Morini 162EI
This is probably the most popular pistol on the shooting circuit with more wins than any other and why ?
Firstly the build quality is superb and with the electric trigger it takes some beating. Lets look at it piecemeal.
This is the short barrelled version that is meant for juniors and ladies although it seems to be gaining in popularity with some of the men. The reason for this is that it is slightly lighter at 980 grms and has the backsight nearer the wrist. This is seen as below.
A comparison with the original model is seen in the next photo...
Looking at its attributes, it represents great engineering but for me suffers a few faults. The electric trigger is superb but because the electronics sit in the grip, it means that the grip is not adjustable for rotation or rake. I prefer more rake !! The trigger blade is not really adjustable ,only back and forward. More planes of adjustment would be nice ? The sights are extremely good, I prefer the rear sight position of the shorter pistol so I might butcher the grip and replace the sights on my long barrelled gun. .I prefer the longer barrelled version as it gives a little better balance, with more weight up front. The loading lever is easy to operate and pellet loading is very simple unlike the Steyr which requires you to put the pellet directly into the barrel ( more fiddly).
How does it shoot ?
The usual one hole groups are easily obtained in a test bench . The recoil is minimal so this is not a factor and velocity was measured at 520 fps on this particular gun (long barrelled version) The shorter one was measured at 490 fps but this was still fine. The trigger weight adjustment is identical to the SAM with 2 springs behind the trigger to set the 1st or 2nd stages respectively. Small adjustment Allen bolts set the pressure of these.
The electronics are very simple and require 2 AAA batteries to work for at least 10K shots so I am told. The switch on the side of the grip has a little red LED which flashes to tell you the state of the batteries and an auto shut-off is included to save them if you forget to turn it off...
So why don't I rave about it ? The grip adjustment and the trigger are really critical in a top match pistol. The mechanical trigger version at least allows you to play a little with the grip, so that is why I looked at the SAM which is the next generation version by this designer. I hope that the next version of this pistol will fix these problems as it is not too difficult so set the electronics on a flexible cable allowing grip changes and changing the trigger shoe and rear sight. Then I will give it a full 5 stars