TargetTalk

Does anyone have photos of FWB SSP accuracy tests being conducted? You know, that target that comes with the gun.

Speculating on what may be on your mind...how do they charge the SSP between shots without disturbing whatever machinery is holding the pistol?

I have a FWB 102 bought new a long time ago, and wondered that myself. Maybe they just buy a 4.5mm paper punch and save a lot of trouble, knowing the pistol will shoot that good anyway.

Seriously, there are those out there who really work at testing and proofing. An interesting video series is posted by an air rifle guru, Heinz Reinkemeier, who demonstrates intense pellet testing. His methodology and equipment is mind boggling. I don't doubt FWB factory testing of pistols uses a similar professional approach.

You asked about a specific pistol; these videos center around Olympic quality Walther air rifles but may be worth the look. See the link ---
< https://youtu.be/6OY7Jv13pB0>. (I tried this link just now and it works fine.)

If the direct link doesn't work go via his website <https://www.heinzlive.com/testing-airrifle-pellets/> and start the videos from there.

JE

i have a FWB100 and wondered myself on how to test.
i don't see it done with normal equipment, like e vise. maybe at the FWB factory, they had some special tooling for it.

Interesting link. Thanks.

Back when I had a FWB100, I wondered about this, but never worked up a testing method; I just shot the damned thing.

However, I previously owned a Pardini K58. I made a simple L shaped jig and could uniformly replace the gun on/in it after cocking.

It worked perfectly.

I'd still like to see what was being done with the FWB 100, though. It might work with my Walther LPM1.

Like a lot of pistols, its a barrel only test in a test rig before assembly.

I'm sure anyone who really wants to can make a jig to hold the gun by its frame (where the grip would normally be). That might seem a bit complicated, so there is another way as far as match airguns are concerned. Measuring the muzzle velocity should give you a very good idea of the precision, since the vertical spread ought to be the greatest (of any direction). If the muzzle velocity is more uniform than that of another model of air pistol, then then the group spread in the vertical direction will be smaller, and the overall group will be tighter. You simply need to find the standard deviation of the muzzle velocity. The smallest standard deviation comes from the most precise gun.

Back in the Beeman heyday, they made a super big deal about crown design and execution contributing to precision. As the story goes, if the end of the barrel is poorly machined, poorly designed, or damaged, the skirt of the pellet (which is gripping the rifling) leaves the barrel asymmetrically. The asymmetry (translate: wobble) progressively increases as the pellet is in flight, and limits the maximum precision available to that barrel. Hence, the value of testing each one separately. Kind of like that guy in "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", who custom parted a revolver from multiple others, while the shopkeeper looked on.

This would be in addition to the basic capability of the airgun - the velocity consistency, the barrel harmonics, internal vibrations,etc., as noted by previous posts.

For anyone worried about getting a lemon, rest easy. I get them all, and pay extra for the privilege.

(Which reminds me of another Beeman marketing ploy: the "select" wood or "select" accuracy, which they charged extra for. I refer you back to my previous post implicating the suspicious 4.5 mm paper punch reportedly floating around their shop. The kind of accuracy goals implied are available to Olympic quality air pistols, but the Beeman P1 (HW45) or Tempest?) I have retained many of the old Beeman catalogs and scan thru them once in a while if I am feeling depressed and need some humor to pick me up.

JE

I think that back in earlier days (the Beeman "heyday") not as much was known about how to make good pellets. Pellets have improved to the degree that endless testing is no longer required. They are relatively soft when first swaged, but they harden up after a few days, so the secret would be not to "dump" them on each other (and deform them) until they are hardened. Today, match grade pellets are are easy to come by, and very uniform (without special treatment).