National 35, .177 : First Impressions

[krishnamjc]

IMG_2843.jpg

Hi. Got my National 35, .177 caliber air rifle 2 days back. First of all a big salute to all the veterans over here. I have extensively read reviews and suggestions by all of you on ‘Indians For Guns’ forum. The gun was bought from the authorised IHP dealer in Kochi and the purchase experience was really nice. They had two pieces with them and fired a few shots and decided from one among them. The Price was 5.4k at Kochi. I am sure that extensive reviews have been done on the National 35 model air rifle from IHP, however I would like to add my 2 cents so that interested people can know more about the same. I am planning to practice in the local rifle range. So I chose the .177 caliber .

Front Sight
The fibre optic sight fixed at the muzzle is pretty good in material quality and the blade too seems perfect for the price.

IMG_2836.jpg

Rear Sight
The rear sight assembly is also made of good hard metal. From pictures I have seen online, it seems the top plate of the rear sight has improved in its quality. I have attached pictures as well.

IMG_2838.jpg

Stock

IMG_2840.jpg

As IHP says, the stock wood seems to be good quality hard wood and the finish is also really nice and the stock offers good feel while holding the gun. The screws on the side are tight and there are no loose parts anywhere.
Barrel, Trigger etc
The barrel is rifled and the breech area and the breech seals are well in place and seems to be of good quality. The trigger is little bit hard, but seems to settle down with increasing number of shots.

IMG_2833.jpg

IMG_2844.jpg

IMG_2849.jpg

Shooting Experience
As soon as I received the rifle, I started firing it for accuracy on a 10 metre range. The initial results showed that the rear sight needs to be adjusted for windage. The grouping happened to the right side of the target so I adjusted the wandage screw and got pretty good results.

IMG_2853.jpg

IMG_2829.jpg

Overall, the IHP National 35, .177 seems to be an awesome Air rifle in its own price segment and has excellent feel as well as accuracy. I am planning to start practice at the local Rifle association . I am a newbie here and dear veterans , please pour in your valuable suggestions to help me out. I am using G Smith, P10 .177 flat head pellets. Are they good enough? Should I try any other brands?
Can anyone suggest about the best options for setting/printing targets for 10 metre practice. When the rifle came to me, some sort of oil was smeared over the barrel and metal parts. I have cleaned the inside of the barrel with cotton swab tied to nylon thread to ensure there is no oil residue inside the barrel, to avoid dieseling. Should I smear oil on the outside metal parts to prevent rusting? If yes, what type of oil? Is there any occasional lubrication required for any of the parts? When I enquired the Membership at Kottayam Rifle Association costs above 12k and an annual fee of 1.4K. Please suggest if its worth if I am planning for just Air rifle practice?

[aadhaulya]

Good review Krishna.

Atul

[krishnamjc]

Thanks a lot for the complement dear Atul.

[Basu]

Dear krishnamjc,
IHP is a nice gun in given price.
IHP synthetic model does have some extra features like synthetic seal and built in scope groove.
I gather that it is best at 650 fps.
You can use Mastershot flat head as well but as you plan to start target shooting , you have to try some more pellets so as to know which one your gun loves most.
Mop the extra oil from every where and use a thin coat of 40 grade mobil when not in use.
Side screws are very important for accuracy and so it should be properly tight.
A proper tuning , lifts this gun to a higher level of performance.
Just read some other posts about this gun for better performance.
Keep shooting and enjoy........

Basu

[krishnamjc]

Thanks a lot for your kind advice Basu sir. Will give attention to your valuable suggestions..And Thanks for suggesting to use different brand pellets to find out the best one for the gun. I have been following your other posts in the forum..they are very much helpful to all of us..

[A-Crossbow]

looking at your groping, It seems your combination of pellet is already good. It is said that medium weight pellets are good for springer rifles, while heavy weight are good for pcp.
If you have the option to get membership in a shooting association, grab it. Good luck

[krishnamjc]

Thanks, Crossbow for the suggestions and comments.

[Basu]

Dear krish,
Hope that with passing of time , you have become more familier with your AR.
As you are very keen to go for target shooting , there you got to be very careful about your stance, attire and grip.
You may find attire part is very funny.....but preferably use those dresses every time you go for serious shooting and shoot well.
I was told P-10 is a nice pellet and returns good score.
If you feel to upgrade your toy , please tune with help of someone who knows the gun.
You will surely see improvement in your performance.

Basu

[krishnamjc]

Dear Basu Sir,
Yes, as you said, I feel more close to the equipment as well as the game. Things have become more predictable. Thanks for the suggestions regarding the attire... As per your suggestions, I have purchased Mastershot as well and I found that it gave even better results. will post some result pics soon... thanks for your support.

[nkarun]

Dear Krishna, am from Trivandrum. Ur post is n right time for me I too was planning for IHP35 but .22, hope u purchased from Jacobs. Is there any tips before buying IHP. also some suggested me to go for SDB. but stock wood quality s not good. Is they allow to fire with different models?