Nowadays hunting ranges are being pushed by new technology. PCP’s, fancy pants scopes, mil dots and even ballistics apps on our phones!
This is all well and good, but sometimes shooting at rimfire ranges with a sub 12fpe air rifle just feels a bit wrong!
When I was a lad in the 80’s we spent long days out “hunting” with just a .22 break barrel springer and open sights. The power was way down out whats around now too, but we made up for that by learning feildcraft and being sneaky.
I remember clearly that 30 yards was the absolute maximum range, but the bags were no smaller for it.
My rose-tinted glasses have been dragged out of the drawer, and I’ve decided to put the fun back into my hunting forays.
A new gun arrived this morning! Its a Weihrauch HW30s. All the build quality, refinement and the superb Rekord trigger you get in the bigger guns, but scaled down to a diminutive frame and tipping the scales at about 5 1/4lb. The model I chose has fibre optic sights to maximise their potential for my intended use.
As I’d bought the rifle from Germany, it is limited to 5.5ft/lb of,energy to comply with their laws. Over the chrono I averaged 463fps with Hobbys and 410fps with FTT, which coincidentally is smack on the button in both.
I thought I’d try a spot of plinking this afternoon, using small clumps of grass in a waterlogged field as fun reactive targets. The wind was blowing, there was rain, sleet and hail coming horizontally into my right earhole. Despite this, i stayed out for over an hour and used all the pellets I’d brought with me! Great fun! Awesome little rifle that just keeps you firing away with no fatigue whatsoever.
Still, 5.5ft/lb. tomorrow the work will begin………