Weihrauch HW99s

Weihrauch make an impressive range of break barrel spring powered air rifles. Great engineering and solid construction, if possibly a little over engineered, has often meant a heavy rifle to some. Personally I prefer a heavy rifle, especially with a springer, although Weihrauch have the very popular HW95 model for those that thought the HW80 was a bit on the heavy side for them. However often overlooked was the bride`s-maid of Weihrauch’s lightweights - the HW99S. The S stands for ‘Sporter’ - not ‘Silenced’ as with the HW95S, HW80S etc.

The HW99S although a plain Jane, model has now over gone a slight make over to enhance the stock design and visual appeal, but the good solid full power abilities it always possessed are still there.

It’s a very trim, light sporter with an appeal for both seasoned shooter and new comer alike, best of all is the price at £248, a ‘win, win’ in my book.

Stock

This is where it gets interesting, the HW99S has under gone a makeover with subtle chance to the stock design, yet still keeping it a sporter profile. This new stock has been designed by Minelli of Italy – a company chosen by many European manufacturers for their stocks. It has certainly added a little sparkle to the look. Beech is still the preferred wood choice with dark brown stain and matt lacquered finish, always practical, and now with twin panels of combined chequering and stippling on the pistol grip and forend. These are laser cut, so quite intricate and very precise for a much better grip. I could do without the laser cut Weihrauch name in the top right hand forend panel though, but what the hell… if you’re proud of your work, let the world know!

There is a shallow comb with a slightly raised cheekpiece to both sides so actually quite ambidextrous to use and a good length of pull at 14.75 inches.

The solid rubber recoil pad and black spacer is still as good as ever and I really like the way the forend tapers slightly towards the breech; it looks appealing and naturally nestles into the supporting hand.

Barrel Action

The HW99S sports a full sized action with nicely blued or really blacked finish very reminiscent of its big brother – the HW80. The twin groove dovetails for scope mounting remaining the same and allow any combination of scope size to be comfortably accommodated. The break barrel design is that old but tried and tested locking detent variety, so the barrel securely locks solidly between the jaws tensioned by a central single locking bolt. The single synthetic sealing ring looks perfectly central and after all the testing showed its good seal by the mark around the exhaust port from the chamber end. The barrel is 15.5 inches (with no moderator fitted) with a slim sporter profile and finished the same as the action. The rifling is very finely made; I always push a clean wad through the barrel on any new rifle to clean it before use and this HW showed very little dirt or swarf at all from the manufacturing and finishing process.

Irons

Open sights are included and equally good; the fore sight is the usual tunnel type with removable sight elements, this had a tapered post. The rear sight has elevation and windage adjustment with a reversible V or squared notch for your choice of aiming. Although most of us will use a scope it`s still nice that Weihrauch offer such a good set of open sights which actually are a good way to train a new shooter to proper rifle handling and accurate shooting.

Trigger and Safety

What can I say about the trigger that has not been said before. Rekord by name, record making by nature - it’s a real winner and one reason why Weihrauchs are so popular with discerning shooters. A good trigger really helps hone those skills and shrink those group sizes also. The trigger blade is slim and grooved with a bright silver anodised finish and the small adjustable trigger pull weight adjustment just behind it. This trigger broke very cleanly at 3.75 lbs with no creep at all and a really nice feel as one would expect.

As you cock a Weihrauch the automatic safety catch pops out of the left side of the action at the rear, visual and tactile so no mistaking that. Just push it in when you want to shoot, it’s not resettable though, but V-Mach do make a resettable version.

What was instantly obvious when testing the rifle over the chronograph was how consistent the results were, deviation of velocity in some cases were only 5-8fps which is exceptional. Also the HW99S does not wear a silencer but I was really surprised how quiet the muzzle report was, no loud crack - more of a thud. Thirdly the action was very smooth only the slightest spring noise that almost disappeared completely after the testing period had naturely ‘lubed’ all the internals evenly.

I chose a range of differing .22 pellets styles and weights and a couple really stood out. The Air Arms Fields (5.51mm) and FTT pellets really shot well, both velocity wise and accuracy. The AA Fields put five shots at 30 yards (my preferred hunting zero for .22 pellets) into just 0.5”, which is pretty damn good for a lighter weight sporter. Velocity was 564.9 fps generating a healthy 11.3ft/lbs energy, so spot-on power wise. The FTT’s also shot very well at 581.6 fps for the same 11.3ft/lbs energy and groups were slightly larger but still only 0.65”.

The Lazapells, Accupells, Premiers and Bisley Magnus also shot well but I preferred the slightly higher and more consistent velocities of the FTT’s and AA Fields.

Conclusions

I was really taken with the HW99S from the off , not the old maid I was led to believe, in fact I am surprised I did not notice it before. It’s light at 6.65 lbs without scope but heavy enough to dampen the spring action for accuracy. This is a really good for a springer, certainly there were pellets it did not like but that’s like every gun I have tested over the years. It pays to try as many pellets as possible to obtain the best groups. In .22 it’s a gem and I really want to test a .177 version next. Apart from the laser cut logo I think at £248 recommended retail price you have a real bargain with guaranteed Weihrauch accuracy, reliability and longevity. GM