SPORTING ARMS Mgr. Jan TETŘEV
Vaskent H2010
Vaclav Haman is one of our very successful sport shooters. He does not like walking on smoothed paths. If he thinks that something should be improved he is interested in it and he does not hesitate to make improvements even in the area of sporting arms. He knows them not only as a user with excellent results but also as a designer and producer. He is educated in engineering and gunsmithery so he is able to see it also from this second point of view.
When he recently came back from the World Cup in the USA with an excellent fourth position achieved thanks to shooting by the arm of his own construction there was increased interest in Haman not only from the side of people who use actively sporting arms but also of gun sellers. The village Brada near to Jičín where the Haman´s family works is quite busy now. Gunsmith and construction activities of Vaclav Haman junior continue in the family tradition. Until recently his father was a joint-owner of a bigger company in the area of metal industry and now he continues working independently in this area. The company of Vaclav Haman junior was established in 2007. Although it has Vaclav Haman´s name it is more known under the trademark Vaskent (this trademark is known in the internet as well).
When we asked Vaclav Haman how his production and construction of firearms was impacted by his training in Uherský Brod he told us: “It is sure that this local school of gunsmithery is connected to the gun factory in Uherský Brod. The education is based on company needs and possibilities of practice there. The company “Česká zbrojovka” does not produce sporting arms for top shooters in the discipline of a sporting small-bore rifle. Also their air rifles are designated for a wider and less demanding group of customers. Production of handguns in Uherský Brod is oriented on completely different trends than I am interested in. The company “Česká zbrojovka” is not like the Anschütz or Feinwerkbau companies and on the contrary these companies are not “Česká zbrojovka”. Thus I did not receive much information at school in the area that I am oriented on but they helped me with some literature. Usually my work is based on research of constructions of world producers and on the system of a “trial-and-error method”.
As Vaclav Haman told us he would be glad to compete with world producers of sporting arms for top shooters in the field of aimed shooting. He naturally did not produce complete arms after the company establishment; he started as a producer of accessories for other companies and sellers. In the beginning it was the Austrian company Männel and then also other companies. Vaclav admits that he has learnt many tricks regarding production of firearms from the gunsmith Pavel Kupec from Pardubice. “Pavel is a good craftsman, he knows people in his branch and although the arms for top sporting shooters are not in his production programme at the moment, he is also acquainted with the branch of accurate arms.”
AMERICAN BARRELS
In 2008 Vaclav Haman started with gun rebuilding, in 2009 he started development of guns and this year (2010) he makes complete guns of his own construction. The gun rebuilding started with a change of barrels of sporting small-bore rifles. As a person who is in a regular contact with world shooting elite he noticed that famous American and partly also a Czech shooter Matt Emmons uses barrels of the American company Lilja. So he turned to this company and he ordered some barrels for testing. Based on long testing he has chosen the most suitable model.
The company Lilja is relatively a new company; they started with production of top barrels for benchrest and at the moment they dispose of a wide range of calibres. While in past many other producers tried to produce stainless barrels and gave it up without any success, the company Lilja based their production on this material. They know how to do it. Their barrels are not forged, they are drawn or extruded.
Vaclav Haman does not belong to supporters of forged barrels. In his opinion these barrels are optimal for many other shooting branches but they are not very ideal for top shooters of aimed disciplines. He prefers mainly extruded or extended barrels. As he adds it is possible that somebody will find a technology (or has already found it) that will convince him of the reverse fact.
His opinion is based on experience with the world-known company Feinwerkbau that traditionally fits their arms with forged barrels. During the last years they noticed a loss of customers – top shooters - due to the fact that other competitors offer arms with smaller dispersion. It is probably caused by barrels the development of which seems to be delayed in the company Feinwerkbau. However on the opposite side the top shooters such as Rajmond Debevec and Nicolo Campriani kept faith with the company Feinwerkbau and during the last two years the reputation of barrels used by the company Feinwerkbau has been increased noticeably.
In any case the Haman´s company uses only the trademark Lilja barrels for new and rebuilt arms; these arms are delivered from the USA with ready bores and chambers.
“I will not fit arms with barrels of a lower or even inferior quality for cheap money”, Vaclav Haman affirms. “Shooters who have their arms rebuilt or made by me should be sure that they will get the best barrel available for top shooters. In future I really would hate to be in situation such as the famous Swiss company Bleiker is. This company offers the best top sporting arms equipped also with the Lilja barrels. But the interest of sport shooters is probably higher than their capacity so their quality gets lower in order to satisfy all prospective clients. This fact is not confirmed in a written way but it is a kind of information that is considered to be obvious in my branch. For example, the company started to fit their arms by the Lilja barrels only for top shooters, some sort of VIP. It is said that the other shooters receive barrels of other trademarks. At the moment defects of these arms are discussed very much; it is connected with disappointment of shooters who had paid for Rolls-Royce but in better case received very nice Volkswagen. Production of more and more arms is not my objective. I aim to achieve optimal capacity of some tens of arms per a year; these arms should be of a hundred-per-cent quality with no cheating. I simply want to build the trademark and keep the quality thoroughly. I know how it is bad when the shooter is disappointed by his arm due to some hidden defect or backlog. The hard work during several months is lost then.”
CZECH ARM
After this introduction from the backstage of world top shooters in the branch of aimed shooting we started to speak about Haman´s small-bore rifle: “There are no revolutionary innovations in my or our arms (father helps me as well) that would fill front pages of magazines. We combined well-tried elements of top and well-done arms. We arrange and fit them with several improvements in accordance with our experience and opinion.”
The receiver is based on a well-tried small-bore rifle Anschütz 2013; however this is only a very rough basis that is formed and rebuilt differently. But thanks to the receiver the arm can be fitted to whatsoever gunstock including the Anschütz gunstocks. The origin of the receiver is somewhere in Russia. The striker is in the form of a small metal plate with a rectangular profile. The length of receiver is shortened so it is for about 60 mm shorter than standard small-bore rifle receivers. “The shooter´s comfort when charging is taken into account. I know it very well,” explains Vaclav Haman. “Nowadays similar problem is solved at most of sporting arms.”
At the back of the receiver there is a screw designated for control of striking force. It is important because the striking force of the striker has an impact on dispersion. The Hamans have checked this fact by several tests.
Screws fixing the receiver are shorter so they are placed in the front part of the receiver. That´s why shot does not cause deformation of the receiver at the place of its momentary position because it is short. It also has a positive impact on dispersion. The barrel is fixed in a collet as well as at the Anschütz 2013 small-bore rifle.
“But the collet of the Anschütz 2013 small-bore rifle cannot keep the barrel in the same position,” told us Vaclav Haman. “The barrel is fixed only by one grub screw that is placed vertically to the barrel and cannot keep its position. We placed the grub screw slantwise so it supports the barrel during the shot and thus the barrel does not move back. I am convinced that our solution is better than the solution of this excellent German company. These are probably hundredth of millimetre but it can be compared with the proverb: Groats make plates ....”
There is a three-arm firing mechanism of a completely own, i.e. Haman´s construction. The trigger has three adjustable elements – let-off length, let-off resistance and triggering resistance. Each of these elements can be adjusted separately, independently on the other ones.
The barrel itself is short in comparison with standard arms. It has only 21 inches in comparison with standard 26-27 inches. As for the dispersion, there is no difference between short and long barrels. The designer told us: “It is better if the arm is lighter and in accordance with shooter´s body and force possibilities than if it is heavy and it should be lightened. It is a problem to lighten a heavy arm. In case of no difference in dispersion there is nothing to think about.”
The common arm length at Haman´s arms is achieved by using a diffuser that has been produced for the company Männel for some time. When we reminded that this product is different from the diffuser placed on the arm the shooter-designer admitted that it is another product of his own construction used only by him at the moment; however its production for public is being prepared.
There is simple situation with a sighting device. Standard sights delivered by a reputable German company Centra are used there.
As it was mentioned here, the Haman´s arm can be fixed to gunstocks delivered by the Anschütz company. The single parts are compatible with each other and the shooter does not have a problem with adaptation to a new stock. In addition to this also the accessories of this German trademark can be used as well. The Hamans also deliver a wooden stock of their own production with own ironwork and Männel, MEC and Tec-Hro accessories
Standard packing of a new small-bore rifle H2010 from the company Vaclav Haman includes the system H2010, wooden stock, sighting device Pro 57 and Score (Centra), hook, handstop and a handrest of the company Männel. The price of this set is 2720 Euro inkl with VAT. Also other versions of this arm are available.
TESTING AND FURTHER PROGRESS
The Haman´s small-bore rifles have passed long testing and now they are in a final shape. The production of the first live series started in spring 2010 after extensive experience with prototypes and arms from the zero series. Nowadays in addition to the constructor the Haman´s arm is tested by Karolina Ditrychova in Hradec Kralove and Martin Kouba in Prague. Other pieces will be delivered to France to Henri Josselin and to Germany to the owner of the MEC company Mike Eckhart. Also an excellent shooter Thomas Farnik from Austria is interested in the arm testing.
The popularity of Haman´s arms will be naturally dependent on his sport success. When he achieved the fourth position in the World Cup in Fort Benning in the 3x40 discipline many shooters started to be interested in the arm used by the blonde Czech citizen. “Until I was back at home there were several e-mails from the all world from shooters who want to change their arm,” told us Vaclav Haman smilingly.
The new project of the trademark Vaskent in 2010 represents rebuilding of out-of-operation quick-firing sporting handguns of the 22 short calibre into the calibre 22 LR. According to current rules the arms of the 22 short calibre cannot be used for quick-firing so rebuilding can increase the value of such arms and enable their repeated usage. Vaclav Haman stated that it concerns especially the Walther OSP handgun.
