Air Rifle Power

[poppopbangbang]

Evening All,

I know there are some knowledgable people on here regarding this so a little advice would be much appreciated. I have a HW97K spring air rifle which is mainly used for rabbiting as we have hundreds here (and similar in the freezer). I've just serviced it as the spring had broken after many tins of pellets through it and being wary of being over the limit I also purchased a chrono with the service kit. It's all done and shooting very nicely but the power is relatively close to the 12 ftlb limit, across 5 shots:

11.87
11.88
11.93
11.93
11.91

This is with an 8.4 grain pellet. So it's under the limit on those, but if I was to shoot a lighter pellet from it then the increase in velocity may well mean that it is over the 12ftlb limit.

Question is do I need to buy a load of tins of pellets and make sure it's not over on any of them or as the only pellets I have that are with it/in the gun safe/any where on the property are these is that okay from a legality stand point?

[smifffymoto]

The rifle limit is 12 lbs,regardless of the pellet you use. The energy pushing the pellet is the same.
I may be wrong in the eyes of the law but the above seems common sense to me.

[pikeyboy]

Looks like youre just in to me and I wouldnt worry. How accurate is the chrono?, Is it calibrated?

[chemistry]

I believe the police can use any pellet they like when testing power.

Assuming your chrono is accurate, I’d be worried that your gun could tip over the 12ft lb limit with the ‘right’ pellet, a bit of dieselling, etc.

If it were my gun I’d get it dropped down to something like 11.0 to 11.2 ft lbs; you won’t notice the difference when shooting but you’ll be comfortably under the limit.

[poppopbangbang]

Tried a few 7.4 grain pellets through it and according to the chrono it was just over 12ftlbs - 12.03 to 12.11.

So today I took it back apart, flatted off both ends of the spring more and machined the spring guide down a little to take some additional preload out and put it all back together again. Now at 11.7 average on the light pellets and 11.4 average on the normal ones. Bit of a ball ache for such a small difference but at least it's definitely legal no matter what and it's made no difference to how it shoots.

[chemistry]

poppopbangbang said:

Tried a few 7.4 grain pellets through it and according to the chrono it was just over 12ftlbs - 12.03 to 12.11.

So today I took it back apart, flatted off both ends of the spring more and machined the spring guide down a little to take some additional preload out and put it all back together again. Now at 11.7 average on the light pellets and 11.4 average on the normal ones. Bit of a ball ache for such a small difference but at least it's definitely legal no matter what and it's made no difference to how it shoots.

Good decision. Happy shooting.

[andy_s]

Always wanted one of those as a kid, that or a Feinwerkbau. Ended up with a Meteor.