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The RWS Model 350 P—A Gentleman’s Air Rifle
By Tom Holzel
Air rifle hunting is a sport that seems to accrete ever more complexity. Complex zoom telescopic sights, range finders, laser pointers, dozens of pellet designs—all in hopes of mechanically improving one’s chances of bringing home the bacon. Hunting as a feat of engineering.
But there is another way of looking at this fine sport—as Gentleman and Lady Hunters. To go out in the woods with a minimum of equipment, and pit oneself against the quarry in the simplest manner. This is a fine, more natural way to hunt. It puts you outdoors without the encumbrance of so much equipment. One rifle perfectly suited to such an endeavor is the RWS Model 350 P "Magnum".
The smooth, clean lines of the .22-cal. 48-inch long RWS Model 350 P are clear for all to see. Unlike wooden stocks, the dark plastic resin of the stock is a tough, resilient material that should stand up well to the knocks and bumps of fieldwork.
Although the 350 P comes with a single focal-length telescopic sight (the RWS 300), this was the first hunting-strength gun I’ve seen that looks and feels as if it might work perfectly using its open sights. I’ve never been lucky with conventional open sights for hunting, so I took it into the woods un-scoped with some trepidation. I was in for a pleasant surprise.
The fiber optic sights front and rear of the 350 P work astonishingly well. With any daylight at all the long fiber optic rods collect the light and refract it directly back to the hunter’s eyes
To the left, you can see the hooded front sight of the Model 350. The top and sides are open to collect daylight which is then focused back to the shooter in a bright red spot. The circular hood forms a nice spotting circle to aid the eye in placing the red dot right on the target.
The Model 350 is a smooth-shooter as well. The trigger required no tweaking on my part and felt just right. When I fed the velocity strings into the computer, I was surprised to see how powerful this gun is. 27 lbs-ft right out of the box! Surprised, because its report is relatively quiet, and the recoil is much less noticeable than on many other “ultra-magnums” (+25 lbs-ft). What gave the power away was the short interval between shot fired and the sound of the pellet hitting its target 50 yards down the field.
To the right, you can see an energy graph of the powerful Model 350 P using 14.5 grain Super Dome pellets. Different pellets will result in different muzzle energy by a small amount. However, it is really the energy at the target that counts in hunting. Heavy pellets usually hang on to their energy better than lighter ones. Eight lbs-ft is carried out to 55 yards—more than enough for most small game. Five lbs-ft reaches out to 75 yards.
Once again I tested three different RWS pellets, Super Dome, Super Point and Super-H-Point. (all three of which come in the pellet sampler pack, along with two other pellet types) The super Dome weighed in at 14.5 grains, the other two at 14.2 grains. Not surprisingly, the lighter pellets were a tiny bit faster out the muzzle—but only 1.5% faster. This 350 liked the Super Domes the best with a muzzle velocity consistency of 0.9%. That is great consistency and a primary contributor to downrange accuracy.
It is important to test various pellets to discover the one your particular gun likes best in terms of accuracy, and a great way I have found to do that is to try sampler packs which gives you the convenience of trying several different pelletss at once. You’ll probably narrow it down to a few different pellets. To decide which to hunt with, you’ll want to see which does the best job in terms of terminal ballistics—how lethal it is for the game you hunt. In this case, I found the Super-H-Point had the best penetration.
At 9 lbs, the 350 wants a sling, but this long slender rifle seems much more graceful in the hand than its weight belies. Cocking requires a hefty pull, but like its recoil just seems more gentle than the few other single-cock air rifles of this high power. As I said—a true gentleman’s (and gentle lady’s) hunting air rifle.
For more information and specs on the above reviewed gun:
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