracy. As good as all these guns shoot, doubt much difference in the accuracy of the gun and all on my shooting skills. I am biased on the FWB 124D anyway as I spent a good portion of my honeymoon money on it a few months before our marriage and ended up in credit card debt the 1st day of marriage. Was also the day of our first fight as a married couple. :(
 
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Bought the FWB 124 new over 40 years ago and as my only airgun it saw a lot of use. Routine maintenance (clean, lub, tighten hardware and the occasional breech seal) kept it shooting well. I eventually had to replace the piston seal and changed the spring at the same time. Still sees regular use, no problems.

Think people have trouble shooting the 124 because the long barrel and piston stroke requires a good follow through to stay on target.

I consider the 124 to be an off hand plinking/pesting rifle and it has always performed well for me. Never tried it for target shooting from a rest/bench don't think it's designed for that.

IMHO, The 124 is a pleasant shooting rifle with a low cocking force that excells as an "all day shooter". I have 25 or so airguns - springers, SSPs and PCPs. The 124 is the airgun I grab for relaxation, it's my favorite "walk about" airgun.

Just my 2 cents.

Cheers!
 
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In the 40+ years I've had my 124D, accuracy and ease of shooting the rifle well has never been an issue.
Over rated perhaps :cautious: But looking back to what other spring piston guns of the era offered .. a real GEM was the FWB 124 !!
Are there better choices for competitive shooting & easier accuracy in this realm of Spring Piston Arms ... sure there is ;)

Technique how shot is huge ... Shoulder pressure off the fore stock hand a must ! Keep trigger grip light and face light on the comb if at all.
 
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Sawney Bean said:
Maybe try a field target sitting position? I've found that just about every springer I've ever shot shoots accurately that way. I've never shot a FWB12x, but they seem to be very highly regarded and with their relatively low power hold sensitivity shouldn't be too bad.
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Thanks, at my age however, I can probably get into that position but I'd never get back out...:LOL:
 
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