HW57, .177

[philpot 5,088]

Right as I have been fancying a springer for garden use and the range when it opens again and possibly getting rid of bloody magpies that kill off all the young song birds, I managed to get hold of an HW57 in .177 flavour.  Now as I have banged on before about one that I tried and loved but didn't buy it and have regretted it ever since sooooo as we are all at home passing the time, I really wanted the challenge of the springer instead of wasting pellets going through the same hole over and over with the .25 Impact so I have been on the lookout for another 57.  Yesterday I was chatting with my dealer pal who still had a couple of 57 rifles returned from an outdoor adventure centre which were sent back to Hull Cartridge for a service and now back to the dealer.

I have already asked a certain kind gentleman on here to tune it for me when the roads are open for me to drive up to North Yorkshire. The stocks on these guns are not perfect in any way but as the stocks on the 57s are normally pretty crap / boring, I want to strip it (or someone strip it ), green stain and oil finish. I remember seeing a stock that Nath had worked on with a green finish and thought it looked far far better than the original boring stock and I have wanted a green stock ever since so here is my chance.

As a matter of interest, I have never had a Weihrauch springer before and as most of you know, I am not a springer man so no idea on pellet selection, adding to that, I have not owned a .177 for a few years and looking in my pellet tray, I have some AA Express,  H&N Sniper Medium,  H&N FTT,  RWS rubbish but no JSB Exact or AA Field. Now what do HW springers like to eat and I will pick some up when I pop in to collect the 57.

I have to say, I am quite looking forward to this but I bet it will need a tune to be okay as it is bound to be a savage lump of metal until sorted but we will find out on Monday.

Phil 

[Dervburner 2,549]

So you got one at last Phil. I know that you don’t like rws pellets, but all the hw spring rifles I’ve had have really liked rws hobby. Out to 30 yards at least, my hw99s is absolutely spot on with them, and they’re relatively cheap. The hw57 reminds me of my old bsa merlin, with its pop up loading port. The hw57 is obviously a much more refined rifle than the old merlin though.

[villaman 9,982]

AA express should work great 

AA  fields another even try JSB 10.3 gr rws  superdome works in most HW

or QYS which are getting great reviews 

[Dervburner 2,549]

59 minutes ago, villaman said:

AA express should work great 

AA  fields another even try JSB 10.3 gr rws  superdome works in most HW

or QYS which are getting great reviews 

Surprisingly JSB express were poor in my hw99s, it doesn’t like them at all. I don’t know if they’re the same pellet as AA express? They work well in my mk1 rapid though. But both of these are .22

[philpot 5,088]

I picked it up today popped on my Mambe Lite and tried some JSB Exact pellets.  The results were a little unusual to say the least,  I zeroed at 15mt which is the length of my cottage garden and I got it more or less spot on..............then it would jump three or four inches.....................................why, fcuk knows. I had a chat with Si Brown and during the discussion it became a possible issue on how the pellet was loaded in the pop up mag, so I went away to try some more shots holding the gun level while loading the pellet and that seemed to work quite well. 

My scope was max down and max left  to the point that I could simply not get a true zero. Never had that before so I removed the scope and added some tape inside the rear Sports Match mounts to offer some flexibility to the process. I will try it again tomorrow.

There are two more 57s in the shop which I am going to bring home to try out and compare results between the three rifles and keep the best. It must be said that these guns have all been serviced by Hull Cartridge hmmmmm,  anyway we will see.  I have also found a tin of Bis Mags which were the best pellet in my 100 and showed some promise in the 57 so another pellet to test.

Phil

[villaman 9,982]

Have cleaned the barrel Phil? 

[philpot 5,088]

To my shame Mitch, I didn't, too bloody eager to test it. I don't think I have any felt cleaning pellets and as it is not possible to run a pull through with this gun, I am buggered. I will have a look through my bits drawer tomorrow to see if I still have some in .177

Valis point Mitch and a schoolboy error on my part. 

Phil

[pianoman 3,589]

H&N FTT are a good bet for Weihrauch spring rifles Phil. 

Hope you enjoy the HW57. A fine little rifle. 

All the best.

Simon

[Greyman 31,280]

10 hours ago, philpot said:

To my shame Mitch, I didn't, too bloody eager to test it. I don't think I have any felt cleaning pellets and as it is not possible to run a pull through with this gun, I am buggered. I will have a look through my bits drawer tomorrow to see if I still have some in .177

Valis point Mitch and a schoolboy error on my part. 

Phil

Roll up filters work as well if your stuck

[philpot 5,088]

Just found a box of cleaning pellets so that is the first job. I have a few FTT Simon so will try them, Thanks.

Phil

[philpot 5,088]

Here she is.  That stock will look sooooo much better in green with a nice oil finish. I should have taken a photo of the other side as it has a few small tiger stripes on although quite small but better than nothing.

 

[philpot 5,088]

Well I have cleaned the barrel with cleaning pellets (I had forgotten how bloody loud they are, bit like a pcp without a mod fitted) and tested again with similar results.  It has to be said that I have an issue with the scope as I needed to build up the front mount as the scope was maxed out both fully down and fully to the left. So now I have up/down movement but no movement on R/L and there is no room to pack the mount so that is that. I have never had this issue before so there may be a problem with this scope, I have no knowledge of it as it was given to me and this is the first time I have fitted it to a rifle, I am going to have a look for a small AO scope, has anyone got one they would like to sell by any chance. 

I popped on another scope of my pal's but it was way too long and gave me about 10mm to get into the pellet holder so that was no good.

I have tried a range of pellets again today,  JSB Exact and Heavies, H&N FTT, Sniper Med, Bis Mags and RWS Super Field but none of them were an improvement over the others. In every case I would get tree or four pellets in a 40mm group which I am far from happy with but then two or three shots in the mix would be 4 - 5'' away and not together. My brain hurts.........................

I know this gun needs tuning but the random pattern suggests to me there is more of an issue along with the scope problem, I seem to be a bit fcuked at the moment.

This is typical of the results I have been getting.

 

Phil

 

 

[Dervburner 2,549]

Not too good at 15 yards Phil, but as you say, it could be the scope.

[Greyman 31,280]

3 hours ago, philpot said:

Well I have cleaned the barrel with cleaning pellets (I had forgotten how bloody loud they are, bit like a pcp without a mod fitted) and tested again with similar results.  It has to be said that I have an issue with the scope as I needed to build up the front mount as the scope was maxed out both fully down and fully to the left. So now I have up/down movement but no movement on R/L and there is no room to pack the mount so that is that. I have never had this issue before so there may be a problem with this scope, I have no knowledge of it as it was given to me and this is the first time I have fitted it to a rifle, I am going to have a look for a small AO scope, has anyone got one they would like to sell by any chance. 

I popped on another scope of my pal's but it was way too long and gave me about 10mm to get into the pellet holder so that was no good.

I have tried a range of pellets again today,  JSB Exact and Heavies, H&N FTT, Sniper Med, Bis Mags and RWS Super Field but none of them were an improvement over the others. In every case I would get tree or four pellets in a 40mm group which I am far from happy with but then two or three shots in the mix would be 4 - 5'' away and not together. My brain hurts.........................

I know this gun needs tuning but the random pattern suggests to me there is more of an issue along with the scope problem, I seem to be a bit fcuked at the moment.

This is typical of the results I have been getting.

 

Phil

 

 

Sorry to but in but if you have a chroney might be worth firing a few strings over it so you can rule out any performance issues with the rifle, then you could be sure the sites, I had a very early eighty as a lad and the droop in the barrel and scope grooves were so bad I only used the open sites  

Edited April 21, 2020 by Greyman

[philpot 5,088]

My chrony is a Combro which doesn't fit the barrel on the HW57 which is a pain, if the shops were open I could run it through the RFD Skan unit.

I have taken the scope of and fitted a dovetail to weaver rail with a stop screw and changed the scope over. With a few bits of tape to bring the scope up along with a few bits of aluminium can to adjust side movement, I have managed to now bring the zero withing a hairs breath of the aim point. I have put through a load of pellets today which I think is starting to lead the barrel as I am getting far better groups although not there yet, it is improved. I can hit the 1'' spinner 8-9 times out of ten and the half inch spinner 6-7 times out of 12 so slowly it is getting there.

The JSB Exact are producing the best results so far and some sample JSB Heavies looked pretty good.  I will still test the other two rifles when I get the phone call but for now we have a bit of improvement.

Phil