HW 55

The HW 55CM target rifle: Part 4

by Tom Gaylord (B.B. Pelletier) October 6, 2011

by B.B. Pelletier Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Is this Custom Match the best HW 55 ever made? Read the report to find out. In the last report, I tuned the rifle and got rid of the objectionable firing cycle. It’s always a great…

Accessories, Ammo, Competition, Education / Training, Spring 64

The HW 55CM target rifle: Part 3

by Tom Gaylord (B.B. Pelletier) September 19, 2011

by B.B. Pelletier Is this Custom Match the best HW 55 ever made? Read the report to find out. Part 2 Part 1 This is a special Part 3 for the HW 55 Custom Match target rifle. It will be a retest of velocity, following…

Ammo, Education / Training, Fun, Spring 47

Diana model 60 recoilless target rifle and HW 55CM: Part 2

by Tom Gaylord (B.B. Pelletier) July 22, 2011

by B.B. Pelletier Announcement: Brendon Krahn is this week’s winner of Pyramyd Air’s Big Shot of the Week on their facebook page. He’ll receive a $50 Pyramyd Air gift card. Brendon Krahn is this week’s Big Shot of the Week. He’s sniping at starlings with…

Ammo, Competition, Education / Training, Fun, Spring 64

HW 55 Custom Match: Part 1

by Tom Gaylord (B.B. Pelletier) July 8, 2011

by B.B. Pelletier Is this Custom Match the best HW 55 ever made? Read the report to find out. Today, we’ll begin a look at a variant of the HW 55 that was not produced in great numbers. It was supposed to be the high-water…

Competition, Education / Training, Fun, Single-Stroke, Spring 69

The 2010 Roanoke Airgun Expo – Day two

by Tom Gaylord (B.B. Pelletier) October 28, 2010

by B.B. Pelletier Part 1 The airgun show continued on Saturday, and a firearms show opened in the same civic center complex. Paying admission to the firearms show also got you into the airgun show, so we saw several of those buyers walking in our…

Education / Training, Fun 70

The 2010 Roanoke Airgun Expo – Day one

by Tom Gaylord (B.B. Pelletier) October 27, 2010

by B.B. Pelletier Well, we all wondered a month ago whether the Roanoke show would run this year after the passing of the organizer, Fred Liady, but it did run exactly as planned. Fred’s widow, Dee, made sure that the show went off exactly as…

Education / Training, Fun 76

by Tom Gaylord, a.k.a. B.B. Pelletier Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 10-22-10-01-Walther-LGV-Olympia Walther LGV Olympia was a top-quality 10 meter target rifle from the 1970s. The weather cooperated yesterday and gave me a perfect day at the range, so I was able to shoot the Walther LGV Olympia at 50 yards. I also shot the Talon SS with the 1:22" twist barrel before the wind kicked up and stopped all airgun shooting, so I'm on the way to the final test of the different twist rates. I knew the LGV Olympia was never going to hit the target, no matter what I did to the rear sight, so I placed two 3-inch bulls on a 2-foot by 4-foot piece of target paper and used them for sighting. The shots landed far below these bulls, of course. How far is an eye-opener, so I took a picture of it so you could see. 06-22-13-01-Walther-LGV-Olympia-50-yard-groups The pellets landed about 18-inches below the aim point at 50 yards. The sights had the pellets hitting the center of the target at 25 yards, so this is how far they drop in the second 25 yards. Notice that the center of the group of JSB Exact Jumbos on the right is about 2 inches lower than the center of the RWS Superdomes on the left. I fully expected this to happen, so I stapled the bullseye targets to a huge piece of target paper, so the pellet holes would show. Knowing they could well go to the same point I used two separate bullseyes as aim point, and from the picture you can see that was a good idea. I selected the two best pellets from the 25-yard test for this. They were the JSB Exact Heavy, which was the best pellet at 25 yards, and the RWS Superdome that took second place. I shot off a sandbag with the rifle rested on the flat of my hand in the classic artillery hold. The flight time of both pellets was extreme. Although I couldn't see them in flight, the flight time told me they were dropping rapidly as they moved downrange. JSB Exact Heavy The first pellet I tried was the 10.34-grain JSB Exact Heavy. It is far too heavy for the LGV Olympia powerplant, but in the 25-yard test 10 Exact Jumbos went into a group that measures 0.354-inches between centers. So a novice might expect that since the range was doubled, the group size would be as well. That would give us something like a 0.70-inch group for this pellet. 06-22-13-02-Walther-LGV-Olympia-50-yard-group-with-JSB-Exact-Heavy The 50-yard group was larger than expected. Ten JSB Exact heavys went into 2.285-inches What I actually got was 2.283-inches between the centers of the two pellets that were farthest apart. Thats roughly 6 times larger than the 25-yard group and more than 3 times the expected size, if you simply try to extrapolate from 25 yards to 50 yards. This is why you have to be careful when making generalizations about accuracy. The shooting conditions were perfect for this test. There was no breeze to speak of and if I felt something I always waited it out. I also had no shots that were called as anything but perfect. So what you see here represents the best I was able to do with the LGV Olympia at 50 yards with this JSB pellet. RWS Superdome The second-best pellet at 25 yards was the RWS Superdome that gave me a 10-shot group measuring 0.695 inches. Multiply that by 6 and you get an anticipated group size of 4.17-inches. I'm doing that because of what happened with the JSB Exact Jumbos. 06-22-13-03-Walther-LGV-Olympia-50-yard-group-with-RWS-Superdomes RWS Superdomes opened up even more than JSB Exact Jumbos. This group measures 3.062-inches between centers. What Superdomes actually did was put 10 shots into 3.062-inches -- so it was better than predicted (if you use the 6-times predictor) but was certainly much larger than simply double the 25-yard group size. The lesson here is that group size does not simply increase linearly with distance. We hear that all the time. If a certain gun shoots 1-inch at 100 yards we say it should shoot 2 inches at 200 yards. I'm saying that rarely happens. Usually the group will open faster as the distance increases. Not always, but usually. Evaluation The Walther LGV Olympia is a remarkable airgun. Out to 25 yards it is extremely accurate, plus it is very easy to cock and quiet to shoot. Beyond 25 yards, though, the LGV Olympia quickly gets outside its comfort zone. There just isn't enough power pushing the pellet to hold the group size to what you might expect. These results are consistent with the results I got when shooting the FWB 300S at 50 yards. Installing a scope helped, but only marginally. So I'm not going to put a scope on this rifle. I'm satisfied with this test and that's as far as I'm going in this test.

The Walther LGV Olympia – Part 1

by Tom Gaylord (B.B. Pelletier) October 22, 2010

by B.B. Pelletier The Walther LGV Olympia is a beautiful breakbarrel spring-piston target rifle from the 1960s. Well, the Roanoke Airgun Expo starts today, so while you read this, Mac and I will be buying, selling and looking at airguns. I will take pictures to…

Education / Training, Fun, Spring 89

Tag: HW 55

HW 55

The HW 55CM target rifle: Part 4

The HW 55CM target rifle: Part 3

Diana model 60 recoilless target rifle and HW 55CM: Part 2

HW 55 Custom Match: Part 1

The 2010 Roanoke Airgun Expo – Day two

The 2010 Roanoke Airgun Expo – Day one

The Walther LGV Olympia – Part 1

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Latest posts

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Tag: HW 55

HW 55

The HW 55CM target rifle: Part 4

The HW 55CM target rifle: Part 3

Diana model 60 recoilless target rifle and HW 55CM: Part 2

HW 55 Custom Match: Part 1

The 2010 Roanoke Airgun Expo – Day two

The 2010 Roanoke Airgun Expo – Day one

The Walther LGV Olympia – Part 1

Categories

Latest posts

Marksman model 70 breakbarrel air rifle: Part 12

Part 1

RAW HM-1000X precharged air rifle: Part 5

RAW HM-1000X precharged air rifle: Part 4

Airgun History

Air Archery CO2 Rifle

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