I bought my second RWS 52 in .22 cal. last year, had one years ago and foolishly sold it. I usually prefer the open sights on airguns, but have used scopes as you can see the target better in low light and it helps to clarify between an evil starling and a beneficial robin very quickly.
I mostly went with a scope on this gun as the rear factory dovetail sight has some looseness and I thought this was causing wandering point of aim. There have been complaints with Umerex (RWS parent company) on loose rear sights, which they don't seem to care about fixing from their point. But with springers, they tend to naturally like to wander no matter what sight is on them to some degree!
I have read that this type of rifle is hard on scopes so I bought the heavy duty scope mount that goes the length of the slotted dove tail mount on top of the gun. Currently running a Leapers 4 X 32 scope. Figured the fixed power would be more reliable compared to a multi-adjust 3 X 9.
I have been missing some of my vermin targets lately, took the gun to the range and the scope was off to the right, sighted it at different distances, and brought it home. Shot it in my house yesterday and it was a little to the left, adjusted it. I am beginning to wonder about my scope, but when it is sighted at the range I shoot for hours and it is rock solid, I have had some other good scopes on regular firearms that seem to go off on windage a little for no reason too.
My options are to stick with what I have, remove the scope and install wire to keep the rear open sight fixed better, or try an aperture sight if there is one for this gun. On my last RWS 52 the scopes I had on it held up ok, but I did not shoot much with that gun and rotated optics so they were not on the rifle for very long.
Some shooters claim that these RWS pumpers will eat a scope in as little as 200 rounds. Am I basically screwed to having to put on lots of optics over a period of years with this gun?
Thanks.
