Well, I got home last night and finally got a look at what the RWS 34 Panther was all about. I will try to post some pics later. I didn't even shoot it before I tore into it. This was the driest rifle I've opened up yet. Just a tad of clear vaseline looking stuff on the breech hinge and nothing anywhere else. I did a quick de-bur and gave it proper lubrication (I'll save the full polish and hone for later). I noticed that like most of the RWS rifles these days, the bore was slightly off center. Not nearly as bad as I first thought though. The muzzle end is bored low and the breech end is just a tad to the 1 o'clock position. This required me to set the sights off quite a bit to the left to bring the POI on target. If it weren't for the barrel being bored by an idiot, I would say this rifle is worth the $200. That is really my only complaint. It shoots exactly where you point it and the trigger can be adjusted down to probably 1-2 lbs without any modifications. The checkering is deep and sharp, and it shoulders pretty well. It is a bit barrel heavy though. I haven't noticed any hold sensitivity with mine and it'll print the cheap cphp's in the same hole (10 yards) if I do my part. I haven't scoped it yet, so I haven't run it through all the paces. I was expecting a bit more for the money because it is supposed to be a German gun. The plastic trigger feels good, it's just plastic. I don't like the plastic safety, it feels cheap and non-solid. I think my CFX and B26 were both better rifles out of the box than this one and they cost me less.

post some groups Ralph.

Finally got home after a weekend at my parents. I'll try to get some groups (iron sights for now) posted if I can get out to my shop tonight.

cool

Today I decided to give it a tune. I made a new delrin guide and a fitted steel tophat. The rifle didn't have a tophat, just spring in piston. Gave the cylinder a hone and I had a new apex seal laying around and stuck it in there. I got rid of all the crunchiness and I can tell she's going to be a sweet shooter. The stock could use a little foam in the butt. I may do this later. I would like to post pics of how it groups, but my wife took the camera with her. With iron sights at 11yards (my indoor range) I can easily hold 1/2" groups. I know it'll do much better once I scope it. I chronied it and it's shooting right around 900fps with cphp's and it sure doesn't feel like it shoots that hot. After the tune, I thought I had lost about 100fps because the shot cycle had gotten so much quieter. I imagine once it starts breaking in, it'll pick up a bit of speed. Finally, I think I have a rifle that will keep up with my CFX. Only a scope will tell.

How'd you make the tophat? Is it like a standard tophat but with a hole instead for the piston stem?

Yes. It's a bit shorter than your normal crosman or gamo tophat. I also had to make the rear 'delrin' guide just a tad shorter than stock so it would cock. I made the o.d. just small enough to slide easily into the piston and I bored the center hole to the same diameter as the piston's center rod +.003" to allow it to rotate freely with the spring. The neck is the same diameter as the i.d. of the spring so as to have a compressed fit. I also made two new lighter springs for the trigger group and shimmed the trigger to get rid of most of it's side to side play. This thing has a sweeet trigger now compared to what I had with just the normal adjustment. I don't have a scale for the trigger, but I'm guessing that it lets off with less than a pound of pressure now.

As I said, the bore was off set, but not as bad as my wife told me over the phone. The trigger and safety are plastic and feel cheap. The trigger is very nice now after I made two new lighter springs and lets off the second stage with what I'm guessing less than a pound. The target in the pic was the best of the evening with 9 going into essentially the same hole and one touching the outside. I haven't been able to duplicate this target, but I can easily keep all of them inside 1/2-3/4" at 11 yards. I imagine after I scope it, this rifle will be a gnat buster.

That's some nice shooting! Yeah the hole doesn't look too bad at all. It's not as noticeable as some other's I've seen...

lookin good Ralph.

Yeah, I've seen much worse bores and when my wife unboxed it and said it looked offset, I got pissed. I figured I'd come home to worse. I got lucky on this one and can live with it's aesthetic. It doesn't seem to affect the accuracy and I'm not at the end of the sight's windage or elevation. Hopefully I lucked out on the droop issue too.

Hey Ralph do you remember the dimensions of your spring?

I never write stuff down. I'm pretty sure the i.d. was .560". I often wonder how hard it would be to write something down while I'm measuring.

LOL I do the same thing. I'll have everything apart and think "maybe I should write it down...na, I'll remember..." Then as soon as everything is back together I end up wishing I wrote it all down...

I'll probably tear into it again eventually. I've got all the noise out of it now except for a little click when you bring the barrel back up after cocking it. I imagine I need to shape the cocking shoe just a tad more or it may be a narrow spot in the cocking slot. I tell ya, the B26 has the best idea going for it's cocking slot if you've ever had one apart. It has a little 'sled' that slides in the cocking slot that does all the work and the linkage pushes the sled instead of making contact with the piston. It's a smooth design and I've thought of machining one to fit other rifles.