Manufacturer:- www.feinwerkbau.de

Retail Price :- £950 (In 2007) No longer available new. £650 Upwards Secondhand depending on the age and condition and market fluctuations
Intended Purpose :- Single Stroke Pneumatic 10m Match Air Pistol
Power :- Pneumatic
Caliber :- 4.5mm / .177
Length in mm :- 415mm
Total Height :- 190mm
Trigger Shoe Adjustment :- 15mm
Total Weight with Cocking Lever :- 1140g
Total Weight without Cocking Lever :- 975g
Action Finish :- Black and Light Blue painted frame.
Barrel Length :- 251mm
Sight Line, approx :- 365mm

Manual :- Model 103 Manual
Average Velocity :- 520 FPS +/- 7FPS with 7gn R10 Match Pellets
Average Energy :- 4.2ft/lb
Sights :- Open, with micrometer adjustment
Trigger :- 2 stage, fully adjustable
Trigger Weight :- 500g
Trigger Slack Weight, up to approx :- 500g
Trigger Point Weight :- 80-300g
Grip :- Walnut Morini. Multi angle adjustable

20-March-2010

I started with a Model 65 and since I bought that first pistol from Feinwerkbau I seem to have collected a few of them. :-)

This is my fourth. with the Model 65, 90 and C10 bought before it. Not to mention the 300s 10m match rifles I am restoring.

I had seen the Model 103 at various times when browsing the internet. It is easy to spot with it unusual design and colour scheme. I had seen it on the internet years ago before my interest in airguns started.

So now my interest had started and after owning various other Feinwerkbau made match air rifles and pistols I set about tracking one down.

Harder than it looks to get one of these, I have had a Wanted advert out on various forums for several months. Not a single reply, I was also considering the 100 and the 102 models which were the earlier variations of the 103. I missed out on one of those, but that probably worked itself out as I was then able to buy this. I was considering joining www.egun.de as that was the only place I had really seen any for sale secondhand, but the condition of some of them left a lot to be desired.

I spotted the advert on the Airgun BBS and posted my 'Yes, I'll have it reply' in less than four minutes of it being placed. So more a case of being in the right place at the right time than someone replying on my wanted advert.

So what is the appeal of this now outdated match pistol?

Well for a start it is totally self contained. If you want to go and shoot at the club, all you need is the pistol and a tin of pellets and you are set for the whole afternoon or evening. No air supply to worry about.

The other main advantage over the spring powered Models 65, 80 and 90 is that there is no spring in this model. The 103 is a SSP or Single Stroke Pneumatic. This means that to charge it ready for shooting you just open the cocking lever and then close it again. This compresses a charge of air in a small chamber, this air is then released when the trigger is pulled and used to propel the pellet towards the target. A very simple idea but engineered to perfection by Feinwerkbau. The 103 is probably the pinnacle of SSP air pistol design. No spring means no recoil, so once loaded this pistol shoots the same as any other high quality match pistol.

If that is the case then why don't they still make it or a similar model? Good question, I suspect it is in the search for perfection in 10m match shooting, any distraction to the shooter may put them at a disadvantage to their competitors. With the 103 after each shot you have to break your position in order to operate the lever ready for the next shot. Doing this 60 or so times per competition is probably going to eventually cost you a point or so over the people using pistols with compressed air cylinders that can just load the next pellet and shoot. For someone like me who is never going to have to worry about competitive shooting anywhere near that level, it's not really going to be a problem. :-)

So back to my 103, which arrived very quickly form the seller well wrapped inside a cardboard box and lots of brown paper.

The 103 came in it's own custom made protective case, this looks to be made from ABS and is nice quality with decent hinges and fasteners. Opening it up reveals the pistol surrounded by precut foam and various other spaces containing the supplied accessories. It came with the original factory manual stamped with the serial number showing the single hole test group.

A few tools are supplied for adjusting the grip and the sights with, a flat bladed Screwdriver,several Hex keys and a tube of Feinwerkbau special grease. There is also a few different sizes of front sight elements.

There is space provided in the case for two tins of pellets and the seller kindly sent a nearly full tin of RWS R10 match pellets with it.

Lifting the pistol out of the case you are struck by the overall size of it, this is a large and bulky bit of kit, what is surprising though is that it does not weigh as much as you think it is going to. At arms length even with the cocking lever still attached it has excellent balance and comes onto the target with ease.

The overall build quality is very high indeed. With this being a secondhand purchase I expected to see wear marks on the finish. I expect the previous owner has been particularly careful with his purchase as as you can see from the photographs there is hardly any signs of use.

The manufacture dates of the various Feinwerkbau SSP models are as follows.

LP 100: 1988 to 1998
LP 102: 1991 to 1998
LP 103: 1996 to 2008

This 103 is what I believe to be the later of the two version that I have seen of it. The earlier version was a darker shade of blue in colour and was fitted with a two piece Feinwerkbau grip unit. As you can see on this model the grip is a single piece Morini unit identified by the CM logo engraved in the side of it. I was again lucky to buy the pistol with the correct medium grip size fitted as supplied.

The Morini grip can be adjusted in several different ways to give the shooter the best position when on aim. These adjustments areas follows.

Hand Rest or Palm shelf position
Grip Turn
Grip Inclination
Side Grip Inclination

I've not needed to alter any of these settings for now, but as I get used to shooting with the 103 I may gradually adjust them.

To operate the pistol you first need to cock the action. This is done with the large lever that hangs underneath the barrel. The lever is just pulled round to the fully open position (about 180 degrees from the closed) at this point the cover over the breech loading port should flip open. The lever is then returned back to the closed position to charge the pistol with compressed air. This takes a little bit of effort, but the large lever helps with this. The lever returns with an over centre position, this causes it to snap closed against the base of the barrel shroud over the last bit of the travel. Excellent as it means there is no need to press any catch or release button as on many other SSP pistols.

If you now wish it is also possible to remove the cocking lever to reduce the pistol weight before shooting. Just slide the black plastic catch in the direction of the arrow and lift it off .I don't find the extra weight an issue, but it is handy if you do want to make the pistol lighter.

The flip up breech cover now reveals the loading port and pellet probe. The pellet is dropped into the little channel in front of the probe. On closing the cover the probe moves forward seating the pellet into the barrel and sealing the breech with an O-ring. I think out of all of the various pistols I have used, this is my favourite method of loading. It is simple and easy, and does not bias left or right handed shooters. The flip up cover also blocks the sight line until it is closed, so that should prevent any attempt to shoot at the target without a pellet loaded.

The trigger is a two stage unit. It is adjustable for Finger Position, First stage travel, Trigger stop position and trigger weight. The trigger Slack Weight and Trigger Point Weight as the manual refers to them are the first stage weight and the second stage release point. ISSF rules demand that the total weight is greater than 500g. I have not checked this as I don't shoot formal competitions.

As supplied I thought the first stage travel was a little long and the second stage weight a little low compared with the first stage weight. But I thought I would try it out as it was. I'm pleased I did as it seems to work extremely well for me, with excellent groups starting to form even at this early stage of shooting it.

The open sights are fully adjustable for windage and elevation. Adjustments are as follows.

Shooting High: Turn the upper adjusting screw to direction H.
Shooting Low: Turn the upper adjusting screw to direction T.
Shooting Right: Turn the side adjusting screw to direction R.
Shooting Left: Turn the side adjusting screw to direction L.
One click changes the point of impact by 1.5 mm at a distance of 10 meters.

The rear sighting notch is adjustable in width as follows.

4-8mm

To adjust rotate the screw with the supplied flat headed screwdriver in the indicated direction.

The front sight blade is normally 3.8mm as supplied but can be replaced with various widths 3, 3.2, 3.5, 4.1, 4.4, 4.7and 5mm.

I think I found a new favourite pistol to shoot with! ;-) (Well until the next one anyway)

The pistol shoots at a surprisingly high velocity for a SSP. As you can see form the chrono test results below the average reading is around 520 Feet Per Second and around 4.2 Ft/lb in energy with 7gn RWS R10 Match pellets. This is slightly higher than my Steyr LP10 that runs off a compressed air cylinder.

Overall velocity is not really an issue though, it is consistancy that is most important. You can see that this pistol shoots very consistantly. Mostly only varying by a few FPS from shot to shot. All the tests were done with unweighed pellet straight from the tin as well, so that could contribute to the small variation I am measuring.

The pistol is pretty much maintenance free, just a wipe over with a Microfibre cloth after use, no oil required. Although I do wipe the bare metal of the sight adjustment controls with a cloth sprayed with Brunox.

The instruction recommend a periodic clean of the cocking sliders and tube to remove the old grease about once a year. Then a very light re-application of the Feinwerkbau special grease. The grease is designed for high pressure air pistols as it does not combust under extreme pressures as normal moly grease would. It is white in colour and I suspect it may contain a silicon element to it.

I think 103 will be a keeper for some time, great to shoot with and a little bit different than the current 10m match pistols. But not really any less accurate.

Thanks

Mark

www.airgunbbs.com

lincs-hft-club.co.uk