Walther LGU Varmint

I’ve always appreciated a quality spring piston airgun; in fact it’s what I used when I first took up Field Target shooting years ago. I used a couple of different rifles but eventually settled on a rather nice Air Arms TX200. That was sold to finance my first precharged pneumatic (PCP) and I must admit to using my other spring guns less and less over the years. PCPs can make you a bit lazy over time, as they’re just so easy to shoot from various positions due to their forgiving, almost recoil-less firing cycle.

I was lucky enough to go to the IWA shooting and outdoor trade show in Nuremberg and on the Walther stand was something that whetted my appetite for a quality springer again. The rifle in question was the new ‘LGU Varmint’ and I guess it was love at first sight! I know, that sounds rather soppy but it just looked so ‘right’. As soon as I picked it up I declared that I wanted to buy one!

I’ve always liked really upright grips on air rifles, probably because I shoot so many straight pull centrefire rifles fitted with separate pistol grips. The new ambidextrous black synthetic thumbhole stock is a very elegant affair, with a hand-filling forend that has textured panels on both sides. The surface itself is made up of tiny half moon shapes and provides extra grip whilst adding a pleasing pattern. The forend tapers back towards the integral trigger guard and on to that grip I like so much. The grip fills the hand well, without being too bulky and there’s a groove either side for the trigger finger or thumb, or thumb and trigger finger, depending on whether the user is right- or left-handed!

The grip is joined to the butt by two slim but strong ‘bridges,’ and the cheekpiece has moulded contours integrated into the build, which add a certain flair to the proceedings. The butt does actually look a little futuristic, a bit like the Beretta CX4 Storm, a pistol calibre wcarbine. A soft, ventilated rubber buttpad completes the job.

The butt has a groove around the cheekpiece, almost as though it was designed to have an adjustable cheekpiece but Walther changed their mind at the last moment. Even though the stock fits me OK I may just modify it, so that the height can be raised slightly. I’ll have to be brave though, as I really don’t want to ruin a perfectly good stock!

‘Tuned’ From The Box

Now, saying that you’re going to buy a rifle based on the stock alone may seem rather rash but the LGU’s reputation preceded it and I knew that Walther had gone back to the drawing board and developed a completely new rifle that featured a lot of internal ‘tweaks’ normally found on custom tuned specials. The break barrel LGV started the ball rolling back in 2012 and the underlever cocking LGU was introduced two years later. The internals feature Walther’s ‘Super Silent Technology’ and ‘Rotary Piston’. The piston is free to do its own thing within the compression tube and this helps tame recoil in the shoulder.

The action is obviously very reminiscent of the Weihrauch HW77 and 97 and the Air Arms TX range, even down to the safety lock mechanism on the right hand side of the action. OK, so Walther have seen something they like and ‘borrowed’ it but I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery after all! This ‘belt and braces’ approach to safety has got to be a good thing however, irrespective of whoever came up with it first, and it makes cocking and loading an underlever air rifle very safe indeed. Everyone should always hold onto the underlever of any air rifle that uses one (and the barrel of a break barrel gun) and the finger should always be off the trigger during loading; however, life isn’t always perfect and mechanisms can fail, so anything that keeps our fingers and thumbs intact has to be a good thing!

As the underlever is pulled back, the sprung ratchet engages with the two cut outs in the compression cylinder and should your hand slip, the mechanism will hold everything securely. Press in on the catch and the underlever can be returned. The automatic, re-settable safety catch is also engaged when the rifle is cocked and this is situated at the back of the action, on the curved part of the trigger housing; back for SAFE, forward for FIRE. The metalwork is faultless, with not a single blemish or mark showing through the deep, rich bluing. When you pull down the underlever, it’s clear that the internal components are first rate, as there’s a sort of whistling sounds as air is sucked into the cylinder. There’s no graunch or spring noise as the piston travels back, a good sign of things to come…

 

Classy Tubes

Walther are obviously famous for their barrels and a lot of UK companies use them in their own air rifles. The one fitted to the LGU is 12-inches long, with a ‘silencer’ fitted to the end; no baffles are fitted but the three-inch long chamber must help with sound absorption. The underlever has a couple of O-rings on the end, for grip, as well as to keep the underlever away from the barrel. The lever is held securely by a sprungloaded ball, fitted in a shroud under the muzzle. Cocking is easy, without undue effort.

Pellet loading is direct into the bore and this is the best way to introduce your ammo to the rifle, far better than the old rotary taps found on the underlever rifles of yesteryear. In competition (or whilst out hunting) it’s also a good way to tell if the pellet you’re about to send on its way to the target is okay or not – if it feels a little loose or overly tight, you can always discharge it safely into the ground and load another. The two-stage trigger had a fairly long first stage out of the box and a very sweet second stage let off, just how I like it in fact! I might get the Allen keys out at some stage and see if I can improve it a little but for the moment I’m more than happy to leave it as it is. I’d recently been sent a Hawke Vantage 4-12 X 50 AO scope to test and it was the perfect partner for the Varmint. I used a one-piece Sportsmatch Dampa Mount to fit the scope and I really like them on a springer (even a lightly recoiling one such as the LGU) as it cushions the scope from the rapid ‘forward and back’ recoil characteristics encountered.

 

Conclusion

On a trip to the range the first pellet fired confirmed that I’d made a wise purchase! The firing cycle was sublime, a short, sharp nudge to the shoulder and tiny groups downrange were enough to get me thinking about competing again, maybe HFT was calling to me? Half a tin of pellets later and I was well and truly hooked and the tiny groups at 50-yards were as good as I can shoot with a PCP. Top spring gun HFT shooter Kyle Hampton shoots an LGU and he shoots it well! He recently won the springer class of the HFT Masters competition held at the Northern Shooting Show, so the LGU already has a trophy winning pedigree. Who knows, maybe he’ll have some competition soon.

The Walther LGU Varmint is one hell of an air rifle and comes highly recommended.

PRICE: £424.95
CONTACT: Armex Ltd
www.armex-airgun.co.uk
www.umarex.de