Rob's HW97 review before and after tune..I've had the HW97LK for a
while now and out of the box, I considered the gun to be a bit smoother in
operation than the famous TX200. Still, I wanted a bit more so I ordered a
Maccari tune kit for it. The tune kit sat for a couple weeks while I
gathered up the courage to tear down my HW. Yesterday, I finally did the
deed. I fired out a few shots over the chrony to get some pre-tune numbers
and almost talked myself out of tuning it. The gun shoots great with minimal
twang and is right at 14fpe in .22.
Alas, I decided to go ahead with the tune. After an uneventful disassembly,
I lubed the gun properly and installed the new spring, guides, and seal. I
didn't polish the compression chamber nor any other polishing. I did clean
out the trigger housing and added a touch of moly, as well as to the pivot
points on the gun. Other Mods to this gun include a fitted Morgan Adjustable
butt pad and a custom cocking handle.
Putting the gun back together was quite the job as the spring has a fair
amount of preload to it, but with some (safe) diligence, I managed to get
her back together. I fired out a couple shots to ensure all was well and was
rewarded with a very nice firing cycle. Less recoil than before and a nice
thunk upon firing. Easily as good or better than either of my
tuned TX200's. I had hoped that the decrease in recoil didn't mean that I
had lost too much velocity. I was very sparing with the tar on the spring as
I didn't want to lose too much. When I fired a few shots over the chrony, I
was really surprised.... my 14fpe gun is now a 17fpe hammer. There was no
smoking or dieseling to speak of.
Today, I decided to try out some groups. Of course, POI had changed after
the tune, and my first few shots were a bit erratic. I fired out about 10
shots using Kodiaks to ensure all dieseling was gone and then fired out
about 20 shots with RWS HP's, the HW's favorite pellet. I then re-chronied
it to make sure yesterdays shots weren't affected by dieseling
and thankfully, they were not. Just a touch over 17fpe using a variety of
mid weight pellets.
On to the groups. After sighting in, I ended up with this nice group. I had
all 5 in a one hole group and should have left it at that, but did one more
shot and of course, opened up my group with a called flyer.

Regards.. Rob
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