Browning 800 Mag vs RWS LP8
By Dennis Brooks

This is a side-by-side comparison of the Browning 800 Mag and the RWS LP 8 Magnum. Both are 700 feet per second (fps) break barrel target pistols from Umarex.

Both air pistols were fired on the same day, at the same time, to eliminate variations in day-to-day environment that have significant affect on spring air pistol performance. Both pistols have been fired a minimum of 500 times to check for reliability.

(800 Mag, left----LP8, right)

Specifications & Technical Basics
The Technical Specifications for the 800 Mag and LP8 are fairly close except the trigger pull on the Browning is 4 vs 3.3 lbs on the LP8 and cocking effort of 32 vs 24 lbs Browning vs RWS respectively. I reduced the RWS cocking effort significantly by using the cocking assist that was packed with the 800 Magnum.

The Browning’s barrel length is 8.25 inches and the RWS has 7.125 inches of rifled metal barrel and breech! The differences are hidden in the front sight mount.

Pictured are the Browning and the RWS with the Browning cocking assist on the pistols. This greatly reduces the wear and tear on your hands by removing the need to try to cock the air pistol with your hand over the front sight and it reduces the force to cock the pellet pistols. Not a huge difference, but significant. It also prevents breaking the fiber optic rod mounts on top of the sight!

The cocking assist adds 3.5 inches to the Browning and 90 millimeters (3.5625 inches) to the RWS. If you can hold the end of the barrel on either air pistol with the raised sight topped by the fiber optic rod, you will have 9 inches or .75 foot pounds of leverage. Using the cocking assist you will achieve approximately 1.042 foot pounds of leverage. A quarter foot pound of additional leverage may not sound like much, but it becomes quite a deal when cocking the Browning or cocking either of these pistols a significant number of times.

The Browning airgun is a mix of high tech plastic and metal. The RWS is mostly metal.
The 800 Mag has the Buckmark emblem and 800 Mag on top of the breech. The RWS logo is marked on back of the receiver of the LP8 pellet pistol.

Both of these airguns have two hex/Allen set screws which secure the front sight mount and shroud. The Browning has a third opening, possibly a pin. On the 800 Mag, the front Allen screw began backing out as soon as I started shooting. Thread lock would prevent this.

Browning’s Anti-Recoil Mechanism
The Browning has a solid composite plastic grip and frame. The piston assembly sets in a plastic cradle that recoils backward a quarter inch or so when the air pistol fires. The trigger and safety move back with the spring assembly, but you do not notice this when you fire the Browning. During cocking the assembly will sometimes move backward. You can push the assembly backward by pulling back on the cocking extender with the barrel level and locked in its closed position. If you watch carefully, you can see this movement illustrated in the Browning 800 Mag commercial on Umarex USA’s video page.

The Safeties
Both air pistols have safeties that are automatically set when the barrel is broken open and cocked. Both can also be set manually when the pistols are not cocked. The Browning has a lever in front of the trigger that is pushed forward to release the safety. This is very convenient and easily released by the trigger finger prior to each shot. The RWS safety is mounted above and behind the trigger guard at the bottom of the receiver, above the grip. It is ambidextrous, having a lever on each side of the air pistol. Both sides have the colored dots indicating on and off. It can be reached with a stretch of the trigger finger. I used my supporting hand to move the safety prior to each shot.

The Sights
The Browning has the most unusual sights I have ever seen. When you line up the fiber optics in a level set of green-red-green dots, the front sight is only halfway up the rear notch. This leaves a significant gap above the front post sight. If you line the sights up level, as you would normally expect, the fiber optics form a triangle with the red front dot above the rear green dots. See the picture of the optics lined up on left and level sights on right. For some reason the Browning sights departed from what I have seen most often— the rear green loop was cut into two short rods. This means the rear sight dots are not as bright, but this is easily solved with the addition of an dot sight. The RWS has a level sight picture when the fiber optics are in-line. The RWS has the usual loop of green fiber optic rod, which equates to brighter rear dots. The front optics rods are basically the same length, but the RWS has a longer ramp and the fiber rod is spread by melting for a larger surface area to gather light. Both have rear adjustable sights that use a thumb wheel for windage and a common blade screw for elevation. The Browning windage knob is smooth. The RWS windage knob is grooved.

The Browning has grooves in the receiver to mount optics. The RWS has a raised mount. Both are for 11 mm mount systems. I like to use open optics systems such as the Walther Multi-Reticle Sight (MRS) and PS 55 red dot that put the reticle and target in focus.

I have a Redfield Extended Eye Relief 2.5-7 X 30mm pistol scope that can be mounted on
either air pistol with regular or “see through” mounts. The see through mounts allow you to use the iron sights up close and the scope at distances. I prefer the holographic or red dot sights on the short ranges used by most air pistols, including these.

The Trigger
The Browning averages 4 lbs trigger pull. The RWS averages 3.2 lbs. This is according to
my Lyman Electronic trigger gauge and the built-in averaging system and closely matches Umarex’s technical specifications for each pistol. When shooting they feel the same weight, but over a large number of shots you begin to feel the difference. The pull itself is totally different between the pistols. The Browning has minimal initial take-up and releases with a spring feel due to the recoil mechanism. There is a quarter inch or so of take-up in the RWS trigger before you feel resistance. After that you slowly increase pressure until the sear releases with a crisp break. The Browning comes back on target faster because it does not jump as far in your hands due to the anti-recoil system.

I used a pen to demonstrate the take up or slack before pressure is felt on the RWS trigger.

The Grips
While in general I like the feel of a larger grip, the Browning 800 wins out over the RWS LP 8 in reach with the web center from thumb to trigger finger on the back strap and finger pad on the trigger. At 2.5 inches (63 mm) the Browning puts the pad of my trigger finger on the trigger face with the web centered right on the back strap. At three inches (77 mm), the RWS is a long stretch for my short fingers, placing my fingertip on the trigger edge with the web center on the back strap. I compensate by rotating my shooting hand toward the trigger, web biased toward my thumb. The larger RWS grip is more comfortable in my two handed grip when shooting a large number of shots. I use both hands to support these barrel-heavy pellet guns. The Browning balances where the front of the trigger guard joins the receiver. The RWS balances just behind where the front of the trigger guard joins the receiver. The Browning weighed in at 3.7 pounds without the cocking assist. The RWS weighed 3.34 lbs. I use a loose hold with spring air pistols, allowing them to “float” in my two handed grip for more accurate shooting. I find if I try to grip tightly and control the recoil I not only wear my hands out faster, but my shooting is inconsistent. While 50 rounds through the Browning wears out my hands from the cocking and loading, I can fire 80-100 rounds through the RWS before the same feeling sets in and the sights begin to wobble. The RWS jumps more in my grip at trigger break, but both guns jump overall. With a single shot target air pistol this is not a problem since you are not coming right back on target for another shot. Normal follow through should bring the sights back to the target, but you are not looking for an immediate second shot through the same hole. I suffer some paralysis and palsy in my hands and reduced vision so I can't break dinner plates at 100 yards with my Smith & Wesson .357 as I did in my twenties, but I can hit a dime pretty much every time at 10 meters with an air pistol.

Velocity
I used a Chrony chronograph and a variety of pellets to get average velocities for the Browning 800 Magnum and the RWS Diana LP8 Magnum. Since I live at 5320 feet in the desert west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, results were adjusted for sea level standard day conditions:

BROWNING 800 MAGNUM AND RWS LP8 MAGNUM FIRED ONE AFTER THE OTHER
FOR EACH PELLET TYPE THROUGH THE SAME CHRONOGRAPH AT THE SAME
TIME ON THE SAME DAY:

CHRONOGRAPH RESULTS AT 5320' ALTITUDE AND 6800' DENSITY ALTITUDE
“/ ADJUSTED FOR DENSITY ALTITUDE”

As you can see, both air pistols live up to the marketing 700 fps when using alloy pellets. Both came close with the RWS 7 grain lead target pellet and both would probably exceed 700 fps with 4.5 to 5 grain light lead pellets. In general the Browning liked the plastic and lead pellets and the RWS liked the alloy and heavy pellets. The Browning was harder to load with the rifling engaging as the pellet was inserted. I ran all but the plastic pellets through a “pellet sizer” prior to firing through the chronograph to yield optimal, rather than “out of the box” results. The RWS pellets were more consistent in size based on the effort required to size the pellets. This is a pretty standard pellet sizer. Pellets are placed in an enlarged breech end and forced down through a .177 smooth bore barrel end with a plunger designed not to damage the skirt of the pellet. This one was just over $20 and I don't recommend buying one unless you compete or test.

Accuracy
Looking at the targets, you can see both air pistols are very accurate at 10 yards. The upper three targets were shot with the Browning and the bottom two with the RWS. This was after firing one hundred rounds through each air pistol and setting the sights to 10 yards (Keep in mind, as mentioned earlier, that I have some paralysis and palsy in my hands.) Both air pistols are capable of tighter groups in the right hands.

Sound Level
The Browning and the RWS seem to put out the same amount of sound as far as volume, but in different frequencies. The Browning has a definite “twang” as the spring releases and the carriage recoils. The RWS has more of a “thwack”, similar to a CO2 air pistol. With such similar velocities, the sound of the impact on target is also basically identical. Either is quiet enough not to bother your neighbors.

Summary
First, no matter which pistol you buy, also buy a Browning Cocking Extender! The extender currently comes with the Browning 800 Magnum. It not only gives you a couple inches of extra leverage, but it allows you to cock the pellet pistol without putting your hand on the delicate fiber optic topped front sight. The Browning does require an extra ten pounds of force or so to cock. The surprise is that the same cocking extender fits the RWS LP 8 Magnum. It is snug, but slides on and off without force. The RWS also has a delicate fiber optic rod on the top of the tall front blade sight. The cocking extender gets you away from the front sight and makes the RWS even easier to cock. The cocking assist is available from Umarex USA’s service department for around ten dollars plus shipping.

As stated above, I found the larger grip on the RWS an advantage in controlling the air pistol. It makes for more comfortable shooting, especially if you are shooting for longer lengths of time. It should be fairly obvious that the lighter cocking pressure of the RWS gives it an advantage over the Browning. Add the cocking extender to the RWS and you have a much nicer situation. Both air pistols balanced about the same for me. They are both barrel heavy. You have two hex screws on the Browning and two on the RWS that hold the front sight mount. I suggest you use blue Loc-Tite on all screws on break barrel spring guns. I found the recoil system on the Browning gave it a spring feel when the trigger released the sear.

The long travel on the RWS trigger was a waste as far as I was concerned. I prefer a zero slack trigger. Both pistols felt the same when squeezing the trigger. You can adjust the distance from the point where you feel pressure on the trigger to sear release with the RWS adjustment screw.

The Browning is slightly more difficult to load. The pellets engage the rifling immediately where the RWS allows the pellets to drop into place.

Take a look at the cocking arms underneath each pistol. This in part is why the RWS is easier to cock than the Browning. Note the length of the initial cocking arm that is attached to each breech. The RWS is about a half inch longer giving significantly greater mechanical advantage and helping to take ten pounds off the cocking effort. With basically equal velocities, the spring pressures have to be similar.

In the end, it is very much a matter of personal preference and budget. You should handle both air pistols to see which fits best in your hands. If you get a chance, cock and fire both to get a feel for the triggers and the recoil system on the Browning. At slightly more than half the price of the RWS, the Browning is certainly a good buy. I would recommend either air pistol. Both held up well during testing. Both were very accurate with and edge to the Browning on long shots. Both have metal and plastic, but composite plastics have come a long way. I hope this gives you insight into these air pistols, showing where I found fault and value. And, always remember to keep the safety on when not actually shooting.

For specifications and to buy the Browning 800 Mag click here.

For specifications and to buy the RWS LP8 click here.