New Found Power

[JackReid 35]

Hello all,

 

Everythings come together over the last few days which is good.

 

Friday afternoon I was thinking over my scope which had the parrallax ring come loose (with distances not the main one).

 

Hawke told me that they take it to 100 meters, highest magnification, find best picture then attach, send in if I wanted, or do it myself.

Tony at Sandwell when I had mentioned it to him when dropping my gun off on tuesday said you could do it at 30 meters in the same way but dont take a stupid ammount of notice to it as it comes into play alot more when using ranges associated with full bore rifles.

 

I went out for a shoot on thursday and friday with my scope attached to Hugo's HW97KT. Thurday I did a quick writeup for when I took a new shooter out. One thing I didnt mention was about my scope. I decided when lying prone looking onto a run at around 30 meters to ignore the distance markings o nthe scope and to turn it about until I got something spot/on or simply just as an experiment. I turned it to where once the markings would have indicated 50-75 meter plus and all of sudden it was like a new scope. It was good before but beyond 7xmag it was a bit , but I never shopt beyond that mag anyway so shrugged it off as the rest of the scope was awesome. However now I could see right into the distance perfectly and use upto 12xmag clearly at short distances. Not something I use but at least the scope was unctioning liek it should! It literally was likea new scope. I noticed the little screw that holds it all together on the front end was visible o nyhe top of the scope for the first time so it definatley never was liek this.

 

- My theory was the factory had glued it down incorrectly, and that the parralax ring was set to a very low distance with the reading inccorrectly saying it was fine.

 

I phoned Tony at Sandwell to mention I thought this and what he reccomend I do/if he had heard it before. I did say I felt cheeky as I hadnt got the scope from him, not knowing about his shop until recently. This didnt phase him though, he knows that giving good service in turn gives good custom. Lots of my local gunsmiths would get shitty about it, as they are grumpy .

 

To my massive suprise he said 'Oh hello mate, funny you should call I am working on your 95 at the moment. Its going to be done by tomorrow!'

Obviously a week and a half early is beyond what you would expect usually so I was over the moon.

Went out that night with Hugo with his gun and his brothers gun and had us a couple of bunnys, SOme good shots made but forgot camera!

 

Saturday morning I phoned Sandwell at 9.30 and he said he was just finishing it off and I could collect within the hour, so i called Hugo who needed a new scope and we drove the 1 hr 20 min journey and got to sandwell. Hit the buzzer on the very plain looking unit (on the outside) they're shop is in (in a complex of lots of other shops) and walked in to air gunners paradise!. Its a really spot on shop, everything you need from camo and jackets to deeks or fishinging setups.

 

Anyway I'm babbling on now. Got the gun back from Tony and had a chat, they have pork pies, sausage rolls, homemade scones on the counters to help yourself to - you even get offered a cup of tea/coffee!! Had a chat with some other blokes in there about air gun stuff and they were really sound aswell. Hugo went through a whole load of scopes while Tony took mine out the back of the shop to a place he was lazer ranged at 35 meters and got the parallax to what it should be and got it stuck down. What I thought was correct however - the little screw that was once underneath was now on top. The factory had glued it down in the wrong place or something? Its a blessing it fell off as I've got a proper functioning scope now!.

 

For 60 quid Tony had gutted the gun, homemade custom spring he said you can leave cocked for a year and it will be fine, seals and all the rest, re-greased, trigger tuned, replaced/repaired and re-sprayed all chewed up screws from over the years etc. Hugo made the most of the good service and finally settled on a Hawke Eclipse 3-9x50 mildot, got some nice camo gloves, a huge set of SMK targets (Tony said they were the best as they were hard card and made perfect little holes and didnt rip!). he couldnt have been any more right I will never buy any other type of target they are perfect and make everything so much more detailed. he got some mounts aswell and loaded up on pellets. They got the scope on perfectly for him there and then getting him to check it out to make sure was good for his eye etc.

 

Time to pay and Hugo said 'Sorry for asking but do you do military discount? Dont worry if not' because some places round us do. Tony said 'Who are you with?' 'Royal Marines' he replied - 'I'd better give you some discount then!' he said. Chucked i nthe gloves or the targets or something, cant remember but was a fair token. All at a cheap price anyway!

 

We drove back very happy customers and went to go zero our guns even though it was stupidly hot.

Hugo got his gun deadly accurate at 25 meters then I had a go.

Cocked the gun and .. 'oh holy ' Just the way it pulled down felt so so solid and locked into place almost silently and just so firm.

Loaded a AA Field and pointe dinto the ground (no scope on yet) fired the shot and in a instant yet ridiculously quiet thud. It fires so so smooth and so quietly. The noise that it does make is the kind that doesnt spread over a landscape like a sharp 'blap' with some lesser quality pcp's. Its just so gentle and quiet.

 

Almost as importantly is that when you cock the gun and bring the barrel back up into place it locks into place once again, so so quietly. Providing I'm not obvious to the eye I will be able to fire into a group of bunnys and reload without detection for follow up shots galore now. Its right up at full power consistent as is possible for an air gun really and deadly accurate.

 

Starting to zero I said to hugo go and get a rabbit while I zero and he came back with a pigeon. Had limited view of it so made the shot crosssection the spine and it dropped out the tree with no life in it.

 

 

Its hard to describe how good it all is in words. I knew it would be good but didnt think it could be done this well. Once again it pays sometimes to go through with these things. I like others had seen Zini plugging Sandwell as being awesome for tuning etc and the week before my gun being unable to cock I ahd been thinking about getting the gun tuned and making it that extra bit special. Little did I know I would have a broken gun and would have to make the choice of a local repair or to just do it and get it sent off (ended up driving as I'm not stupidly far). I must ephasise that what Tony did to my gun was not a 'repair'. Its literally a new gun in the Weihrauch housing - a sandwell/weihrauch hybrid if you will!

 

Once I have totally tamed the firing cycle I will get some group shots up on here. I dont claim to be the best shot out there, neither the longest range shooter but if you saw my other grouping on that previous thread (admitably it was the best I did that afternoon not the standard) and how right that was then expect to see a post fairly soon with seriously tight pellet groupings. I did one yesterday while zeroing that had a few flyers spoil it that had about 6 pellets in the bullseye all touching with at least half their mass.

 

[JackReid 35]

Anyway I will end it there as I have ranted for ages. We went out last night but wasnt as much about as we thought for some reaon, 2 rabbits each and hugo got a crow we couldnt get out the tree. We spent about 20 minutes throwing rocks to knock it but it was truely hooked i nthe tree!! Soar arm today!!

 

 

Hugo had his 'head and shoulders' camo he made at camp. Picture is few seconds after he dropped a bunny at about 35 meters.

 

 

End of night, 4 smallies and a very dead crow in a tree.

 

Cheers Sandwell and cheers Zini for raising their name. I think Hugo and his bro will both be tuning there soon.

 

Jack

Edited June 6, 2010 by JackReid

[venomviper 129]

hi ya jack

you could have pop in to see me buddy i am only about 30 minutes away from tony's buddy and you could have tried her out on the golf course you would have been more than welcome to come over for a bit before going home matey

 

shay

[JackReid 35]

Just got your PM mate. I'm not far away from you at all even when at home mate so no loss will catch up at somepoint.

 

Jack

[zini 1,939]

Thats fantastic news mate, Im really pleased for you buddy.

 

Thats what we are on this forum for Jack to pass on our experiences to other hunters and pass onto other people what and where is the best places to go to get your rifles tuned, customised etc.

 

Just goes to show that there are more than just the Mr Bowketts, Popes and the other top class rifle technicians in the country that are just as good at what they do for a living.

 

I will always use Tony Wall as his work is tried and tested and just needs to be seen to be believed.

 

Ill be seeing him soon anyway to pick up my new tuned HW97KT and take my HW95 to get tuned.

 

Si

Edited June 6, 2010 by zini

[stroller 341]

You know your stuff lads i honestly have a lot to learn about air gunning, its funny but when i had shotguns for years i used to look down on this sport as just kids playing around. have i had my eyes opened.

 

great write up

 

Regards

Keith

[Marksman 934]

Great write up and pics mate!

 

Good to see youre happy with the rifle mate and it's giving good results!

 

Darryl

[gringo40 13]

Hi Jack

 

 

Great write up and pics.

 

Sounds like you got your rifle well sorted mate.

 

I reckon Zini knows every decent gunsmith in the country. We've got a great bloke near us, AM Custom Gunsmiths, I think he's doing work for him soon.

 

 

Cheers Carl

[aaronpigeonplucker 32]

nice shooting! sounds like your really enjoying your 'new' gun.

[stealthy1 3,964]

Well chuffed for you Jack, gun tuned and two rabbits, cant be bad, have a slut piont

[Phantom 631]

Are you after my Pullitzer Prize

 

Sounds like the very best kind of advertising there

 

I'll keep the name for the future sounds like a rare Gunsmith

 

SPA from me too

 

Phantom

[davyt63 1,845]

hi jack

im pleased your pleased

nice write up buddy and 2 to boot, well done buddy

 

regards

 

davy

[venomviper 129]

Just got your PM mate. I'm not far away from you at all even when at home mate so no loss will catch up at somepoint.

 

Jack

hi ya jack

i will pm you my number buddy and we can meet up and go for a shoot somewhere different for you matey

 

shay

[andyfr1968 772]

Nice one jack!

 

Now you can see that £75 spent with a craftsman's far better spent than £75 with your local rip-off merchant....

 

Enjoy it, fella. It'll serve you well.

 

Cheers.