New/old Venom

[darkdd81 36]

Hey all

 

Like a lot of airgunners that were around in the -90's, I've always coveted any rifle that had a hint of Venom arms about it. Specifically the HW77 variants.

Well after getting away from precharged rifles as my main hunting rifles and going back to springer's I've started using my old TX200Hc in .22. This bought back all the fun to my hunting again and I was firmly bitten by the spring gun bugg. Fast forward a year or so and I pick up a HW95 as a project.

 

Several hundred pounds later and my rough old HW95 long barrel was re-blued, re-stocked, Venom silenced and I thing of general beauty. Only problem was i couldn't shoot it particularly well. Certainly not as well as my trusty TX.

 

So the painful decision was made to sell the 95 and look for something a little easier to shoot. Then I see a Venom 77 for sale.

 

This particular old girl is a HW77 Tyrolean in .22 with a full Lazaglide action, Venom silencer/catch, Venom set back trigger, Venom safety catch and Tyrolean walnut stock in a 1984 vintage. Now the rifle was a sold as a bit of a project. Apparently the previous owner bought it as a trade in and discovered it was running a little hot at 14ftlbs. He said he lopped off a couple of coils and it was now doing around 11.1ftlbs with RS Superdomes. With a drive up to Birmingham and the purchase duly made, I was happy at finally getting a Venom 77, but a little unsure if I had made the right purchase as although it clearly needs a lot of work to bring it back to its former glory, it wasn't exactly cheap and for the price, I could of had any number of brand new spring guns.

 

Being nearly 30 years old, the bluing is a bit warn, the stock has a few dents and scrapes, and in general it could really do with a tidy up.

 

So with a lot of trepidation, I took the rifle along with me to work (I'm a warehouse manager) knowing that after work I would be able to use a corner to test the rifle and make sure that it would shoot straight. This would then determine whether I would deem the rifle a keeper and worthy of my time and money, or was it a nail that I just wasted a load on money on.

 

So, end of the day comes and I mount my trusty old Simmons White tail 6.5-20 x 50 scope in its one piece mount. This is when I discover that a Tyrolean stock like this and scopes do not go so well together and I really struggle to get a decent view through the scope without parallax error, not only this but as the scope is so long, it completely block's the loading port. So I loosen of the mounts and slide it back in the action as little as I can so I'm able to load the rifle. This does not feel comfortable now and my confidence for the range test to come is pretty low. After the barrel is given a few pull throughs to clear out the decade old grime I'm ready to go.

 

So I set up a targets at a pased' out 25 yards (which turns out is a lased 26 yards). I set up a bench out of a stack of pallets and shoot of the ad hock bench with a loose grip rested on my rolled up jacket. With to many Si Pittaway you tube videos in my head, I start to get tense about not getting the best out of this once great rifle. It also been a few months since I shot a rifle of any kind.

 

I fire a few shots to let the gun warm up and also my self until the old girl has a rough zero finding out it prefers H/N Field and Target Trophy a little more than AA Fields, then its time to put some groups together to see if this thing will shoot in a straight line, or have I bought myself a pup.

 

Luckily and to my relief, the 25y groups are pretty encouraging and certainly the equal of the TX, but better than I could achieve with the 95. I find the set back trigger is very light and may need adjusting in the future. I'm putting in 5 shots under a 5 pence piece so I'm happy. Now, I must confess I'm a long way off the shooting level of the Si Pittaways/Davy Thomas's/Pianomans of this world, but I thought I would try it out a bit further. I pased out 50 yards (turns out to be 46/47 yards lased).

 

I get comfortable, and fire of three shoots. I see what looks like one pellet hole, and I cant work out were the other two shots had gone as it was getting dark in the warehouse and I was using my torch on my phone to light up the target. To my amazement, all three pellets had gone through the same hole, In fact, lifting the target card, two of the pellets were perfectly stacked. To say I was amazed, would be an under statement. I've heard of PCP's making up for a lack of shooing skill, but never an old springer. After I shot this group, I needed to pack up and get home, but just as I had the car loaded, I heard the clattering of a couple of ferals trying to make home in the old girders of the roof in the warehouse. Within seconds these were both humanely dropped

with head shots at around 25 yards a piece.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Its fair to say that this Venom 77 will be a keeper, maybe with a different stock in the future. But for the minute its staying put.

 

I've got a full days hunting planned with it on Monday, so I'll see if can bring home the bacon in the field.

 

Happy shooting all.

Edited April 3, 2015 by darkdd81

[villaman 9,982]

Looks like you have very good gun , that has to be a keeper

[mark williams 7,563]

One handsome rifle there Darkdd.

 

Good hunting Monday

[Rez 4,961]

[random 659]

That is a good advert for the hw,and springers,impressive even though its knocking on!!

[Rimfireboy! 1,463]

Nice rifle dark, I had a bsf 55 venom with the same stock. I wish I still had it now. I've since read that they only did about twenty of them, knowing that just makes me feel worse for selling it.....