N/A What is considered the “best”

[Avator]

When I consider springers one of the first things I look at is the weight of the gun and factor in the weight of the scope I intend to use. then I consider replacement parts.. they ain't like PCP, C02 and pumpers where most repairs are just orings that can be sourced from a number of places. After that it's just a matter of personal preference.. some like blonds and others prefer brunettes... fact is, either one can keep you warm at night.

 

[bustachip]

I have a 20 cal Hw98, 20 cal R9, 22 Hw95 and a 177 Hw95. The my 98 and its a fair bit heavier than the others and not enough more accurate to make me want to carry it. Truth be told, the only Weihrauch I carry anywhere is my 177 Hw50. It's truly a great handling rifle with just enough power for my skills. It just points and shoots beautifully.

I'll get a 50 some day.

 

[maxtrouble]

Only one springer? That is like saying I will only eat one chip out of the bag! I vote for the HW95 in .177. Depending on your eyes, the iron sights are impressive. I think there are 64! Combinations of the front and rear sights right out of the box.

A small Hawke scope will make the rifle if you have the need of optics. They are springer rated and have a life time warranty. I had to use the warranty once and it was trouble free and very fast replacement. The 3-12X40 one inch tube and the BKL 260 scope mount is great combination and fits the rifle perfectly.

Krale had a smoking hot deal on the HW50S during Christmas. I picked up two .177's for $250 a piece and $50 shipping to my door. I think they weigh right around a bag of chips. Very light, very pointable, very accurate. Right out of the box after a good barrel cleaning I was hitting cans at 55 yards. I decided to leave the rifle unscoped for now. Such a nice rifle...

The venerable HW30S is another excellent model. Very easy to shoot, very easy to cock and they all have the Rekord trigger so plan on enjoying every shot. The Rekord trigger was made back in the 50's and Weihrauch dropped the mic and walked off the stage. Still the standard for triggers and always will be.

Really the only answer is to buy one and try it, you will like it. If for some reason you do not like it, they always sell in the classifieds!

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[c_m_shooter]

If money was no option (within reason - meaning not $10k) what are the best high end springer/nitro piston air guns? I’m not looking for an Olympic gun but rather a traditional or semi traditional rifle that would be good for a mix of target and hunting.

I purchased my first pcp which is a Ghost HP but I also want to have a really nice piston gun.

With these things in mind, what do you recommend?

HW97 or TX200. Functionally, basically equivalent. The TX is prettier, but you pay extra for that.

 

[Mycapt65]

I'll get a 50 some day.

Yes you will

 

[Sawney Bean]

HW95, ($550). Get a stock from Custom Stocks UK, ($400), and get it tuned by someone good and you’ll be shooting one of the best springers money can buy.

 

[bustachip]

HW95, ($550). Get a stock from Custom Stocks UK, ($400), and get it tuned by someone good and you’ll be shooting one of the best springers money can buy.

That's why I got the 98, I like the stock.

 

[Lineman Bob]

I am looking for my first Air Gun. I am lusting for the Air Arms Pro Sport right now. Really cannot decide on .177 or .22. I do not intend to hunt but perhaps my heirs will want to hunt. I am 80 yrs old and pretty good upper body strength but my legs are shot. Just how hard is it to cock the springer?

After I decide on a caliber I have to start my search for a scope. I will be target shooting and plinking out to 50 yards. I would hope to keep a $300.00 budget for scope and rings.

Love your ideas

 

[EMrider]

I am looking for my first Air Gun. I am lusting for the Air Arms Pro Sport right now. Really cannot decide on .177 or .22. I do not intend to hunt but perhaps my heirs will want to hunt. I am 80 yrs old and pretty good upper body strength but my legs are shot. Just how hard is it to cock the springer?

After I decide on a caliber I have to start my search for a scope. I will be target shooting and plinking out to 50 yards. I would hope to keep a $300.00 budget for scope and rings.

Love your ideas

The pro sport is a great gun, but it is one of more awkward guns to cock because of design of the cocking lever. Not necessarily hard, but the range of movement is more than most other guns I've owned or used. If setup at 12fpe, I find the pro sport to be pretty easy to cock. Effort is subjective, but I'd say moderate at 14fpe or higher. I prefer .177 for both target shooting and hunting due to the flatter trajectory. It is my most accurate spring gun too.
R

 

[Sawney Bean]

I am looking for my first Air Gun. I am lusting for the Air Arms Pro Sport right now. Really cannot decide on .177 or .22. I do not intend to hunt but perhaps my heirs will want to hunt. I am 80 yrs old and pretty good upper body strength but my legs are shot. Just how hard is it to cock the springer?

After I decide on a caliber I have to start my search for a scope. I will be target shooting and plinking out to 50 yards. I would hope to keep a $300.00 budget for scope and rings.

Love your ideas

The Pro Sport is a gorgeous rifle and very accurate. I would recommend getting it in 12 fpe. I originally got my TX200, (same power plant as the Pro Sport), in the 17 fpe version and found it was too hold sensitive until I got a 12 fpe kit for it. I love the current accuracy and don’t much miss those extra 5 foot pounds.

The things to be aware of with the Prosport are that it’s a heavy rifle and that loading it is somewhat fiddly. The stock it comes with though is beautiful, the bluing is superb and the trigger is excellent.

The HW rifles have good bluing, but not as good as an Air Arms. Their Rekord triggers are also top notch. The wood on them is not as good as on an Air Arms, but there are aftermarket stocks available that are excellent.

Some people think the HW’s are more accurate and some people think the Air Arms are. The HW97/77 and the Air Arms TX200 have absolutely dominated field target shooting for decades now though and it’s beyond question that they are both extremely accurate rifles.

I personally recommend the HW95 because Air Arms no longer makes a break barrel and I prefer a rifle that’s lighter and easier to load. I’ve already got one though and a Prosport in .22 is on my wish list though too.

 

[maxtrouble]

I am looking for my first Air Gun. I am lusting for the Air Arms Pro Sport right now. Really cannot decide on .177 or .22. I do not intend to hunt but perhaps my heirs will want to hunt. I am 80 yrs old and pretty good upper body strength but my legs are shot. Just how hard is it to cock the springer?

After I decide on a caliber I have to start my search for a scope. I will be target shooting and plinking out to 50 yards. I would hope to keep a $300.00 budget for scope and rings.

Love your ideas

I have a lot of springers, mainly Weihrauchs. I have had my Pro Sport and TX200 for a couple of years. The Pro Sport is my least favorite rifle because of the cocking lever. I even detuned it down to 11 foot pounds and it still sucks. I thought it would be way more ergonomic but it is not. Any break barrel or under lever rifle is preferred over my Pro Sport.

I would recommend a TX200 .22, HW97K .22 or the HW77 .22 for under levers or the HW95 break barrel in .22. Twenty-two caliber pellets are easy to manipulate and load. All of these candidates are easy to cock, load and shoot. I can shoot a combination of these springers for four or five hours and have a hoot while doing it.

A good Hawke scope will be a 2-7x32, 3-9x32 or 4-12x40 and a BKL 260 scope mount are a perfect combination.

I would start going down the rabbit hole with the HW95 .22. The perfect springer.

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YMMV

 

[c_m_shooter]

I am looking for my first Air Gun. I am lusting for the Air Arms Pro Sport right now. Really cannot decide on .177 or .22. I do not intend to hunt but perhaps my heirs will want to hunt. I am 80 yrs old and pretty good upper body strength but my legs are shot. Just how hard is it to cock the springer?

After I decide on a caliber I have to start my search for a scope. I will be target shooting and plinking out to 50 yards. I would hope to keep a $300.00 budget for scope and rings.

Love your ideas

The pro sport is not as easy to cock as the other underlevers. You have physics working against you a bit. The TX200 may be better in that regard. .177 shoots a bit flatter given equal energy, but wind quickly becomes an issue past 40 yards. .22 pellets can be easier to handle for loading. You do load these types of rifles basically blind when the butt is on your thigh and an arm is safely containing the cocking lever.

UTG 30mm side focus scopes are proven performers in the price range with a good warranty. A 4-16x in a one piece UTG mount will work well. Those grooves in Air Arms recievers are fairly low profile. Degrease them with some alcohol or brake cleaner on a Q tip before mounting the base and loctite the scope stop pin.

 

[Sawney Bean]

.177 shoots a bit flatter and costs a bit less, but is more susceptible to wind. In an underlever the .22 will also be a bit easier to load. In a break barrel they're both easy. That sounds like a trivial detail, but I don't find it to be one. Constantly fiddling with a pellet to load it or dropping in the loading area can be a real drag. If you are primarily shooting at 30 yards or less then I'd go for the .22 as you won't notice the difference in trajectory at that range. Past 30 yards the flatter trajectory of the .177 will give it an edge, provided you don't have much wind. So if you're shooting to 50 yards and beyond and you live somewhere where there's not a lot of wind, then .177 is probably the best choice.

 

[Bedrock Bob]

I like the HW97k. It's a heavy rascal but it shoots tiny groups. Off a rest it would be hard to beat.

The HW95 is one helluva pellet rifle. It's a lot lighter and probably just as accurate as the HW97k. It may be a bit more difficult to shoot tiny targets with. Maybe.

I consider these rifles to be "high end". They are certainly fine rifles and will last a lifetime. If you shoot them often you will need to learn to repair them or get them repaired. My experience with them has not been trouble free.

.........

It's not a high end rifle but there is another rifle worthy of mention...

I have a couple gas ram Cometa 400 and they are no joke. About 1/2 the price of the HW95 and they will shoot faster and almost as accurately. It has a good finish, and a decent trigger. Nothing fancy but they will really shoot. Mine have synthetic stocks and are light and handle much better than either of my HWs (IMHO).

I have one with about 26,000 shots on it in the past 6 months and I am really impressed with it. I loved it so much I bought another one. I'd rather shoot it than any pellet rifle I own.

 

[SakoSierra]

Unfortunately I see a lot of value in most of the options mentioned. It kind of sounds like I’m going to need 3 of these to really touch all the bases I think for the first though I may go with a tx200 or HW97, then maybe a 90 and then a 30/50. I don’t see as much need for a light carry rifle because I have a couple of 22lr that I can use to the same effect.

Scope wise…..if I get a Leupold or meopta will they hold up to the weird springer recoil? I’m thinking a 2-10 would fit the bill nicely for one of these

 

[EMrider]

Unfortunately I see a lot of value in most of the options mentioned. It kind of sounds like I’m going to need 3 of these to really touch all the bases I think for the first though I may go with a tx200 or HW97, then maybe a 90 and then a 30/50. I don’t see as much need for a light carry rifle because I have a couple of 22lr that I can use to the same effect.

Scope wise…..if I get a Leupold or meopta will they hold up to the weird springer recoil? I’m thinking a 2-10 would fit the bill nicely for one of these

If I'm going for max accuracy and target shooting off a rest, then I will grab my hw97k or my pro sport, both in .177. Both can outshoot me by a wide margin, but they are porky. For hunting, I always grab my hw50s in .177. It is the ideal combination of weight, power and accuracy for small game hunting IMHO.
R

 

[bustachip]

Well the prosport is porkier than the HW97K, it is the widest stock of my rifles. But it is in it's own class.

 

[c_m_shooter]

Unfortunately I see a lot of value in most of the options mentioned. It kind of sounds like I’m going to need 3 of these to really touch all the bases I think for the first though I may go with a tx200 or HW97, then maybe a 90 and then a 30/50. I don’t see as much need for a light carry rifle because I have a couple of 22lr that I can use to the same effect.

Scope wise…..if I get a Leupold or meopta will they hold up to the weird springer recoil? I’m thinking a 2-10 would fit the bill nicely for one of these

The only Leupold currently with 10 yard parallax is the 3-9x33 EFR. I have one of the older 6.5-20 EFR and it is my favorite scope. I should have bought 6 of them before they quit making it. The other leupolds will hold up to the recoil, but not work well inside of 25 yards. I still like adjusable objective scopes, but side focus is popular with airguns for good reason. Never heard of Meopta, I kind of stopped searching once I found a few that work well.

 

[DesertSilver]

One that no one mentioned is the Diana 54. It's heavy like some HW that have been mentioned but if you're not hunting it doesn't matter. It is the closest to shooting a PCP as to not being nearly as hold sensitive as other springers. If you get one make sure you get it in .22.

 

[Bedrock Bob]

At air rifle ranges scopes get complicated. They are hard to keep from shifting and take a lot of shock. The trajectory is big over a relatively short distance. Parallax error comes into play. Focus is an issue.

Get a scope that focuses at close range and a reticle with graduations low on the vertical crosshair. An adjustable objective or side adjustment is dandy.

I have a leupold 3x9x40 rimfire scope and a 3x9x44 AO. They are great scopes but not my favorite. There are many brands that offer scopes much more suited to an air rifle that will cost less money. Hawke, Sightron, Vortex and others all have good scopes that will work great on a pellet rifle.

If you shoot a lot a springer will break whatever scope you put on it. So a lifetime warranty is great.

A mounting system that allows proper alignment and will hold the scope is a big deal. Scopes on springers (IMHO) are a huge pain and you can spend a lot of time and money figuring it out. Lots of rails and mounts will work. Very few are ideal.

I only have a scope on one air rifle (HW97k) these days. The rest I shoot with open sights. While a scope may offer a bit more precision the trouble is not worth it (for me) at airgun distance.