The FWB SPORT – ANOTHER PRETTY FRAULEIN IN THE HOUSE



I know this is a firearm site but there are a few folks on here who seem to like or at least like information on airguns and given today's ammo situation I thought I'd share another review.

Ahhh hobbies. You gotta love em’. How else are we to waste copious amounts of money on superfluous and silly toys and still be able to justify them in some way. Car guys know what I’m talking about. There is nothing like the thrill of finding a $1000.00 classic that you put $50,000 into to restore to perfection and then sell it with pride for $10.5K. Shooting is my hobby. I have LONG crossed that bridge where I feel the need to give a reason for a new purchase so we will just say I am at the point where I simply have more money than brains and I wanted it and for quite some time I have wanted the newest iteration of the FWB sport. I just really liked its lines.
Originally I was going to wait to scope this rifle before writing up a review but honestly I think I have decided not to. The iron sights are excellent, It shoots great and I really enjoy both the lines and the shooting without a scope so I, believe this one will stay slick topped for the time being.
As always I want to reiterate that I am not a writer, nor a warrior, nor a competitor nor a skilled or truly knowledgeable shooter in any way. I am just some idjit on the interwebz who has been blessed enough to have quite a wide range of experience with all types of pointy things with triggers. All of my thoughts and opinions are my own and I try to base them on my other experiences. Doesn’t make me right, just makes me right for me and remember “just some idjit on the interwebz”. So in my best “Jerry” voice…..”Here we go!”

VALUE-5
When I talk about value I try to speak in terms of an items contemporaries. A $500.00 air rifle is just plain loony talk to the vast number of people and I understand that so keep in mind I am trying to judge based on other crazy people air rifles.
Initially when the Sport was first released it was a very expensive spring gun. It was also plagued with reports of spring noise and vibration not befitting the FWB name or the price point. I cannot speak to those rifles at those prices. I can only speak to my rifle which was bought at $495.00. At $495 this rifle is a wonderful purchase. It is Weihrauch money but, in my opinion, is a much better rifle out of the box. The action is perfect, the sights were dead on out of the box, the sights themselves are some of the best I have seen on an airgun or really most rifles and stock is nicely done. I truly think as of early 2021 these rifles are at the very least a very solid value.

FIT/FINISH/APPEARANCE - 3
A 3 may sound harsh especially when I just gave a 5 for value. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with the rifle and its performance is top tier. My issues really surround a few personal desires as well as a couple things I don’t think are befitting to the Feinwerkbau name.
First I would prefer a different wood for the stock. The stock is very nice and finished well but I would prefer a walnut or nicer wood. This is just personal preference.
Second there are some pretty noticeable tool marks ahead of the rear sight. I would expect better in the finish department.

Third I have some stock rubbing near right breach pivot. This causes no issues shooting but it’s worth noting.
Fourth, the bluing looks just fine. It’s very nice and even and on par with any Weihrauch. It’s just not that high gloss gorgeous Air Arms old school Colt look.
Here is a comparison against a Weihrauch HW35e

Finally the plastic trigger guard. It looks great, it feels great and its…….PLASTIC. Come on Feinwerkbau, plastic has no place on a rifle like this. I am nit picking here but again these are my personal thoughts.
All in all it is a VERY nice rifle and frankly compared to most air rifles it’s a solid 4 but I just feel FWB should be held to a higher standard even if that standard cannot match something like Air Arms.

TRIGGER - 5
I am going give this a 5 out of the box mostly because it is so good I don’t have to think about it in any way and I had no learning curve. It is easily the equal of its contemporaries such as the Rekord, Air Arms triggers or a good T06. The blade is very nice in both appearance and feel. It’s just a very nice bang switch.

ACCURACY – 5
Accuracy is one of those values a rifle has that is so difficult to quantify without locking it down in a rest. You are at the mercy of the skill, or lack thereof in my case, of the shooter as well as any environmental factors. All of that said shooting this rifle with only iron sights I am VERY pleased with its performance. It is not pellet fussy in any way, doesn’t appear to be hold sensitive, as a great trigger, great iron sights and puts pellets into very nice groups even with my questionable skill, iron sights and generally crappy eyesight. So I have to believe with a skilled shooter and glass this would be a tack driver.






JSB's were printing a little right.


ERGONOMICS – 5
This is another subjective measure of course but I love the way this gun feels and handles. It is so nimble feeling and light weight, comparatively speaking, yet doesn’t appear to exhibit and real hold sensitivity. The somewhat flat bottom of the stock is excellent for benching yet still feels great in the hand. The safety is wonderful and may be my favorite I have experienced on an air gun. The FWB Sport feels like a more nimble HW95 even though it is a bit longer.

RECOIL/SHOT CYCLE -5
Generally speaking I have always said that Air Arms is king of the shot cycle, I might have to put this FWB on equal or better footing here. The shot cycle is so fast with so little vibration and noise that of all the air rifles I have shot this one feels the most like shooting a .22 long rifle. The actual shooting of this rifle is wonderful. I really cannot say more than that.

POWER -4
For a rifle that is so easy to shoot well it has a fair bit of power behind it. I don’t have a chronograph but I can tell you that based on my target impacts and the published information she is sending a .177 pellet down range with some anger. This is certainly not a 10m only gun.

SIGHTS – 5
I like iron sights, although I don’t generally like leaf sights as much as aperture sights. That said the sights on this FWB Sport are some of the best leaf sights I have ever used in any capacity. Very nice adjustments, very well made, very versatile and they look great to boot. Add to the fact that they were dead nuts on out of the box and I find myself deciding I am not going to scope this rifle. It just looks and feels so good running with the irons.


RANDOM OBSERVATIONS
-The packaging was excellent. An outer cardboard box surrounding a robust Styrofoam cocoon.
-As I have said the rifle seems to like just about any pellet I run through it and that is without a ton of pellets through it yet.
-Initially the cocking stroke had a fair bit of crunch/spring noise. It wasn’t the most pleasant feeling or sounding cocking stroke I had ever felt. Over time however it has largely smoothed right out. I can only guess that whatever spring lube was used has worked its way around from use.
-While the cocking stroke is fairly easy, in the vein of an HW95/R9, The initial break of the barrel requires quite a whack. I added some grease and with use it seems to be loosening up but breaking the barrel does require a little effort.
-The barrel lock up is like a bank vault and makes the most satisfying SNICK noise ever.
-I cannot stress enough how fast the shot cycle is and how much like shooting a .22LR this feels like. It is similar to an HW35e only faster.
-The rifle has a crack to it. It is not a quiet gun. It is however quieter then some folks have made it out to be. It is about on par with my HW35e in .177 which also has a fast shot cycle.

PARTING THOUGHTS
I don’t generally have a ton negative to say about the guns I review. This is generally because if I don’t like a gun I either sell it or simply cannot muster enough energy up to bother putting proverbial pen to paper. With that said I have been on the fence with this rifle since before it was released. I loved the lines. Initially the price and bad press pushed it to the back of my mind. Even with the price drop I had some trepidation in my mind at this purchase and had thought about buying another “known quantity” I decided, however, to take a chance both because the price was right and I very much like Champions Choice, the vendor I used and the folks who run it. I am so glad I took the chance because this has quickly become one of my favorites of many air rifle choices that I have. Is it perfect, of course not. Only Glock is perfect…….or so they say……but I digress. It is however one heck of an air rifle for a very reasonable price in 2021 and I whole heartedly recommend it and I really feel this is a 5 star rifle overall.

As always,
Take care, shoot safe and try not shoot your eye out kid.
Chris

Beautiful...VI

There were five of these in stock at Champion's Choice yesterday afternoon when I read this review. They were $495 each. There are now zero.

FWB makes absolutely top-quality air guns. Arguably the finest in the world.

I have an old FWB model 124 in .177 cal. Perfection for a spring-piston rifle.
Also have two FWB model 65 spring piston air pistols, also .177 cal.
Both of these models have been discontinued for many years, but were unbeatable in their day.

Also have a Beeman R-1 in 5mm. It's a power-house spring piston rifle that makes perfect use of the slightly heavier 5mm pellet.

Congratulations on your new FWB. You'll have years of fun with it.

Nice review. I recently was given an old FWB 124 with the original scope on it by someone who bought it with a bunch of guns at an estate sale. It doesn't work and I'm looking for a local gunsmith who will look at it. I don't know anything about air rifles and it has piqued my interest so I find your review very interesting.

How loud are these springers?

Anywhere from about 90db to around 112db at the gun depending on the gun/power level.

For what its worth I shot this tonight and shooting indoors, measuring using a free Iphone DB meter the max db of this particular rifle at the shooter is 102.6. This is one of the loudest of my air rifles, I think I only have one that to my ear is louder.

Just FYI based on the above question and post.

That’s a nice looking air rifle, I spend some time on gatewaytoairguns.com and your post along along with others over there make me want one. However I’ve bought 4 springers in the last 2 months - a Weihrauch HW95L Field Pro, a Beeman R7, a Weihrauch HW50S and a Hatsan 95 Vortex QE. Probably in my best interest to not order another right now.

That is a beautiful rifle!

Is there a similar dB meter application for Samsung Android smartphones?

quote:

Originally posted by RichardC:
Is there a similar dB meter application for Samsung Android smartphones?

No idea but I simply cannot imagine there is not one.

quote:

Originally posted by birddog1:
That’s a nice looking air rifle, I spend some time on gatewaytoairguns.com and your post along along with others over there make me want one. However I’ve bought 4 springers in the last 2 months - a Weihrauch HW95L Field Pro, a Beeman R7, a Weihrauch HW50S and a Hatsan 95 Vortex QE. Probably in my best interest to not order another right now.

Well it comes down to sort of a cost benefit analysis

-Will I still be able to eat and pay mortgage/rent?
-Do I have the space?
-Am I married?
-If I am married do I actually need the use of both knees at any given time?

Simple cost benefit stuff.

This gun continues to just plain shoot for me. It might be the easiest air rifle I have to shoot accurately and again of all the spring/piston type rifles I have or have shot this one comes remarkably close to the “FEEL” of shooting a .22LR. It’s been a fantastic purchase for me and quite the pleasant surprise.

The below was just casual, not thinking too much about it, plinking to finish off a tin of pellets.

quote:

Originally posted by cslinger:

quote:

Originally posted by birddog1:
That’s a nice looking air rifle, I spend some time on gatewaytoairguns.com and your post along along with others over there make me want one. However I’ve bought 4 springers in the last 2 months - a Weihrauch HW95L Field Pro, a Beeman R7, a Weihrauch HW50S and a Hatsan 95 Vortex QE. Probably in my best interest to not order another right now.

Well it comes down to sort of a cost benefit analysis

-Will I still be able to eat and pay mortgage/rent?
-Do I have the space?
-Am I married?
-If I am married do I actually need the use of both knees at any given time?

Simple cost benefit stuff.

Able to and pay mortgage - yes
Available space - yes
Married - yes
Use of both knees - one bad knee now, losing the other could be problematic as could losing any other body part I’ve grown fond of.

I did tell my lovely wife the R7 was for her and she likes shooting it.

quote:

Originally posted by shoevb:
It doesn't work and I'm looking for a local gunsmith who will look at it. I don't know anything about air rifles and it has piqued my interest so I find your review very interesting.

WOW, great gift. You can now invest in a proper tuning and get a lifetime's use out of it. Or, sell it off at a decent profit if you don't bond with it. I JUST had one like it done by this gent in California. The 2nd gun I've had him tune, and a third is on it's way to him. His work, and reviews of it, are impeccable. Drop him an email....

MotorHead's Airgun Tuning Services
s.schneider@sbcglobal.net

Awhile ago a friend gave me an old FWB 124 sport .177 when her dad passed. The FWB's scope was marginal, so I replaced it with a Burris Timberline. I set up 28-29 foot long shooting lane in my unfinished basement, and started practicing. I sucked, big time. A fellow rifle competitor with a crap ton of PCP air rifle experience told me about the light hold concept. That helped a bunch with accuracy, but that type of hold did nothing to help in practicing for shooting from barriers in PRS/NRL/steel matches. Therefore, the FWB sat idle for more than a year. Maybe two years.

I decided to try again with this new year. Primarily shooting from a barricade, gun resting on a sand bag, kneeling and sitting positions, buttstock supported by a large bag, hard hold into my shoulder. I sucked again, but maybe a little less. I bounced between the different ammo types the original owner gave me -- Premier and Beeman. I'd get a couple of decent impacts, then a couple of WTF flyers.

I bought a tin of RWS Meisterkugeln match pellets. They were an improvement, but I still saw inconsistencies. I continued to bounce back and forth between pellet types. I finally stayed with the RWS for a quite a few rounds in a row. I began to see tighter patterns, but at a noticeably different POI than the Premier and Beeman pellets. Stuck with it, re-adjusted the scope, and last week I started producing some tight groups.

It's still early in my process of sorting things out, but I suspect my primary issue was ammo. I need more evening sessions to confirm RWS pellets are for real for me and my FWB. And then a bunch more time behind the buttstock to get used to the FWB's trigger. A glimmer of hope....

cslinger -- your springer is purdier than mine. By a lot.

Keep in mind these guns are NOT good training for off barrier type shooting/3 gun positions etc.

Even when rested they need a soft rest. For example you will see more flyers and group oddness shooting for a bipod or normal hard shooting sandbag vs throwing a folded towel over that sandbag.

PCPs can give you some of that off barrier / odd position practice.

What I try to tell folks is airguns, at least spring/piston type guns are more like shooting black powder. They are absolutely part of the shooting sport but their own separate and discrete part of it. They will absolutely teach you about trigger control and follow through though.

That rear sight looks very nice, but it looks like an unusually wide opening for sight picture; what does the front blade look like?

That's a nice looking gun, and I can empathize with the plastic trigger guard, that's the one thing on my 52 that just irks me.

The rear sight is an adjustable piece with 4 notch sizes/shapes.

Front blade is fairly thick.

quote:

Originally posted by cslinger:
Keep in mind these guns are NOT good training for off barrier type shooting/3 gun positions etc.

For me a Raw Air PCP rifle would be optimal for indoor training, but one isn't in the cards at this time. Therefore, I must make do with the FWB springer that I have.

I don't know how old this FWB is. It came with a really poor scope. A local PCP expert recommended a Burris Timberline, which I purchased.



All shots were taken from a small window in a wood barricade I made. I put a small bean bag between the barricade and the rifle. Firing height is about 29" from the floor. I shot from reverse kneeling, with a Weibad Pump Pillow between my thigh and the buttstock. I shot with a firm hold into my shoulder. If this were my competition rifle, I'd likely be jamming the bipod into the barricade, however this isn't possible with a FWB 124.

These were all 5-round groups. The circles measure 1/2" in diameter. I shot one or two groups per evening. If I shot a second group in an evening, I broke position -- walked upstairs, had a snack, or whatever. The barricade is 32 feet from my target box.



It is a challenge controlling the recoil cycles while holding the FWB in such a manner. With some days and some shots, the rifle just recoils forward and backward -- kinda like my center fire competition rifles. Other times, not so much -- the rifle jumps and the crosshairs go way off point of aim.

Uncertain if shooting a springer in my basement helps my center fire rifle technique from barriers, but it is trigger time.