Target Sports

PISTOL REVIEW: A TECHNICAL MASTERPIECE

Created on 20th May 2009

TIM FINLEY tests the Steyr LP-50 - and finds it the ultimate outdoor air pistol, with top accuracy and ease of use

I've shot Field Target outdoor air pistol competitions since the early 1990s when the North East Field Target Association (NEFTA) of my region added them to our winter league shoots. Now it seems HFT shooters have embraced pistol shooting in a big way. Lea Valley was the first club to regularly hold HFT pistol shoots. They seem a little confused as to what a rifle is and what a pistol is - they fit rifle scopes onto pistols and hold them close to their body using a folded arm hold to suit the short eye relief of the rifle scopes. The UKAHFT has addressed the wannabe rifle shooters by giving them their own class. One thing we noted early on in FT pistol was the need for 5ft/lb of power, to buck the wind a bit and enable us to knock down metal targets out at 25yd. That's why the sport became popular in NEFTA. Titan (now known as Falcon) brought out relatively cheap precharged pneumatic pistols in the early1990s. I still have my old Titan PCP fitted with a Mick Dawes still air system.

Moving on to the present day, I tested the Steyr LP-5 in 2005 for another shooting magazine. When the LP-50 (an updated version of the LP-5) came out I decided to buy one. The LP-50 has several features which makes it ideal for FT/HFT pistol. It runs at 5ft/lb, it is recoilless, it has a superb match trigger and it can be fitted with an optical sight.

I wanted to mount an optical sight and so Hydrographics removed the rear sight and used its mounting screw hole to fix a custom-machined Weaver sight rail. If you only wish to use a small red dot sight the Weaver rail is kept short and only uses the rear sight screw hole. The pistol comes with open post and notch target sights. Different widths of front sight are available and the position of the sight base can be varied by 47mm. I removed the front sight post as well. Hydrographics has fitted a short rail from a red dot or a longer telescopic sight rail which also picks up on the front clamping screw hole for the barrel. The barrel screw is shortened, which does not affect the sturdiness of the barrel clamping, and the front of the rail is held by an Allen screw into this threaded hole. It makes for a robust system and the quality of the machining is well up the Steyr's own high standards. For £80 any exiting LP-5/LP-50 can be converted by Hydrographics and it is a simple job to refit the front and rear sight.

With indoor target pistol post and notch sights you struggle to aim at the top of longer targets. In HFT and FT we shoot at targets at different ranges so have to continually alter where we aim. This isn't easy with post and notch open sights. The wide Weaver style optical sight rail fitted by Hydrographics does not have recoil grooves machined into it as they are not needed on a recoilless air pistol such as the LP-50. B Square scope mounts are available which have a recoil lug that can be rotated out of the way.

I initially fitted a Simmons 2-6x32 pistol scope then went on to a Bushnell 2-6x32 because the eye relief on the Bushnell does not change as you alter the variable magnification. You can alter the mag when shooting an FT pistol course, but in HFT pistol (as with HFT rifle) the scope cannot be changed in any way once the shooter has started the course of fire.

You have to re-parallax 99% of pistol scopes as they are made for firearms, not short air pistol ranges. This is easy as the front lens on both the Simmons and Bushnell are not glued in and can be rotated once the locking ring has been unscrewed.

By fitting a rail and optical sight I had to buy a Peli 1490 hard plastic case. This takes the pistol fitted with sight, spare cylinder, tools, filling adaptor and pellets.

The LP-50 uses the same five-shot clip system as the older LP-5, but has been redesigned with a new barrel flip compensation system. This system is patented by Steyr. The whole barrel and barrel shroud is the same as fitted to the single shot LP-10 match pistol from Steyr. To ensure the minimum amount of recoil the hammer (striker) and cocking slide equalise against each other, with a spring buffer and two ‘O' rings taming the shuttle of the rapid fire mechanism. I did not buy the pistol for its rapid-fire attributes, although it is fun for plinking. I bought it for use as a Field Target pistol and now use it as a HFT pistol.

The heart of the LP-50 is the magazine system. Each pistol is supplied with two five-shot magazines and these must first be correctly loaded with suitable pellets. The magazine has a groove along its top surface which must be at the top when loading. The small slot in the under surface must be on the right hand side when you load. Five pellets can then be pushed into the holes. The pellets must not protrude at all from the mag as it is a precision sliding fit inside the action. With both magazines full, cock the action and then insert the magazine into the left hand side of the action. The two sliding cocking levers on each side of the action must be pushed back to cock the hammer. It does not take much pressure and they only slide back one millimetre. Then insert the magazine via the small rectangular hole on the left hand side of the action. It has to be pushed all the way with the thumb until it comes to a stop.

After you have fired five shots the magazine can be removed by pressing the small latch under the magazine port and pulling the magazine out. If you pull the trigger a sixth time it will de-cock the action. For HFT pistol, the rules state the magazine cannot be filled with more than one pellet. It is no trouble to load a single pellet into the first hole of the magazine when it is partially inserted into the action. A single shot magazine is also available as an accessory. The magazine must be removed between lanes in HFT, again for safety reasons.

As with all top match pistols, the LP-50 can be dry-fired just by cocking the action and not inserting a magazine. It has no safety catch fitted, which is no real hassle as you can remove the magazine and de-cock between shooting lanes. The magazine can be removed at any time by pressing the latch under the loading hole. Beware, though, as it will be under greater spring pressure the fewer shots you have fired. If you press the latch when you have only fired one shot out of a full five the magazine will literally fly out of the action.

The trigger has an adjustable blade which can be moved forwards/backwards 8mm as well as being able to tilt and rotate 30°. It can also be raised and lowered on a rod in order to position the trigger finger perfectly in the blade. It is adjustable for weight of pull and has first stage travel and second stage after travel: these last must be altered with great care as they can affect the semi-auto operation of the pistol.

The range of trigger weight on the standard trigger is 200-600g. There is also a different trigger option with greater weights of 400-1400g for sport and standard pistol target disciplines. I have replaced the standard trigger blade with a custom blade from Pete Dutton.

With a 200bar fill the gun gives 70 shots with only a 12fps variation using JSB Exact 4.52mm pellets. It is running at 5ft/lb, which is perfect for HFT/FT pistol shooting. Two screw-off air cylinders are supplied, each with an air pressure gauge in the end. The filling adaptor can be modified with an old-style Air Arms male fitting. This simplifies the charging process while retaining the non-return valve on the male connection.

I have a female Air Arms connector fitted to my 300bar bottle's hose. This stays on all the time and all my other filling systems have an Air Arms male connector screwed to them (without the non-return valve fitted). I can then fill any type of gun without having to change the hose connector for the differing filling systems. The non-return valve is kept on the LP-50 filling adaptor as you need to unscrew the filled air cylinder off the bottle before bleeding off the hose. The adaptor's non-return valve then keeps air loss in the cylinder to a minimum.

At 6yd the accuracy is outstanding. One hole five-shot groups are the norm. I shot a 2.9mm five-shot centre-to-centre group with JSB 8.4gn pellets. Four 10g weights slide into the barrel shroud and these can be positioned anywhere on the barrel's length to achieve perfect balance. At 10yd I shot an 8.7mm centre-to-centre five-shot group with a two-handed grip to zero the gun. At the end of the session I put a zero card out at 45yd and shot a 20.4mm centre-to-centre 10-shot group. This level of accuracy comes from the match barrel, which is nickel-plated to ensure longevity.

The barrel has three holes in its top surface as part of the recoil compensation system. Even if water does get into the barrel it will not rust. The final part of the recoil compensation system is the "still air" cone at the end of the barrel shroud. This has two angled upward-facing slots to strip off unwanted air from behind the pellet.

The LP-50 has the choice of three sizes of grip (small, medium and large). Left handers have a choice of medium or small sized grips. The grip itself can be adjusted for line up to the axis of the barrel by several screws on the action. There is also an adjustable palm rest which makes the grip as comfortable as possible.

The standard Steyr grip supplied was the only gripe I had with my pistol. The wood seemed to have been cut from a fence post. Looking on the Edinkillie website, the Rink grip from Germany seemed an ideal replacement. Rink grips are available in five hand width sizes (measured across the knuckles) as well as being available with differences in side (left or right hand), form (convex for normal hands or flat for big hands), angle (0 or 7°), volume (normal or thick for people with long hands) and they have an adjustable palm rest. The palm rest on the Rink has two setscrews to adjust the rest front and rear. The standard Steyr rest just goes up and down. The laminated wood grip is £14 more expensive than the walnut type. There is also a sport grip for the same price, which is of no use to HFT/FT pistol, or £211 for a full free pistol grip, which would prove difficult to use in the odd positions on HFT courses.

On fitting the Rink grip to my LP-50 I shot rounds eight and nine of the UKAHFT series where they had HFT pistol competitions for the first time. I won both rounds by a clear four points. The Rink really did improve my shooting. The original Steyr grip is not bad but being able to order a Rink grip to my own hand measurements has made a big difference to my pistol shooting.

The LP-50 is the ultimate outdoor air pistol. Nothing comes close to its specification, ease of use and sheer quality, not to mention accuracy. The Steyr is not cheap, in fact it costs more than many precharged pneumatic air rifles, but it is a technical masterpiece.

Technical Specifications

Manufacturer: Steyr Sportwaffen Gmbh

Importer: Harry Preston
T: 01904 705401
Customiser: Hydrographics
T: 01904 778188
Model: LP-50 (with custom scope rail fitted)
Calibre: .177
Action : Precharged regulated pneumatic
Cocking: Semi-auto
Loading: Five-shot stick magazine
Trigger: Match two-stage with multiple adjustments
Overall length: 398 mm - adjustable due to grip
Weight: 1050g without optical sight, scope rail or weights
Sights: Open or optical via a custom-fitted rail
Grips: Multi-adjustable wood
Accessories: Comes with two five-shot magazines, two air cylinders, four 10g barrel weights, tools, filling adaptor and hard case
Price: £1,125 with scope rail fitted (long or short Weaver optical sight rail)