FEINWERKBAU 2700 FREE-RIFLE

By David Hollister

The Feinwerkbau brand has been well known to Australian shooters since the late 1960s. Founded by engineers Ernst Altenburger and Kurt Westinger in 1951, the Feinwerkbau firm originally produced Olympia electro-mechanical calculators and precision specialist parts for other companies.

They soon developed their side-lever recoilless air rifle which was to bring them international acclaim. I bought one of the finely finished model 300 air rifles in 1972, and still have the original pellets that came with the rifle! Apart from shooting a mouse, the Feinwerkbau has seen little service.

The product range has been extended to include air pistols, black-powder pistols and .22 match rifles. All components excepting barrels, which are sourced from Lothar Walther, are manufactured in-house in their ultra-modern plant at Oberndorf.

The 2700 smallbore rifle is available as a timber laminate (Universal) or as an aluminium all-adjustable free-rifle of modern design. The 670mm barrel is available in two weights, 22mm or 24mm diameter, giving an all-up weight of 5.9 or 6.1 kg. A 150mm muzzle sleeve carries the foresight, which is not threaded for Anschutz-type fittings. The one plastic foresight element which was supplied with the rifle was too tiny for me and I found it necessary to purchase a variable iris. The backsight comes with a fixed aperture, but is, however, threaded for standard replacement fittings.

A palm-rest is supplied which is adjustable for depth, and the cheekpiece can be twisted, moved laterally and adjusted for height. Similarly, the butt plate can be adjusted in a multitude of ways. The pistol grip can be supplied in a choice of hand sizes and is adjustable laterally as well as for twist. The aluminium stock, which is not a casting but machined from the solid, is available in either silver or blue.

The trigger as set by the factory was adjusted for a very light two-stage release. I can't remember using a nicer trigger. Although my preference is for a single-stage, this release was so good that I had no desire to make any further adjustments. The stock set-up took very little time as the major settings of the cheekpiece and length of pull can be made from the shooting position without the need for tools. It is necessary though to record the cheekpiece position, as removal of the bolt requires lowering of the comb.

The rifle selected for this review came with the smallest test target imaginable. Ten shots at 50m into a 4.6mm group! I often wonder how the factories obtain such fine results by just clamping the barrel into a vice. I have never been able to satisfactorily duplicate these results from any kind of machine rest - my rifles have always shot smaller groups when fired prone. But that's another story.

The sling swivel is of novel design. The circular handstop is eccentric, and can be rotated and locked to provide variations in radius. Handstops are a personal thing, and I substituted my familar Anschutz fitting after finding the FWB plastic swivel, which snaps into the centre of the handstop, slightly uncomfortable.

The two outstanding features of this rifle are the excellent trigger and the ease of setting up the shooting position. I have owned an Anschutz aluminium stock for some years and have only now managed to adopt a satisfactory shooting position, But with this FWB I was able to assume a perfect position within a couple of minutes, and recoil was absolutely magic!

I drafted all of the above before Christmas. Not having shot for a while I decided to try the FWB again to check if my inital assessment was correct. Sometimes a rifle will perform amazingly well the first time it is shot, and subsequently one is disappointed. Recoil can be spot-on for one card and never again is the aiming mark smack in the middle of the foresight ring under recoil and follow-through. This gun was better than I remembered. So good, in fact, that today I rang the police for a permit to acquire!

It is not often that I get excited about a rifle, but this I must say: The Feinwerkbau 2700 is the most comfortable rifle I have ever fired. And it has the best trigger.

Perhaps the most compelling reason for choosing the 2700 above its rivals is the price. At around $3400 it is an attractive proposition.

Rifle supplied by Forbes Wholesale (03) 9439 6111.