Since there were no RWS 34 reviews thus far, I figured I had to oblige and contribute my findings thus far.
Background: To give the visitors a little background of my shooting ability, I have been in the airgunning world for about 5-6 years now and love it. My first air rifle was the Red Ryder bb gun; I havent shot my eye out yet(knock on wood). The rifle I learned to hunt with was an AM77 in .177, which I took countless birds and a few squirrels with in it’s two year tour of duty. I then wanted a power upgrade, so to the world of springers I went. My next rifle was a Gamo Shadow 1000, I really liked this rifle once I broke it in, it only served on active “hunting” duty for about 4-5 months before the spring broke within 4,000 shots. In the Gamo Shadow’s time I took lots of birds and a few squirrels. I now have had an RWS 34 in .177 and love it.
Out-of-Box: I received this rifle in a box that was mailed by midsouthshooterssupply.com, and for the rifle itself I paid only $167, in October on Halloween. Taking the rifle out of the box I was very impressed with its inherent quality. The German’s make some cars, but also and more importantly nice rifles. The bluing was pretty much the same throughout which was good. The wood has a nice feel to it and looked like a nice grain. This rifle comes without a butt-pad; I got turned off by that, but doesn’t affect shooting that much. Overall the best initial quality I have ever seen in an air rifle before.
First Shots: I was a little afraid of the rifle going supersonic the first shot, but it didn't which is also a testament to the quality of RWS. There was no twang to the first shot or any subsequent shots at all, which was a real nice sound to hear, just a nice hard and quick “thunk”.
After Some Shooting: I bought with the rifle 1250 Meisterklugen RWS 8.2 grain pellets. I didn’t start looking for a hunting pellet until I put at least 1000 pellets through the rifle. I don’t have a chrony so unfortunately can’t give you any numbers, but it seems to run around the 850-860 range. After around 1500 shots the rifle was really quite broken in and I had already started to look for a suitable hunting pellet, when I came across the Beeman Coated Hollow Points. I was skeptical about these pellets because I had used them before only in my AM77 and they were ok. Before I shot these though I topped off my rifle with a BSA .22 special 4X32mm scope with a two-piece A.G.E. mounts. I then cleaned my barrel and sighted in the scope. On a side note my cleaning regiments were about every 500 shots, this was because the RWS pellets are a much cleaner pellet to shoot that hold to the sides of the barrel, but don’t leave much lead fouling. After sighting in the scope I knew that my rifle liked the Beeman Coated HP’s very well, because after the initial sight in I was shooting water bottle caps at 30 yards off my target bench and destroying them. By the way after around 750-1000 shots you notice a difference in velocity, it starts to go up.
Up until now I have had numerous, meaning about 15-20 bird, kills so far. Unfortunately, I have done more target shooting with this rifle than actual hunting. But as far as hunting goes, I have dispatched birds from as close as 5 yards and is an efficient killer of birds around 30-35 yards. The only reason why I haven’t had any farther shots is because from the initial sighting of the bird by my eyes I would have to move backward to get more distance. I sight in my rifle for 30 yards for a reason, and that is because it is where I am most likely around my house and hunting grounds to find my game. Haven’t taken any squirrels so far because the squirrel around my house for now are not to be seen anywhere, they’ll come back in the spring into the beginning of the summer though. Believe me though this rifle packs the power to take a squirrel efficiently with a well placed shot!
Conclusion: My personal impressions were good with this rifle and as far as I can tell pretty much parallel with any other personal review I have heard pertaining to the RWS 34. If you are looking for a step-up in quality of a medium-power springer, then look to the RWS 34.
Born to kill.
Good men die young,
Great men never die!
Be safe, have fun.