The Weihrauch HW90 is a beautiful, powerful and consistent air rifle. It offers an excellent, light trigger, plenty of power and superb quality of construction.
Traditionalists will love the comprehensive iron sights and the beautiful woodwork. While the limited lifetime warranty from Airguns of Arizona gives the comfort of long-term security.
But potential owners need to know that this is a big, heavy air rifle that’s best suited for a big, strong owner. That cocking effort is a real work-out!
The Weihrauch HW90 air rifle is the German manufacturer’s only airgun with a gas ram powerplant. Unlike any other gas ram airgun, it has the built-in capability to change the pressure inside the gas ram – and therefore the power. True, it requires the use of a separate, additional cost, pump and gauge, but it can be done and AoA has them in stock.
The .177 caliber Weihrauch HW90 air rifle I tested delivered a maximum Muzzle Velocity of 1,320 FPS with 5.0 Grain Predator GTO lead-free pellets. As with most gas ram-powered airguns, the lightest pellets also produced the highest Muzzle Energy of 21.35 Ft/Lbs.
As expected, FPS steadily declined with increasing pellet weight. However, the heaviest – 10.65 Grain – H&N Baracuda Match pellets still generated a strong 17.86 Ft/Lbs of Muzzle Energy. They also produced the best accuracy.
At 25 Yards, this HW90 achieved sub-1-inch groups for 10 shots. But the gun feels as if it has more accuracy to give. Weihrauch emphasizes that the HW90 requires a break-in period of several hundred shots before peak performance is attained. So accuracy could well improve with time…
Unlike other Weihrauch break barrels, the HW90 does not use the company’s famed “Rekord” trigger. Instead there’s an “Elite” trigger, with the automatic safety in front of the trigger guard.
The trigger was very smooth and easy to use. There was a clear two-stage feel and the release was very consistent and predictable. This is good!
Then the average Trigger Pull Weight (TPW) was just 1 Lb 11.5 Oz. That’s probably the lowest pull weight that I have ever recorded for a breakbarrel air rifle!
However, that light, easy trigger was offset by the extremely high effort required to cock the gun.
Having a gas ram action, the cocking effort did not increase through the stroke of rotating the barrel. It was high right from the start and continued there. I measured a cocking effort of no less than 45 Lbs!
But – there’s a big but! This test gun was tested at maximum pressure in the gas ram. While that gives the most power, it also causes the cocking effort to be highest, too.
As the Weihrauch HW90 air rifle has that unique adjustable gas ram feature, the cocking effort would be reduced – possibly significantly – if the gun was tuned to perform best with mid-weight lead pellets – say the 8.64 Grain H&N Field Target Trophies.
That’s something I hope to investigate in future…
There are plenty of airgunners who like to shoot using iron sights. For these people, the Weihrauch HW90 air rifle is a joy because it’s fitted with a serious set of traditional open sights. There’s not a fiber optic element to be seen!
The front sight comprises a hooded housing with interchangeable elements. In fact, the manufacturer includes no less than six different interchangeable elements. These are easily interchanged and give the owner a wide variety of options for open-sight shooting.
The rear sight is click-adjustable for elevation and windage, of course.
In addition, the Weihrauch HW90 air rifle can also be fitted with a scope.
The rear of the compression tube is machined with standard airgun rails and there’s no less than three deep scope stop holes. These allow for flexibility in scope mount positioning based on scope size and the user’s eye relief requirements.
For my review, I mounted a Hawke 4-12 x 40 AO scope on the HW90 using a solid, one-piece Leapers UTG mount. This scopes fairly light but has good optical quality and an Adjustable Objective (AO) for focusing down to 10 Yards.
At 12.9-Inches overall length, this is far from the longest scope that it’s possible to mount on the HW90. There was still 1.5 inches gap between the front of the scope and the rear of the barrel, giving plenty of flexibility for scope placement or installing a longer scope.
To obtain a nice low eyeline, we combined a Medium height mount with this one-Inch tube scope. Everything worked-out perfectly, with minimum clearances all round, yet no contact from the scope’s turret box or focusing ring.
The Weihrauch HW90 air rifle is a solidly-built air gun and the weight reflects that. The all-up weight of the test gun and scope was 11 Lbs 5 Oz. This, combined with the heavy weight and long overall length of 45.25 Inches, means that the HW90 is best-suited to a strongly-built shooter. This is not a kid’s gun!
The HW90 air rifle has a simple, classic design. The stock is simple yet comfortable. Although there’s no modern touches such as an adjustable comb to the stock, it was comfortable to shoot.
Note that the HW90 has a stock design that favors right-handed shooters with it’s cheek rest. However it can be shot by left-handers also.
At a price of $669.99, it’s clearly in the upper range of pricing for guns of this type, but if you have the physical strength and physique to manage it, the Weirauch HW90 can be a great classic choice for the connoisseur.
