I has not semi-auto...

[Ragnarok]

Glad to hear you are enjoying her. (Though it is not exactly a surprise or anything.) Of course, I can hit an ear hair from a pocket fox at 300m with open sights.... but don't worry, you will get there.

Cheeky...

Trying to get used to everything - springers have funny recoil. They kick before they fire, rather than what happens with a powder-burner, where they kick during and after the shot.

I found my groups opening up quite a bit at the end of the day - hefting 10 pounds worth of springer around gets quite tiring on the arms.

Other signs of volume of my firing include my first pellet tin looking depressingly empty - maybe 20-25% left, and the huge crater the pellets have cut half way into the 1.5" thick backstop I've been using.

Still... great fun. I'm just going to need to find a cheaper supplier of lead.
Oooh, there's a website that does 10% off if you buy more than 10 tins - that might do.

"You should just convert those VHS tapes to DVD, or store them on your HDD." and "Get a VCR/DVD combo, they are cheaper than plain VCRs these days."

I wonder how that translates back...
"You should just convert those airguns to powder burners, or use a crossbow."
"Get a Airgun/firearm combo, they are cheaper than plain airguns these days."

Hmm, I think the metaphor breaks down at this point.

[Brian the brain]

**cough** hacksaw**ahum**

Get some ether and watch that baby diesel!!

1 drop behind the pellet makes it penetrate twice the depth.
Works even on CO2 powered rifles..

Okay it's nice as it is.
Shame on you for not owning one before!

[Ragnarok]

watch that baby diesel!!

It did once after I'd cleaned out the barrel with the oil I've got for that purpose.
One ruddy big bang, a huge cloud of smoke, and the pellet hitting rather higher than I was expecting it to.

It's not good for it, so I'm going to have to be more careful about cleaning out the remnants of oil after I'm done cleaning it.

...Was still damn cool though.

[Ragnarok]

Well, despite having not been able to use this for a couple of days, I finally got all of it's first 500 pellet tin fired through it with a little plinking late last evening. That's over a half pound of lead - and it's all hidden deep within my back stop... what fun.

So, given the number of pellets fired, in keeping with Air-Arms' own advice, I've cleaned out the barrel again... seems it needed it, looking at the pull through patches.

I'm getting better at my shooting, but it seems the cheap scope I bought for HEAL isn't quite up to the standards of the TX (for one thing, the scope parallaxed to ~35 yards, and I'm not shooting at those ranges - the garden is too short... ), so I'm looking at something a bit fancier to replace it... probably a JS Ramsbottom 3-9X40 adjustable parallax scope with the illuminated Mildot reticule, as the price seems very decent for the spec compared to anything else I can find.
It is an inch longer than my current scope, but that's not a big deal, as it's also about 100 grams lighter to compensate for that.

[Ragnarok]

Got a little bored this morning, so I did some testing, a la "Box o' truth".

Took some bags full of water, set them up in a row, fired a pellet at them.
...And was quite surprised by the results. Pellet went through all 12" of the water, and because the last bag was rested against the back stop, it poked a hole through the bag, but was going slowly enough to bounce of the backstop, and was retained in the bag, almost undamaged:

Fired pellet on the right, new one on the left.

I half expected the pellet to deform more, but it seems it holds it's shape pretty well. I doubt I'll ever need to know the information, but it's interesting just how deep the .177" pellet goes anyway.

[Ragnarok]

As promised, pictures of my shooting - a sub 1/2" centre to centre 10-shot group from a 10 metre kneeling position I did last evening, and my best so far:

(16.6 mm - 4.5mm pellet = 12.1 mm CTC)
The picture's twisted 45 degrees counter-clockwise from the way it was shot, so the crease across the top left corner was horizontal.

Far from the best in the world, but I've only had the rifle two weeks this afternoon, and I was fighting low-light conditions - so I'm happy with it.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Very nice I always preferred shooting a TX to the HW97, it has a shorter piston stroke and more efficient design, so it can do more with less.

Is the chequering laser cut on the stock? Looks like one of the later manufactured models.

I half expected the pellet to deform more, but it seems it holds it's shape pretty well.

You're going to have to throw it a little faster that 850 or so feet per second for that

Get some ether and watch that baby diesel!!

Heresy! Maybe on a Chinese or Spanish el cheapo rifle, but not with an Air Arms!

[sniper hero]

I don't have a bought rifle at all
only my homemade guns
I don't care a lot about it

nice gun you have there

[Ragnarok]

I spent a long time contemplating between the Air Arms and Weihrauch equivalents, poring over reviews of each. Eventually, the Air Arms won out on a few points. It tended to get slightly better reviews, it was slightly shorter and lighter, and amongst a couple of other things - it seemed the guys on the AirgunBBS forum (nutters, the lot of them... ) talked more passionately about the TX than the HW97.
And, the local dealer said that if he did have to make a choice between the two, it would be the Air Arms.

Having heard everything, I think the choice is the right one.

You're going to have to throw it a little faster that 850 or so feet per second for that

Ha - on 12 ft-lbs, I'm lucky to get more than a few fps over 800, even with pellets towards the lighter end of the spectrum. It's also yet to bed in fully, so it's probably still under 800 fps on the 7.9 grain pellets I'm using.
(Doesn't sound a lot if I think that HEAL fires marbles 13 times heavier 100 fps faster - although not as accurately)

I'm planning to pick up a Combro for it so I know exactly what it is doing, as it doesn't seem to want to work on my homemade chrono very well. Seems the pellets are too small and fast... picky sod.

And yes, it is one of the models with the new(er) laser cut chequering:
Front chequering
Rear chequering
Very fancy... For the cheaper beech stocked option, it's not half bad.

I've been thinking about ringing Air Arms and asking them about the date of manufacture, mostly just out of interest.

Heresy! Maybe on a Chinese or Spanish el cheapo rifle, but not with an Air Arms!

Indeed... it's far too nice for that. I've started being much more careful when I clean the barrel, carefully mopping up any and all traces of the cleaning oil after I'm done before I fire it again to avoid any dieseling accidents.

There's no excuse to damage such a nice piece of engineering.

@Sniper hero: Until this, I was the same - nothing but my home-made launchers.
It's clear that wasn't the right choice - my launchers are great, but it's nice to have something that's got good accuracy, and is a lot less work to prepare for use... cocking and loading this is a lot less work than pumping any of my launchers up to a decent working pressure.

Of course, I still use my launchers if I want to really trash something, but for target shooting, it's the TX.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

It seemed the guys on the AirgunBBS forum (nutters, the lot of them... ) talked more passionately about the TX than the HW97

Indeed, I don't post there anymore but I remember TX200 vs HW97 threads were almost as common as the age old 0.177 vs 0.22 debate

[MaxuS the 2nd]

HW95K is the only way forward!

Seriously, best gun I've ever owned. I did not put washers on the springs to bounce the power up to 15ft/lbs.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

I did not put washers on the springs to bounce the power up to 15ft/lbs.

*gasp*

Technically you could get put away for 5 years just for posession of an air rifle over 12 ft/lbs without an FAC, it's a good thing you did not put washers on the spring

[Ragnarok]

Indeed, I don't post there anymore

So I saw. I spotted several threads about a certain someone's FX Monsoon though...

the age old 0.177 vs 0.22 debate

Well, it depends on what you want it for, dunnit?
Or, if you're really unable to decide, go with 0.20... (Nah, just kidding, the pellet selection is terrible. )

The larger integral silencer of the HW97K represented a lot of extra nose weight, not great - and it's for shooting paper targets, which have never once been recorded to run away when startled by the report of the TX200.

@Maxus: I've never been a big fan of break barrel springers when I've used them - they always remind me of fairground rifles. They may not be as heavy, but I don't really like the idea of levering down on the barrel.

Talking of pre-load washers, my TX seems to come with a disproportionate number of them. A rather considerable 5 in total appeared when I stripped it down the other day (polishing some internals for better results).