Walther Century GT .22

Why the Walther Century? Well, over the years I've had most of the popular springers and I fancied another break barrel. The conventional choice would be some kind of Weihrauch but that left a problem: The HW99 is a fine rifle but has issues, the HW80 is more like it but not that nice at 12fpe. Which leaves the HW95, except that I don’t like the current spec UK version with the silencer.

So I was very interested when Umarex introduced the new range of Walther break barrels and I bought mine in 2016. The Century is the mid-range model with the Terrus at the bottom and the various LGVs at the top. I read a number of reviews that said the Century wasn't that far off the performance of the LGV, while being usefully cheaper. I'd also read that whilst generally well built, some examples diesel badly from new and some come with badly cropped springs. So I decided to strip mine down before it fired a single shot.

Stripping is dead easy: You don’t even need to remove the barrel to get the piston out. Knock out the two pins holding the trigger block (in any order) and that’s pretty much it. The spring is under very little preload so just press the trigger block down on a padded surface as you tap the second pin out. Then withdraw the trigger block, followed by the spring and then the piston. Unfortunately, my spring was badly cropped and there was a lot of grease in front of the piston: It would have dieselled horribly in that state.

So I cleaned everything up, finished the spring properly then re-lubed sparingly and reassembled, taking care not to get any grease in front of the piston. Job done. OK, we shouldn’t have to do these things to brand new rifles but these problems aren’t unique to Umarex: My last few Weihrauchs have had their share of cropped springs, lubrication and other issues. It seems to be a common thing with German stuff these days: The design is good, it’s just a shame that more care isn’t taken with the assembly.

Still, enough of that. With the issues sorted, what’s it like? Well, overall build quality is excellent: The blueing is deep and there are no sharp edges anywhere. The spring is a firm fit on the guide and the piston rides on a delrin bearing. Cocking is super smooth and the firing cycle is twang free.

And it’s definitely a man-sized rifle: Big & heavy with an enormous compression tube that makes guns with normal sized cylinders look positively weedy! It feels like an HW80 if not quite as heavy. This is the GT model which means that it has a polymer stock and comes as a package. I usually prefer wooden stocks but I can’t really fault this one: Nice looking, solid feeling and with a high grip finish on the fore-end and pistol grip. The included scope is also surprisingly good. It only has a basic cross hair reticle but is parallax adjustable with a very clear image. The included single screw mounts look a bit feeble so I replaced mine with a one-piece jobby.

The trigger is decent, not quite as good as a Rekord trigger but perfectly acceptable and is a simplified copy of the Air Arms CD unit. In fact a lot from this series of guns has been copied from both Weihrauch & Air Arms such that some HW parts are directly interchangeable with the Century parts (see below).

I tested the Century with several JSB variants (Express, FAP & AAF) together with RWS Superdome, Super Hollow Point, Accupell and H&N FTT. For power testing, each pellet was individually weighed. Right off the bat, I have to say that the Century has the least pellet-fussy barrel I've ever come across and gave near identical groups with all of the pellets tested, so I'd expect excellent accuracy with most ammo.

However, there were surprisingly significant differences in power and velocity. The top of the table was dominated by JSB with JSB Express far and away the winner. They gave an average 598fps for 11.4fpe and a spread of just 7fps over a 10 shot string. Coupled with the usual JSB accuracy, this makes the JSB Express the pellet of choice for this rifle. At the other end of the table is the Accupell which, despite a similar weight, managed an average velocity of just 523fps for 8.6fpe! Bizarre...

Having pondered this, I suspect that the Century has a heavily choked barrel. This would explain the accuracy with such a wide range of ammo but could presumably result in tighter pellets being significantly slowed down as they pass through the choke. Well, that's my theory anyway!

So there you have it: A big, heavy rifle which, minor niggles aside, is well built with quality components. It’s certainly worth the money although as with any spring rifle these days, I’d recommend a strip-down before use just to be on the safe side.

Modifications, Spares & Tinkering: I found the standard trigger perfectly acceptable but out of interest fitted the Walther “Tuning trigger” which adds a second stage adjustment screw. Unfortunately, I struggled to get a satisfactory set up with the tuning trigger: You have to balance the two screws to get a good let off and it's a skill that eludes me, although I can't blame Walther since I have exactly the same problem with Air Arms triggers! I subsequently went back to the standard trigger modified with a longer adjustment screw, to give about 1mm of extra leverage and I prefer this set up to either the standard or the tuning trigger. It's a cheap mod for the price of a 20mm M3 allen screw and works very well.

There's been some talk about the spares situation with these guns. Apparently most stuff is available from the importers but a lot from this series has been copied from both Weihrauch & Air Arms to the extent that some parts are directly interchangeable. For example, the current (narrower) spec HW80 mainspring is an exact fit as are 30mm Weihrauch HW80/35 piston seals (and the V Mach and Custom Air Seals equivalents). Breach seals are available for cheap off eBay and TX200 Power Washers are an exact fit if required. So all of the consumable parts are available, if not as OE then as quality alternatives. And the rest of this rifle is sufficiently robust that I'd expect years of use before replacing any of the major parts.