Airgun World – Summer 2019

http://www.airgunshooting.co.uk AIRGUN WORLD 77

rifles, say a kilogram, then the recoil would
come down to nearer 4.5mm which is,
incidentally, the same as my mildly modified
TX200 Mk.3, the significance of which will
shortly become apparent.
Some HFT springer shooters go a lot further
than just adding 1kg to the rifle; one of the
competitors in the national had practically
doubled the weight of his combo which, with
no internal modification, would reduce the
recoil to nearer 3mm. There’s yet more
potential to reduce recoil through internal
modifications, such as reducing the available
piston stroke (which gives a pro-rata reduction
in recoil), or reducing the piston mass, and if
you throw every modification at the rifle, recoil
under 2mm is possible. That tiny amount of
recoil would still be eight to ten times that of a
PCP, which is why trying to shoot even an
ultra-low recoil springer off the deck like a PCP
can be a bad idea.

THE COMPETITION
The course setters at Nomads are all springer
shooters, and know exactly how to tailor a
course to challenge both the shooter and the
rifle (and tune), and they pulled all the stops
out for this one.
In addition to TX200s and HW97s, there
were three HW98s, three Prosports, and a few
Walther LGVs and LGUs, and the tuners’
stickers adorning the cylinders of many of the
rifles, especially the TX200 and HW97,
indicated that they were modified, and that

many contained fairly radical modifications and

were in what I’d class ultra-low (4mm or less in

the factory stock) recoil tune, which is currently

very much in vogue. The question was, did the

lesser recoil influence the result?

In conjunction with state-of-the-art rifles

were top-flight competitors, with a daunting

number of reigning and former Regional,

National and World champions in both Recoil

and Open classes, some at the peak of their

TECHNICAL AIRGUN

»

form. Competitions don’t get more challenging

than this.

WINNERS ALL

The winner of the first UKAHFT National Recoil

Championship was Nomads member, Stew

Searle, who scored 53, followed by Dan

Gordon and Perry Broad, each with 52, and a

shoot-off won Dan second place, Perry third.

All three were using TX200s in fairly hefty

Nomads member Jason Cowan competed using my old (modified) Walther LGU, and did well, ending up with 46.

Third-placed Perry Broad prepares to tackle a supported stander (which he nailed), while world champion Simon Vant offers encouragement.