Air Rifle Advice

[Aragorn243]

I am part of a small league of air rifle competition. My team has Walther LG200's upgraded to LG300 standards.

The other teams in the league have Anshutz rifles of comparable quality.

Our team has budgeted for the purchase of one new rifle for next year. All rifles in the league are about 12 years old.

My question is:

Are the Walther's and Anshutz rifles truely comparable or is one of better quality than the other?

I have no complaints about the Walthers but some team members think they are inferior to the Anshutz, no reason given. Our team is competitive but has never placed higher than 2nd. We did however split our matches with the #1 team for the first time this year.

I am the person responsible for selecting the new rifle. Walther makes sense to me as the Anshutz air tanks are not compatible with the Walthers. But if there is a significant difference in quality and performance, I might be persuaded to go Anshutz.

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[Paul S.]

I used a left handed configured Feinwerkbau 601 when I competed in Air Rifles. Anschutz makes very nice rifles in left or right hand specific rifles, have a bus-load of after-market goodies for them and a price tag to match. Walthers, in my opinion, are very nice rifles and reasonably priced. I honestly don't know what I would get if I was in the market for a new rifle.

[Aragorn243]

Walther makes rifles that can be used for both left and right handed shooters and this is what would probably work best for out team. Typically, we only have one left handed shooter at any given time. This season we had four. We have one left handed dedicated rifle that I believe is ambidextrous and one small ambidextrous rifle that is used by small shooters of both handing. That one got used the most although recommendation from the old coach is not to get a second small rifle as typically, they aren't used much either and the kids will grow out of it pretty quick. I don't think it was even used last year so he's probably correct on that.

Both rifles seem to be in the same price range $1500-$1600 and I know the Walthers are fully capable of scoring 100's in good hands so I don't think they are an inferior rifle. I just can't seem to find any site that reviews them against each other.

I believe the prejudice felt against the Walthers is simply the "herd" mentality that if everyone else has the Anshutz, they must be the better rifle. I keep telling them the Walthers are better but I really don't know.

[Paul S.]

Herd mentality for sure, especially given how many Anschutz rifles you see being used by national Olympic teams. The caveat there is that a good number of those rifles are donated by Anschutz as team support (and written off in their budget for donations and advertising).

One thing to look at is a lot of other air rifle manufacturers use Walther barrels. If memory serves, my Feinwerkbau has a Walther barrel.

As for side by side comparisons, this is the best I could find: TargetShooting Canada: A Canadian Bullseye Resource

[Aragorn243]

I had a match this evening and I checked their rifles. They are not Anshutz, they are Feinwerkbau's. So that is what five of the other teams have. The sixth has a mixture of CMP Anshutz and Daisy's.

Thanks for the website. They seem to talk up the Anshutz a good bit on there but I think I'll stick with the Walther's for simplicity sake.