A very good airgun
Renowned German gunmakers Walther have been well known for their quality target airguns for many years. These guns have catered to the 10 metre target market and to a smaller degree the FT scene. In the last couple of years the Walther Company has started producing sporting spring airguns with the break barrel LGV in several variants appearing on the scene first. This has now been followed in 2014 with the release of the underlever LGU rifle.
So, what does this new rifle look like? At first glance the rifle appears to be inspired by two established and wellknown air rifles – the Air Arms TX200 and the Weihrauch HW97K. The LGU barrel and underlever has the visual appearance of the current HW97K, with the cylinder appearing more along the lines of the TX200. Following the “bloodlines” of these established rifles is not a bad thing as both models have established track records.
well finished
Starting at the front end, the muzzle sports an alloy muzzle weight/sound moderator assembly which also supports the underlever retaining block. I have not dismantled the unit to ascertain if there are baffles present within it, but initial observations suggest that it has some effect in reducing muzzle noise as the rifle does not seem to have any excessive muzzle blast on firing. The unit is well finished and complements the appearance of the rifle.
The underlever is retained by a ball bearing type sprung detent, retention is positive without being unduly stiff to operate. I would say that it would be perfectly okay to fit sling swivels to the underlever without issues of the lever popping free. Walther have chosen to fit a pair of large orings in two grooves close to the tip of the lever, I am guessing these are intended to act as buffer to prevent the lever striking the underside of the moderator if closed too energetically. Quite frankly they look ridiculous, but this is balanced out by them being easily removable. Removing them gives a better appearance and in normal use I do not see the lever being able to strike the moderator.
The barrel on the LGU is positioned to be central to the axis of the piston, as on the TX200. Consequently the lever also sits lower and there is sufficient clearance between the lever and the moderator to allow the fitting of a custommade cocking lever grip if the owner of the rifle so desires. Length of the underlever is comparable to the HW97K so there is ample leverage to allow a comfortable cocking effort. The barrel is a Lothar Walther and 300mm long.
The junction of barrel to cylinder is relatively neat and shows what can best be described as a union of the styles used in both the TX200 and HW97K. The cylinder itself is well finished with a loading port set on the righthand side of the tube. The port is similar to that of the TX200 (which some people do not like) and of ample size to allow easy loading. However, those who do not like the TX200’s port will also criticise the LGU’s. Personally I find this port style to be far easier in use if a large FT type target scope is fitted, rather than the centrally positioned port of the HW97K.
The barrel appears to be attached to the action via a large nut visible within the breech, very similar to the system seen on the TX200. Breech seal is provided by an oring on the compression tube, the breech of the barrel features a second oring that may augment the first seal, but probably acts to align the compression tube on the barrel.
To the rear of the loading port, on the righthand side of the action, is an antibeartrap system that is pretty much a »
» copy of the system used on the TX200, which is certainly a vast improvement on the thin steel trigger intercept that passes for an antibeartrap on the HW97K. While this style of safety system might seem cumbersome at first, it quickly becomes second nature to operate. There are only two intercept notches that are close to the end of the cocking stroke, so the antibeartrap is not overly noisy when cocking the rifle. The cylinder is equipped with a generous length of scope rail of approximately 10mm in width; three arrestor pin holes are provided as well.
Metal finish
The metal finish is overall very good, my particular rifle shows a slightly different colour on the barrel, but I would not consider that to be a deal breaker in terms of choosing the rifle. The Walther LGU logo has been laser etched on the top of the main cylinder just forward of the scope rails.
Moving to the rear of the action the trigger housing block/end plug is a twopiece alloy casting. A resettable auto safety is located on the rear upper surface of the block, this is automatically set to safe upon cocking the rifle and is pushed forwards to fire. It can be reset by sliding it rearward at any time. However, take note that if you have a scope with either a large diameter eyepiece or if the mounts are very low, the amount of space to manually reset the safety is a touch limited.
The trigger is a twostage system. As set by the factory it has a very long first stage, however on the UK imports the trigger blade is metal and is supplied with two adjuster screws allowing finetuning of the first and second stages. Trigger release weight is adjusted by a third screw located in the underside of the trigger block to the rear of the blade. A point to note, whilst the trigger block is made of cast alloy, the load bearing points use steel inserts, so this should prevent undue wear over time.
The underlever on the rifle is quite similar to those on the TX and HW, there seems to be no undue play in the hinge when the lever is unclipped. Unlike the other two mentioned rifles, the cocking arm that acts on the piston and compression tube is made of two pieces of steel joined together rather than a single forged item. So far in use this doesn’t seem to have any disadvantage, but does suggest cost saving. The arm is held into the cocking slot by a polymer block assembly that slides in a channel within the stock’s inletting. It is possible that longterm durability of this part could be an issue, but that is balanced out by it being easy to replace.
The stock is manufactured by Minelli of Italy and is made from beech. Starting at the rear, there is a comfortable lightly curved and ventilated rubber butt pad fitted that grips the shoulder nicely in use.
Moving forward there is a wellexecuted ambidextrous cheekpiece with a comb height that will be satisfactory for most mount heights, although if the rifle is going to be used for FT type shooting, with a scope that features a 5660mm objective bell, then I think the cheek weld will be compromised.
The pistol grip section is nicely upright and equipped with neat panels of what I would imagine are laser cut chequering with a neat Walther logo below the panels.
Reach to the trigger blade is perfectly fine for me, if someone has particularly small hands or short fingers they might have an issue as the trigger sits quite well forward in the trigger guard. The trigger guard itself is alloy and nicely finished. The rear of the guard sits close to the face of the grip and anyone with very large fingers might find them brushing the rear of the guard, but the low level of the recoil won’t cause any discomfort.
The foreend is long and deep at its rear and features a Schnabel type tip. From a purely personal perspective I don’t like the look of that, but it may appeal to others. The beechwood stock has a pleasant brown lacquer finish.
perforMance
Following on from the initial look at the technical side of the LGU, we can now examine its performance on the range.
Using Air Arms field pellets the rifle produced an average muzzle velocity of 750fps with a muzzle energy of 10.5 ft/lbs. Now some people may consider this to be unacceptably low, however, for a brand new gun that is yet to bed in with use, I feel it is acceptable. The difference between 10.5ft/lbs and 11/5ft.lbs using the AA pellets is about 30fps of velocity, which in the grand scheme of things in terms of performance is negligible.
Owing to not having a suitable set of 30mm scope rings in my box of bits I was unable to fit my Edgar Brothers 20x42 to the rifle. So, for the initial test I dropped my old Leupold M8 6x36 onto it, using a set of BKL double strap twopiece mounts. An opportunity to get to the range presented itself one Saturday afternoon, so I grabbed the LGU and headed off to the old mine site where my office is based, the company kindly having given me permission to shoot on the site.
As it was a bit breezy I set out the initial zeroing target at 20m to get the gun roughly sighted in. Pulling down on the underlever I noticed the cocking action felt agreeably smooth, no groaning or other noise coming from the rifle apart from the two »
» clicks of the antibeartrap safety engaging its notches just prior to the trigger engaging. Loading pellets is easy enough as the port is quite generous.
Shooting initially from the FT seated position I shouldered the rifle and flicked the safety forwards – it fell nicely to the thumb of the shooting hand. Aim and take up the first stage of the trigger to the stop point, then carefully trip the trigger. The rifle has a very quick, but mild firing cycle, very quiet too. Recoil was felt, but I noticed that there was no loss of sight picture – I watched a hole appear in my zeroing target, high and left of my aim point. A few more shots and I comfortably had the rifle zeroed and pellets grouping satisfyingly tightly.
I decided to try shooting a group from the standing position and fired a total of six shots. Apart from one that I called due to flinching, all the other shots formed a tight group with the bullet holes touching.
After acquiring a set of Sportsmatch 30mm mounts I could fit my Edgar Brothers 20x42 scope and with the scope mounted I returned to the range. Unfortu nately the wind was blowing a lot worse than on my first outing and definitely affected the results.
Once I had zeroed the rifle and established a dial setting for 40 yards, knocking down my 40 yard target was refreshingly easy with the LGU, even in the variable breeze. Whilst doing this I decided to examine how sensitive to hold the rifle is. This came as something of a revelation, initially I used my “normal” spring gun FT hold and the target went consistently. Next I tried gripping it like it was a .458 Win Mag with full house ammo. There was no detectable change of the point of impact – I could still hit the target every time. Next I rested the rifle in my left hand and lightly in my shoulder with barely a touch on the grip. The target still went down. Then I gripped it right at the front of the foreend and pulled the air rile firmly into my shoulder. No change, I could still put the target down with monotonous regularity.
Within reason I varied my holds as much as possible and couldn’t seem to get an appreciable change in how the rifle performed. Now perhaps it wasn’t hitting the same pellet mark each time, but in normal FT circumstances it would hit a fullsize 40mm target at 40 yards irrespective of what hold I applied.
So, summing up, I think that at the retail price for this rifle (in the UK), it is a very good gun and should make the other manufacturers of similarly styled rifles sit up and pay attention. It isn’t a perfect rifle, but let’s face it, no massproduced rifle is ever going to be totally perfect, but out of the box you would be hardpressed to be overly critical of this gun.
Once I had zeroed the rifle and established a dial setting for 40 yards, knocking down my 40 yard target was refreshingly easy with the
LGU, even in the variable breeze.