Weihrauch HW100. 2006 model.

Hi Mark,
For pellet testing u want to be as stable as possible to give the pellets the best chance to perform.
You can’t achieve that sort of stability over shooting sticks, so I use a dead rest on a shooting bench.
Fore stock and but rested in the dead rest.
My old rifle rest has a few stories it could tell, it must be getting on for 20 years old, has survived a fire in the back of my truck, traveled half way round the world and seen a lot of use, but she’s still going 😂

Ja, the FTT’s were great at 20, but didn’t cut it at 40.
If I remember correctly I had the same thing happen when I tested the H&N sample pack in my sexy little Elly .177 AirArms, they were great at 20, still looking good at 40 but fell apart at 80.

9 different pellets at 20yards.



6 of them made it through to round two at 40yards.

I recently acquired a second hand Weihrauch HW100.

The HW100 was first released in 2004 and has had a few upgrades along the way, I think they are onto the third version of this now classic air rifle. The changes have been subtle, mostly power increases and minor aesthetics, but for the most part any version of the HW100 is immediately recognisable as an HW100 and an icon of the air gun world.
They have earned a worldwide reputation for being beautiful pieces of German engineering, super reliable and deadly accurate.

I owned a lovely 2014 model HW100 in .20cal for many years.
I took my first rabbit with that rifle and she gave me many, many hours of enjoyable plinking and satisfying small game hunting and pest control. I unfortunately had to sell it for reasons outside of my control, and I have wanted another one every day since.
I was emotionally attached to that rifle.

My "new to me" second HW100 is in a .22caliber, and is a 2006 model, so one of the early ones. Even though she is 18 years old, my first day of proper shooting and testing on the range today, didn't disappoint.

Its taken me the better part of a month to get her properly set up, mostly searching for and then waiting for delivery of the right rings, which although they are pretty good, are not the ones I want. I'll keep looking for the perfect height rings, but these will do for now.

Pushing a 15.89gr hades she is doing 752fps for 19.92FPE, and pushing an Exact she is doing 756fps for 20.16FPE, so I’m happy to call her a 20FPE rifle.

After getting the scope set up, my first task was to test a few different pellets.
I remember my first HW100 loved JSBs, so I tried two of theirs.
I seem to have ended up with a very large collection of H&N pellets, even though all of my rifles love JSB’s??? This is probably because GunCity stocks H&N and I pop in there fairly regularly. I don’t know why I keep buying H&N pellets, all my rifles shoot JSB’s but H&N’s are very easy to get and JSB’s are difficult to get hold of here, so maybe I’m subconsciously hoping I’ll find a H&N pellet one of my rifles will like because they easy to get hold of…
I need to stop buying H&N pellets.
So I selected a few tins of H&N, a tin of RSW and two tins of Rifle (a cheep Brazilian brand sold by hunting and fishing- also easy to get!).

I started with 9 different pellets from 4 manufacturers and various weights, and shot 5-shot groups of each at 20yards, giving a few “lead in” shots between each new brand of pellets.
Pellets that gave a one hold group, or close to it at 20 yards, went through to round two, at 40yards.

The ones that went through to 40yards were H&N: FTT, Baracuda and Hunter (sold as guncity rabbiter), both JSB’s (Exact and Hades), and the surprise, Rifle Domed 18.36gr.

I always say everything looks great at 10yards. At 20 you start seeing the bad ones, but at 40 you separate the men from the boys.

The Rifle Domed pellets weren’t the best at 40yards, but they weren’t the worst either.
They outperformed two of the H&N’s, the Hunters and the FTT’s!!!
Third best was H&N Baracuda 21.14gr with a respectable, albite long, one hole group at 40.
First and second was between the two JSB’s and it was really close. The Exacts shot a one hole group and the Hades had a tight two hole group.
But I know that I have a damaged batch of Hades from those 5 tins I received damaged through the post, so I selected 5 good hades pellets (I usually never select pellets, I just shoot them as they come out the tin) and shot a second group with the Hades, and what d’ya know, a one hole group ;-)

So I’ve got another rifle that likes JSB’s. Maybe I should become a distributer, be easier to get hold of them…

I’ve always considered a one hole group at 40 to be the gold standard benchmark that I compare things with, and this old Weihrauch just did it with 3 different pellets. She’s measuring up nicely.
I think I’m going to enjoy owning my second HW100.


Edited by RangerPete - 30 Nov 2024 at 1:25am