Author Topic: Hammerli Nova  (Read 19662 times)

Offline SDale

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Hammerli Nova
« on: June 06, 2007, 04:15:48 PM »
I recieved the Hammerli Nova today from Pyramid Air via Fedex.

After opening the box I had nothing but a grin on my face. The first though in my head is "This is a NICE looking Rifle!"
It's DEFINITLY an adult sized rifle measuring 45 and 3/4 inches from butt pad to muzzle. It weighs in at just over 6 pounds. Pretty light for a gun this size.

On to the individual part reviews starting with the Stock:
The stock looks to be a Beech with a nice walnut stain and satin finish. The grain is nice & straight with no knots or checks to be found. A very good quality piece of furniture. The checkering on the forearm & pistol grip look absolutely beautiful...From about 5 feet away. Once you get in for a closer look, it seems that the checkering is muttled and clogged up with what looks to be a mixture of finishing oil and wood dust. Almost as if they didn't mask it off when they were finishing the stock. The comb is medium height. Good for Iron Sights OR a low to medium mounted scope.  The pistol grip is nicely shaped and fits my average sized hand well. The position is quite natural and reach to the trigger is perfect . The stock also has a Right Handed roll over cheek piece of medium thickness. It would porbably be confortable, but I'm a lefty!

The Sights:
The sights are one point below EXCELLENT. The front is a hooded Blade Type with a Red Tru-Glo style insert. The hood is vented for light to pass through. The Tru-Glo insert is a bit small in diameter and doesn't gather very much light.
The Rear sight on the other hand is near PERFECT! The Green Tru-Glo inserts on either side of the the Square U-Notch gather plenty of light and are nice and bright. But not bright enough to be a distraction. There are Graduated White Hatch Marks on the sight for Windage & Elevation reference. The Adjustments for windage & elevation are adjusted with a flat blade screw driver. Detents are nice & solid with very clear sounding "Clicks" . I like the fact that the sights are only adjustable with a screw driver. It makes them harder to bump and move them out of zero.

Loading Port & Barrel:
The loading port is a very interesting design indeed. There's a spring loaded lever on the right hand side. Once the lever is pulled back, the door swings open & exposes the Transfer and Loading Ports. The rifle does not have to be cocked to load! Another very nice feature that I like. There's also No Piston to slam home & cut a finger off if the rifle accidentally discharges while loading. I then proceeded to clean the barrel. I used a weed whacker line patch worm and a patch soaked in Goo Gone. It only took one wet patch and 3 dry ones before the bore was clean. I was expecting to be cleaning for at least a half hour before I was able to shoot.

Cocking & Auto Safety:
The cocking cycle is a little rough/gritty and takes a bit of effort. Estimated pull weight was around 40 pounds. At the end of the cocking stroke there is one barely audible "Click" . The first time I cocked the rifle I though I had half cocked it because of the single arming click. When the cocking cycle is completed the safety automatically pops on. The safety is very nice. It just ahead of the trigger inside the trigger guard and is easily pushed into the Off position. The cocking lever lock-up is a detent ball in the end of the lever and a lug at the end of the barrel. Lock-up could be tighter as the arm fell out of lock a few times during firings.

Firing Cycle:
The firing cycle is pretty harsh. LOTS of recoil and spring torque. Quite a bit of Twang as well. The first stage of the trigger pull is long...REALLY long and the second stage is UNGODLY stiff!!! BUT, it breaks cleanly with NO percieved creep. My Lyman trigger pull gauge measured out at 12.3 pounds!!! "Somethin's GOTTA be wrong here!" I thought. So I decided to pull the action out of the stock. This rifle is a victim of the dreaded "Direct Sear"  . I added a tiiiiiiiiiiny dab of Moly to the sear and reassembled her. After that, the trigger was actually kinda nice! The trigger pull gauge went down to around 5 pounds, but theres also some creep now. You can tap the trigger lightly until it's at the bitter edge of engaugment then give the stock a good bump and she'll go off. I'm not really liking that. But I also found out that the trigger was causing what I thought was spring torque. 90% of the torquing went away and the recoil was straight back.

Muzzle Velocity:
I only fired 3 shots. All 3 were Crosman Premier Lights with a muzzle velocity of 890 +/- 15  FPS. Pretty close to the 1000 FPS advretised. I suspect that it'll go up some once the seal beds in.

Overall...I DON'T think this gun is worth the money I paid for it. At least Not with the trigger it has or the cocking lever lock-up. If this gun had a better trigger I'd like ALLOT more, but alas...This one's goin back to Umarex. I'm seriously disappointed by this one. Even MORE than I was with my Tech Force 99.


Pictures to come tomorrow when I take em! :D

Offline Gene_SC

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RE: Hammerli Nova
« Reply #1 on: June 06, 2007, 04:48:40 PM »
Sam, your review was very objective and laid out quite well.. Will you exchange it for another like it or will you order a different model?
I had been waiting for your review after you told us you pushed the button...:) When I saw that rifle in the local sporting good store here, I really liked the feel of it and was seriously thinking at the time about buying it.. A couple days later, I stopped over to CDT's and so happened he had one on his bench..:) He was cusing it.. lol.. I looked over his shoulder and he was having a heck of a time with it.. I guess it came in with a busted spring and things were jamed up bad.. I stayed around for a while watching him work on it until he got it apart and personally I was not impressed with the insides..:) But it sure looked nice in the store and felt good in my hands. The fit and finish was very nice, like the wood and bluing.. and overall look of it..

Thanks very much for your great review and will be waiting to see what you end up with..

Gene
THE ONES I SLEEP WITH: BSA Lightning XL, AA TX-200, AA ProSport, BSA Ultra, HW-97K, Crosman NPSS .177, FX Cyclone, HW-30 Nicle Plated, AA-S200, Crosman Marauder, CZ-634, R-9 DG, Webley/Scott UK Tomahawk, Benji Kantana, Benji Marauder, Benji Discovery.....
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Gene\'s Tunz n Toyz
Springer Tunin

Offline Big_Bill

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RE: Hammerli Nova
« Reply #2 on: June 06, 2007, 05:27:57 PM »


Hi Sam,



Thanks for the review, one of the most professional reviews I have ever read ! And most complete !



You had my blood pressure going for this air rifle, until the end of your review .;-(



So thanks again Sam, and keep us informed on your next move!

Life Member of The United States of America
Life Member of the National Rifle Association
Member Air Guns Addicted Anonymous
SHOOT SAFE ! - SHOOT WELL ! - SHOOT OFTEN !
Always Use A Spring Compressor ! and Buy the GREAT GRT-III & CBR Triggers, cause they are GRRRREAT !

Offline SDale

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RE: Hammerli Nova
« Reply #3 on: June 07, 2007, 04:10:36 AM »
Thanks guys.

This rifle does feel  like a nice rifle and points really well. But I don't think I'm going to get another one like it. The major factor for me is the Trigger. Plain and simply...It sucks. Like I said, if it had a better trigger I'd be keeping it. I'm still thinking if I shold return it for a refund or exchange it for an 850 Air Magnum. I saw that rifle in a local gun shop and I liked it. I just didn't like that I'd have to get AirSource bottles all the time and I'm NOT spending a hundred bucks on the 12gram adaptor. But since the Nova was such a lemon, I'm thinking twice now.




Offline SDale

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RE: Hammerli Nova
« Reply #4 on: June 07, 2007, 04:41:01 AM »
Here are the pix I promissed!

Offline Gene_SC

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RE: Hammerli Nova
« Reply #5 on: June 07, 2007, 06:30:49 AM »
Dang Sam, that is a perty air rifle to look at..:) To bad about the trigger thing.

Gene
THE ONES I SLEEP WITH: BSA Lightning XL, AA TX-200, AA ProSport, BSA Ultra, HW-97K, Crosman NPSS .177, FX Cyclone, HW-30 Nicle Plated, AA-S200, Crosman Marauder, CZ-634, R-9 DG, Webley/Scott UK Tomahawk, Benji Kantana, Benji Marauder, Benji Discovery.....
....

Gene\'s Tunz n Toyz
Springer Tunin

Offline Splash

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RE: Hammerli Nova
« Reply #6 on: June 07, 2007, 06:47:07 AM »
Looks real nice Sam, I wonder if it would be possible to put in a different trigger group, without much trouble.
Mike
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Offline SDale

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RE: Hammerli Nova
« Reply #7 on: June 07, 2007, 06:50:48 AM »
Yeah...it is a nice rifle to hold & look at. Thats about it.

I don't think another trigger would be easily adaptable. Not without lengthening the action tube a bit and welding the new trigger group on. The trigger that's there is almost EXACTLY like the Chinese made Beeman's with the direct sear trigger.


Offline Splash

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RE: Hammerli Nova
« Reply #8 on: June 07, 2007, 07:00:17 AM »
Bummer about the trigger :0  about all you could do, is alot of polishing and maybe cut the spring alittle.
Mike
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Offline Silo

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RE: Hammerli Nova
« Reply #9 on: June 07, 2007, 09:27:42 AM »

Great review Sam, thanks.

Well I guess you have saved me from buying one now. I'm kinda disappointed though, I was hoping that it would shoot as good as it looks.

Well I guess I'll be getting a Diana 46 or maybe a BAM 40 that I'll have converted to .20 now. :D

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Offline vinceb

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.
« Reply #10 on: June 07, 2007, 10:10:22 AM »
.

Offline vinceb

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Yup. Bum trigger.
« Reply #11 on: June 07, 2007, 10:10:49 AM »
Same trigger as my Hammerli Storm ($132 at MidSouth), and probably the same powerplant. Does look like a neat loading mechanism, though - kinda like a grown-up version of what's on the QS-35.

But, as for the trigger - THERE IS A WAY OF TELLING THE DIFFERENCE BEFORE YOU BUY!!!

Look at the stock directly in front of the trigger guard. When the stock comes down well below the top of the trigger area, that's the lousy trigger. When it's almost even with the top of the trigger area, that's the better trigger.

This seems to apply to the Norica made "magnum" guns (Beeman GS950, GH950, GS1000, GH1050; Hammerli Storm, Razor, Nova) and the Shanghai-built clones (Beeman SS1000, Industry AR1000, and the TF89)

The first two pictures show the bad trigger. The second two show the good one.

Offline vinceb

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If ya wanna spend $300....
« Reply #12 on: June 07, 2007, 10:17:02 AM »
Think about an RWS48. Seriously. See my review if you haven't already.

Offline SDale

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RE: If ya wanna spend $300....
« Reply #13 on: June 07, 2007, 10:29:18 AM »
I already have an RWS48. I was looking at building  diversity  :D  hehe

Offline SDale

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RE: If ya wanna spend $300....
« Reply #14 on: June 07, 2007, 03:37:24 PM »
Hmmm... Looking at Pyramid Air's website, they show a price increase in this rifle since I purchased it!!!

I got it for $230 or there about's...NOW it's listed at $299.99. Interesting!