Weihrauch HW99S

Details

Having owned and used a PCP air rifle for some years, I wanted a challenge and what better way than to get a spring powered or “springer” air rifle. As a first springer, the Weihrauch HW99S is probably one of the highest rated options on the market – it is accurate, full legal power, cheap and very well made by a leading manufacturer.

The HW99S is primarily made for open sights, they were not designed for fitting scopes, but luckily Weihrauch did add an 11mm dovetail scope rail to the top of the action. The major problem is that the cheek piece on the stock is made low for open sights – when you fit a scope, your cheek no longer falls in the right place. This can be fixed by fitting a “cheek riser” as seen on my rifle (the black elastic sock)

The scope I had is a little on the large side for such a small, light rifle, but it does fit and works well. It is a WestHunter 4-16x44mm FFP scope. Westhunter are not a major brand and are found on market places like Amazon for little money. Surprisingly though this one gets great reviews so I bought it. So far I am most impressed with it, the optics are every bit as good as the Hawke AMX scope on my PCP rifle which cost more than twice as much.

In use the HW99S is great fun – no need to take an air cylinder and kit bag, just the rifle and a tin of pellets is all. I’m still learning the skills of springer shooting as they are nothing like a PCP rifle, but I am getting good groups at 35yds now. Its a great little rifle for not much money.

Specification

• Calibre: .22 Pellet
• Capacity: endless
• Weight: 3.2kg
• Length: 1005mm
• Scope: Westhunter 4 to 16 x 44mm first focal plane