TargetTalk

I've been told the German magazine VISIER does some very good reviews on guns. Therefore, I would appreciate if someone could post a short article in English resuming a review for the Feinwerkbau AW93.

Thank you in advance!

Ok guys, I try to give my best to summerize the review of VISIER (from july 2007) concerning the Feinwerkbau AW 93:

This pistol is, compared to all the other top match-pistols, quite different. This fact is based on the underlying russian concept (Bajkal). Among other things the concept tries to buffer the recoil by some unconventional ways (e.g. the slide on it´s way back has to climb a sloped ramp and therefore the direction of the recoil is even more directed into the hand; and on it´s way back the slide also takes the "part of the gun which is responsible to lock the whole system (sorry for the words) some milimeters along it´s way - so the buffer in the back of the gun can absorb a huge amount of energy - uff, that was hard to describe ;-).
The outcome of all these measures is, that the shooter can forget any malfunctions of the gun based on ammo. The pistol works with soft subsonic ammo as well as with hard high velocity stuff. The precision is excellent, due to the fact of the long barrel (152mm). Best result was 17mm (enclosed group). The possibility of adjusting the trigger is not so well. Trigger can only be moved foreward and backward. But the characteristic of the trigger is tripple A. "Pressure point and the way to the pressure point" (sorry I had to work arount the right wording ´cause I don´t know the vocabulary) is adjustable by moving/changing the appropriate little springs. And this works really well.
But of course there is a "natural" problem with the grip - it´s range of individual adjustment is very limited (because it´s housing the magazine).
The sight is almost perfect. Only depth of the rear sight cannot be varied.
The gun can be disassembled without any tool for cleaning and quick inspection.

Some figures:
Shooting results (max. 40 points): 40 p (17mm)
Trigger in gramms (max. 5 points): 5 p (1090 gramms)
Trigger-characteristic (max. 10 points): 8 p
Handling (max. 15 points): 14 p
Grip (max. 10 points): 8 p
Sights (max. 10 points): 9 p
Finish/Workmanship (max. 10 points): 10 p
Total (max. 100 points): 94 p
And this leads to an overall assessment of: Excellent

Just for info: The Pardini SP new I´ve bought a couple of days ago got 94 points, too. The AW93 is very "gunny" and has a great look. I like the style and the reliability and the shape and and and...
But I don´t like the price. In my opinion the AW93 is overpriced. So I decided against it and bought a Pardini for more than 400,- euros less. And that´s a lot of money.
But if you can get a good priced AW93 you can´t do anything wrong. And you´ll have a lot of fun with this extraordinary pistol maybe for a lifetime.
I hope this short review can help a bit in finding a decision.
Best regards
Max

PS: Again sorry for my phrasing. But maybe someone can tell me all the necessary translations concerning parts of a pistol (e.g. trigger is the thing with which and so on) - maybe even with a drawing. Thx ;-))

Thank you for sharing this review with us, Hiermax!

"the slide on its way back has to climb a sloped ramp"

Could you please describe where that sloped ramp is on the gun?

I'm attatching a few images I found online detailing the names of the different parts in a semi auto pistol:

A glossary of firearm and ammo parts can be found here:

http://www.saami.org/Glossary/index.cfm

"the slide on its way back has to climb a sloped ramp"

Could you please describe where that sloped ramp is on the gun?
[/quote]
As I don´t have the gun I don´t know exactly where this sloped ramp is located.
But maybe THIS link (pdf to download I´ve just found in the web; if I had found it earlier, wording would have been easier) can help you. If so let us know where the ramp is.
Max

hiermax wrote:"Pressure point and the way to the pressure point"

AW 93 has enough trigger settings, I think...

User manual (PDF). Page # 20.

http://www.feinwerkbau.de/ceasy/modules ... hp5?id=169

ruig wrote:

hiermax wrote:"Pressure point and the way to the pressure point"

AW 93 has enough trigger settings, I think...

User manual (PDF). Page # 20.

http://www.feinwerkbau.de/ceasy/modules ... hp5?id=169

That´s right, but you cannot turn the trigger sideways or around it´s own lateral axis. I think that´s what they have ment.
Max

Hopefully now it will be obvious what "sloped ramp/bolt" means. Front and rear bolt's position. See how bolt elevates in rear position.

Traditionally bolt moves straight rearward (bolt = slide?).
In AW93 the slide moves rearward and elevates a little bit with its firing pin body. This elevation produces force directed down & rearward.

And finally - this method was borrowed from "Suomi" machine gun. Here is one of the successors:

"A unique feature of this design is the angle of the bolt guide rails in relation to the bore axis."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jatimatic

And one more "unusual" property is a firing pin moving axis. Firing pin hits cartridge case angularly.

Great pics, thank you !!