{"id":2388,"date":"2013-03-25T01:00:42","date_gmt":"2013-03-25T08:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/?p=2388"},"modified":"2013-03-07T10:05:16","modified_gmt":"2013-03-07T17:05:16","slug":"another-cure-for-the-wintertime-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/another-cure-for-the-wintertime-blues.html","title":{"rendered":"Another cure for the wintertime blues"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The RWS 240 is simplicity itself.<\/p><\/div>\n

A short while ago, I suggested that if you\u2019re suffering from the wintertime blues and want to get\u00a0 rid of the I-can\u2019t-wait-for-spring grumpies, a little trigger time with some pistols indoors might be just the medicine that will soothe your soul while you wait just a bit longer for the temperatures to rise and the buds to appear.<\/p>\n

Some folks are, by personal preference, training, or genetic proclivity, pistol freaks. I have a pal who wouldn\u2019t walk across the street to shoot the best long gun in the world, but would put himself at considerable trouble to shooting an interesting new air pistol.<\/p>\n

I realize, though, that pistols are not everyone\u2019s cup of tea. So, what to do if you are a long gun enthusiast and seriously can\u2019t whack up the ginger to shoot air pistols indoors?<\/p>\n

Fortunately, I just recently shoot the answer: the RWS Model 240 Schutze<\/a>. This is a small, light, low-powered air rifle that is just the ticket for low noise, high fun shooting indoors, even at very limited range.<\/p>\n

\"RWS<\/a><\/p>\n

The 240 stretches 41 inches from end to end and weighs just 5.7 pounds. At the aft end, you\u2019ll find a soft rubber butt plate that is separated from the ambidextrous hardwood stock by a black plastic spacer. The stock is entirely free of any adornment such as checkering or grooves. The pistol grip is slanted at about a 45 degree angle and forward of that, a black polymer trigger guard surrounds a folded sheet metal trigger that can be adjusted for first-stage travel.<\/p>\n

\"RWS<\/a><\/p>\n

\"RWS<\/a><\/p>\n

Moving forward, the slim forestock tapers slightly and has a slot underneath to provide clearance for the cocking linkage. Forward of that, you\u2019ll find the barrel, which has a plastic fitting on the muzzle end that serves as a mount for the fiber-optic front sight. The front sight looks like a classic globe sight but has cut-outs on the sides to allow light to illuminate the red optical fiber. Moving back along the barrel, a notch-type rear sight is mounted on the breech block. It has green optical fibers on either side so that a proper sight picture looks like green-red-green dots inside the front globe. I found the buttstock has just enough rise in the comb to provide perfect alignment for my head behind the sights.<\/p>\n

The receiver is fitted with dovetails for mounting a scope but no holes for anti-recoil pins. I am guessing that is because this air rifle generates very little recoil. The factory manual rates the velocity at only 490 feet per second (without specifying the pellet weight), and speeds of 565 fps can be generated only by shooting very light \u2013 7.0 grain \u2013 RWS Hobby pellets<\/a>. That works out to only 4.9 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle.\u00a0 At the extreme aft end of the receiver is an automatic push-pull safety. That\u2019s all there is to the 240. This is an air rifle of extreme simplicity.<\/p>\n

To ready the 240 for shooting, grab the end of the barrel and pull it down and back until it latches. This requires only about 19 pounds of effort and opens the breech for loading. Slide a pellet into the breech, return the barrel to its original position, take aim, slide the safety off, and squeeeeze the trigger. The first stage comes out of the trigger at 12.9 ounces, and the shot goes downrange at 5 pounds, 2 ounces. While the trigger is a wee bit heavier than I would prefer, still I found the 240 a pleasure to shoot. It easily produced dime-sized groups at 13 yards with open sights.<\/p>\n

This is a gun you could shoot all day in the basement, and the report is very mild. It is also a low-powered air rifle, so I wouldn\u2019t recommend it for hunting or pest control, unless it is small game at close range, and you are very confident of your shot placement. In my casual testing of penetration with the 240, I found that, at 5 yards, a 7.9 grain pellet would blow through both sides of a tin can, but at 13 yards, it would penetrate only one side of the can.<\/p>\n

But as a plinker or an indoor practice tool, this is a lovely gun, and it would make a wonderful gift for a youngster who wants to move up from a BB gun to his or her first \u201cserious\u201d airgun or an adult looking for something to do while waiting for spring.<\/p>\n

Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jock Elliott<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A short while ago, I suggested that if you\u2019re suffering from the wintertime blues and want to get\u00a0 rid of the I-can\u2019t-wait-for-spring grumpies, a little trigger time with some pistols indoors might be just the medicine that will soothe your soul while you wait just a bit longer for the temperatures to rise and the…»<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20,43,5,113,6,29],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2388"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2388"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2396,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2388\/revisions\/2396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}