Weihrauch HW35 .22

I bought an HW35 for no particular reason other than it's the only current HW springer that I hadn't owned and is a piece of history in it's own right. The HW35 was Weihrauch's first modern springer launched in 1951 and still on sale today. The 35's unique selling point is its barrel latch: A manual thumb catch, instead of the usual spring detent, which in theory provides a more solid lock up.

I ordered my HW35 from DB Schietsport in The Netherlands. The name may be Schiet but the service certainly isn't. I ordered on a Wednesday and the rifle was with me on the Friday. Can't argue with that. In truth, I'd prefer to buy in the UK but I have no local stockist (indeed, I have no decent local gun shop at all). And the price imported from Europe was very competitive with UK prices.

As an aside, care is needed when ordering from Europe: Airguns from Germany are subject to the very low German power limit whereas guns from some other European countries aren't restricted at all and would be illegal to own without a Firearms Certificate in the UK. There's no such issues with the HW35: It's designed as a 12fpe gun and is therefore naturally UK compliant.

So what's it like? Well, biggish, longish, heavyish and old-fashioned looking (ish). And, out of the box, mine was running a bit warm (accompanied by the tell-tale aroma of dieselling). It was also a bit twangy. So it got stripped down (and as if that was that ever, not going to happen anyway!). The HW35 shares features with other HW models: The piston is 30mm, like the HW80, and the trigger block is a screw in jobbie also like the HW80.

And my trigger block was as tight as the proverbial and clearly not about to succumb to any of the usual removal methods. The problem was holding the cylinder sufficiently firmly, without damaging it, to get enough purchase on the trigger block. In the end, I made two grooved wooden blocks to allow the action to be clamped in a vice without damage. I also wrapped the action in an old bicycle inner tube for extra protection (and grip!). Once properly clamped, a good thwack on a well-padded spanner inserted into the end block did the job. I did notice some powdery stuff on the threads which I've since been informed was probably residual bluing salts. Whatever it was, it did a good job of sticking the end block on.

With the trigger block cracked off, it was time to get inside. I didn't use a spring compressor, I held the trigger block down on a padded surface and unscrewed the cylinder, being mindful that the trigger block might try to fly off. I reassembled the rifle the same way, using bodyweight to compress the spring while I screwed the trigger block back onto the action. It needs a bit of welly but there's not much preload on the spring.

Once inside, I was pleasantly surprised: The spring was properly finished and was a good fit on the guide. The piston was sleeved and the cocking linkage was fitted with the anti-galling Delrin slide. There were no noticeable rough or sharp edges anywhere and there was also generally lube where there should be. The only blot on the landscape was the piston seal being slathered in grease (which at least explained the dieselling). So I cleaned that up and put the rifle back together pretty much as it was.

So get to the point already: What does it shoot like? Well in a word, Good. As in 11 fpe with JSB Express and single digit shot-to-shot consistency. Despite the excellent open sights I fitted my spare scope and after half-a-dozen zeroing shots I got 5 rounds all touching at 25 yards. Excellent for a rifle that I'd never shot before and which has only fired about 20 rounds in its entire life. Sadly, fading light stopped play but I can see a lot more potential here.

And then the piston seal failed after 50 shots... The rifle suddenly became very slammy and a strip down revealed that the piston could easily be pushed down the cylinder with a finger over the transfer port: No air seal at all. I'm not sure if this was a manufacturing defect or damage caused by dieselling. I opted to replace it with a new style green piston seal from Custom Air Seals in Australia as these are far better quality than the standard item. This cost £9 including postage and took less than a week to arrive. While I was in there I also machined up a properly fitting spring guide and top hat.

And then more examples of poor build quality surfaced... Having finally got the 35 shooting nicely, I noticed that the action was moving around in the stock even with the screws securely fastened. The issue is the locating lug on the action, the lug is 8mm in diameter and sits in a recess 12mm in diameter. Unfortunately, with just a single front stock screw the HW35 relies on a tight fit of this lug within its recess to properly locate the action, which is never going to happen with 4mm of slop.

My solution was to machine up a spacer to take out the slack and the action is now firmly secured. Indeed, it's so much better that I'm left wondering if there's actually meant to be a factory spacer in there that's missing from mine?

With the internals sorted it was time to sort the cosmetics. The first order of business was the open sights. Don't like 'em and never use 'em so I sold the opens and bought a 15mm muzzle brake off eBay. Fitting requires removal of the front sight dovetails and I filed these down and then smoothed them off with wet & dry. The bare metal was treated with cold blue cream, to prevent corrosion and the muzzle brake fitted with a smear of Loctite. The rear sight holes have been temporarily filled with black wax which works surprisingly well. In time I'll replace it with black epoxy but for now the old beast is looking quite handsome.

And that's it, with everything sorted I'm happy with how this rifle is performing but how Weihrauch get away with turning out such poor quality products while charging top dollar is beyond me. I've bought 3 new Weihrauchs over the last 5 years and every one has had issues. Don't get me wrong: The HW35 is a charismatic and stupendously accurate rifle but I remain distinctly unimpressed by the out of the box build quality of current Weihrauchs.