As I search among the various results pages on the websites of many clubs around the nation and in Europe, I am hard pressed to find RWS guns appearing among the top competitors in the piston categories (if at all). I see of course a lot of TX200,HW's, AA Sports, even the Gamo CFX, but no 48's 52's or even 54's.
Can anyone explain why?? There seems to be time when the 48 was "the" gun to use, but what happened since then?
plan on trying this year. I see a few issues with a 54 but think they can be overcome
1 weight for offhand shooting
2 extreme up/down angle shooting messes with the recoil mechanism
3 recoil is hard on the scopes.
4 the trigger is god awlful and there appears to be no aftermarket ones. expensive custom fabrication?
Seems to me that RWS guns should be able to hold their own with most other top guns in the spring piston division. Even the Pelletier guy at the Pyramid blog tested the 54 and concluded that it is "in the same class as the tx 200". I understand about weight, I have one and it is a beast to hold off hand, but the accuracy is awesome! and without recoil you can still place it where you want it. (just do a lot of push ups every night I guess).
RWS has the 46 which is supposed to be the answer to the FT crowd but I can't find one to save my life anywhere online or any stores.
I just cannot come to grips with the idea that RWS would just sit back and accept defeat letting Air Arms have a monopoly along with a couple of Beemans (as good as they might be). Even the chinese gun BAM B40 being a copy of the TX seems to be much more suitable than an RWS???
I was also looking for a 46 but found out that RWS no longer makes the gun. Why? I don't know. They make the 300 which is an underlever but I haven't heard anything about this gun.
If your looking for a Diana 46 D&L Airguns in Langley B.C. Canada carries them. They have the 46 and 46st listed on their web site. John is a good guy to deal with too. The 2006 Diana catalogue has four versions of the 46 listed so I don't know if it's a case of them not being made or just RWS not importing them. I remember in 1999 I bought my brand new HW35 with the thumbhole stock. Some people thought that version had been discontinued a decade earlier. It was actually still in HW's catalogue until 2004ish, it just wasn't a regular import item. I have found that Canadian dealers are very willing to go that little extra to get that hard to find model for you.
A underlever or sidelever are the same kettle of fish to me. Having shot FT a few times and owning a 54 it seems perfectly suited for FT.
Most folks "follow the crowd" and dont want to spend the $$ on something they're unsure of being competitive. The mere fact that you dont see many competing at the nationals dosent mean all that much to me because the sampling is to small and skewed...have you gone to the nationals? Didn't think so, in fact probably 90% of us don't go.
If you want to see more 54's compete then compete with one; just be a good shot, the rest of RWS enthusiast would appreciate you not soiling our name.
I have been shooting with a Diana 54( with macari GRT kit) for a year and has kicked some butt even beaten a lot of PCP guys.
In south africa the first problem with using a 54 for FT/HFT is the cost, there is only one importer and in dollar terms the gun cost about US $900 (R6500.)which is absurd, i got mine second hand for halve that which is still expensive. Secondly the gun is to powerful for Ft (UK 12fpe ) rules apply. Thirdly eventhough the gun is awesome and everybody have seen what it does and can do, there is a few "experts" (idiots?) that reckon the gun is a scope killer and to heavy and not worth it, so they tell new comers to stick to weihrauch air arms..and lastly the 54 is pellet fussy and will ony shoot a handfull of pellets accurately, ussualy only heavy weight pellets.
Sure the weight is a lot and it has some plastic parts but it puts pellets where it matters. Personally I believe that marketing also has a lot to do with it, in south africa I have seen a lot of weihrauch and air arms adverts and they dominate.I have never in my life seen a local advert for a Diana,only in the UK airgun books.
Our local club had its first match of the year a few weeks ago...and i had been threatning to shoot ft with a 54. So i did.
And while i KNOW my zero was shifting (i had to readjust 3 times) and i shot 90% of the match aiming off the kill zone. i still turned in a respectable score. Here is the match report
So a 54 can do it or at least stay respectable. The trigger is still needs alot of work.
Hi Kevin,
I'll give it a try when I get my RWS mod46E back from Randy Bimrose
for repair and tuning. It was shooting 830fps before it broke; and I thought
the accuracy was more than adequete for FT. I'm using an FWB 124 in some of the
CASA FT matches I've attended. It also shoots 830-840 fps with JSB Express, so
the trajectories will be very similar. I'm not crazy about the mod 46E stock for
FT shooting. As you may know, CASA doesn't really shoot HFT, so I'll be shooting
in the regular spring class which is okay with me. By the way, congrats on your
shooting at LD's place. I actually like using the FWB 124 for Springer FT, but
the mod 46 is much easier to load and no need to hold the underlever while loading
a pellet because of the pellet holding fixture. In my case, it's not the equipment
guiding my FT performance(low for now, but I'm improving);
Tony
With a good crowd of shooters present, I managed to win a hunter FT event at DIFTA this month. I beat some quality airguns too.
A TX200, Logun Solo PCP, some Beeman's, etc.