Hw 55 and their sights.

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muddydogz

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Jun 11, 2019
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Ohio, United States
Ok, you fellas have inspired me to try my hand at a few pictures and who doesn't love a good excuse to do a little indoor shooting,
Decided to put this new addition on paper just for grins armed with a quarter tin of meisters that i didn't even know i had, i let her rip. The middle target was sight in ( didn't need much), the top was six shots at a hair over 10m. Seemed to shoot strong for what it is and it did diesel some, it still has the leather breech seal so i'm assuming it has leather piston seals. My biggest takeaway is , i can't believe i could even see through the small peep, but enough to make it work. I promise, i won't scope it but i imagine the groups would be astounding.
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Nice gun. They're fun to shoot. One of my SM's came to me with no rear sight so I fitted a scope. Pretty low power, I don't shoot it much. It's ok.
I have an MM that I bought on an auction site (GB). Seller stated the blueing was thin and nobody else bid. When it came there was nothing wrong with it at all. Felt like I stole that one.
Here is a Gun Mart article that refers to a 12 ft lb HW55. I think it's baloney. IDK. I do know some in UK have extensively modded them.
www.gunmart.net

Blast from the Past - Weihrauch | Spring Air Rifle Reviews | Gun Mart

Bruce Potts looks at a really beautiful spring gun from masters of the art, Weihrauch…
www.gunmart.net www.gunmart.net
 
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Interesting article kwk. So am i seeing it right that the 50 and the 55 are similar in dimensions and just sprung differently?
I guess that would take away from what the 55 was meant to be used for if powered up.
I've played around with spring length on a few diana 34's to find the sweet spot as i think they are oversprung from the factory but, they reach a point where the accuracy falls off even if it was accurate at full power. I find most shoot their best with a softer spring setup.
I think the t stock is a thing of beauty but my big head doesn't fit very well, at least thats what my bride claims.
 
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Similar to the original 50 with a 25mm compression tube. The current 50 is a different animal. I don't think that older 50 can make 12 ft lb as the author claims.
The 55 has a different spring, port, and piston than it's sister 50. A lot of owners do like to put the 50 spring in a 55 for a slight boost in power and claim it doesn' adversely affect the cycle at all. I bought such a spring (ARH) for my scoped 55 but haven't installed it so IDK, personally.
 
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KWK said:
Similar to the original 50 with a 25mm compression tube. The current 50 is a different animal. I don't think that older 50 can make 12 ft lb as the author claims.
The 55 has a different spring, port, and piston than it's sister 50. A lot of owners do like to put the 50 spring in a 55 for a slight boost in power and claim it doesn' adversely affect the cycle at all. I bought such a spring (ARH) for my scoped 55 but haven't installed it so IDK, personally.
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I've had my 55 up to 10ftlbs and the shot cycle was pretty nice. I ended up snipping 2 coils and bringing it back down to 6ftlbs though as I only use it for indoor 10m shooting. If I ever manage to find myself a second 55 at a reasonable price and not in a Tyro I will likely tune that one for more power.
 
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KWK said:
What did you do to get 10 ft lb? I might do it to my scoped 55SM.
It's a decent one. Not perfect. A few little stock marks (how I got it) and somebody had a sling mount on the barrel. I don't like those clamp on things. They always scratch the barrel. I bought it on GB before the prices on 55's went way up.
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I'm not positive on what spring setup is in there as it came with the gun but I believe it was one of Vorteks kits and an ARH seal. Its been awhile since I've been in there. I purchased the gun from @Bear-of-Grayling so he may remember
 
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Thank you. I don't think a Vortek kit is the whole answer. Would need a steel tophat or something to weight the piston and likely alter the port. I won't do it without, as Paul Harvey said, "The rest of the story". I don't have the time or desire to do the R&D. Being Dad and a husband and all the other stuff I do won't allow it. I'm saving projects like that for after retirement.

Here's a good one from the infamous Paul Harvey :
How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?

Only one. But the light bulb has to WANT to change.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
 
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KWK said:
Thank you. I don't think a Vortek kit is the whole answer. Would need a steel tophat or something to weight the piston and likely alter the port. I won't do it without, as Paul Harvey said, "The rest of the story". I don't have the time or desire to do the R&D. Being Dad and a husband and all the other stuff I do won't allow it. I'm saving projects like that for after retirement.

Here's a good one from the infamous Paul Harvey :
How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?

Only one. But the light bulb has to WANT to change.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
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I dont really think a steel top hat is necessary here. The piston is already fairly heavy in comparison to many 12ftlb guns and that oversized transfer port is going to mitigate almost all bounce. Just a thought.
 
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Sqwirlfugger57 said:
I dont really think a steel top hat is necessary here. The piston is already fairly heavy in comparison to many 12ftlb guns and that oversized transfer port is going to mitigate almost all bounce. Just a thought.
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Not to mention that the early leather piston seal models need a steel adapter added to the piston to convert to a nylon seal. This adds weight to the heavy piston.
 
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The piston in the 55 is actually very light. It's thinner, has an aluminum nose, and has an extra slot milled to further reduce weight. Overspringing them will make them slammy, even with a tight sealing synthetic seal. Adding piston weight of any kind with any spring would be a very bad move, given the smallish swept volume and the rather large transfer port.

I sleeved the transfer port down on mine, and it made a fuzz more power with the same spring, but it got bouncy and comprimised accuracy. You COULD add weight and a higher preloaded spring to curb some of the bounce, but I can't see the point in un-engineering the work someone did to make the 55 shoot as good as it does.

The HW55 is setup unlike any other Weihrauch in that it is designed to slam slightly, making for a lightning quick and bounce free shot cycle.
 
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thumper said:
The piston in the 55 is actually very light. It's thinner, has an aluminum nose, and has an extra slot milled to further reduce weight. Overspringing them will make them slammy, even with a tight sealing synthetic seal. Adding piston weight of any kind with any spring would be a very bad move, given the smallish swept volume and the rather large transfer port.

I sleeved the transfer port down on mine, and it made a fuzz more power with the same spring, but it got bouncy and comprimised accuracy. You COULD add weight and a higher preloaded spring to curb some of the bounce, but I can't see the point in un-engineering the work someone did to make the 55 shoot as good as it does.

The HW55 is setup unlike any other Weihrauch in that it is designed to slam slightly, making for a lightning quick and bounce free shot cycle.
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Let me rephrase my statement here some. The 55 piston is heavy compared to many of the skirtless designs used in FT setups. Some of those pistons weigh practically nothing in comparison. I think we're in agreement that adding weight is a bad idea but I dont think we're on the same page with raising the power some. Of course nearly doubling the muzzle energy is going to create a bit more recoil, but at 10ftlbs I found mine to be pretty tame still and accuracy was nothing to sneeze at. It's a bit of a pipe dream but if I ever managed to grab a second I'd have no regrets upping the power a bit.
 
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And to think Shelby did this to a sweet innocent little Healey. Edit: Why did I say Healey? IDK, no matter
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To some the HW55 is some holy grail. This is an SM I'm talking about. To me it's just another not so uncommon rifle. I have a couple of them. All we're talking about now is replacing the spring and perhaps some guides for a scoped rifle that came to me without the ubiquitous diopter. To return to it's pussy cat nature simply replace the spring. No harm done.
I have another one LNIB and I'm not gonna monkey with it. That one will be somebody's lucky score when I cut it loose hopefully when I'm 80 something. 17 years from now at least. My favorite airgun shooting, horseback riding, hiking, fishing buddy bought it for me about 35 years ago
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If you do a lot of shooting with match sights, invest in an adjustable-iris eyepiece. The 1.0mm +/- opening in a typical OEM disk is intended for well-lit target ranges. You get a great focusing effect with the tiny opening, but a bigger hole is often more useful in other environments.

The HW 55 is a great fave of mine. I agree with the above that there are much better choices if you need more power. I have Maccari kits in a few of mine, also a couple with the original target spring replaced with an old HW 50 sporter one (a popular option when Beeman sold these guns). Either options get them up close to 700 FPS with light ammo. I find that power level just fine for 90% of my shooting, and actually like the crisp feel a little better than the leisurely OEM target spring.

Most 55's do have leather piston seals, but late in production they switched over to the 25mm synthetic seal (same part as in the HW 30/R7 or old HW 50). Change happened in the late 1980's, when the guns were well into 7-figure serial numbers.

The 55's leather breech seal is unique. Although built from the same basic forging, the 55's breech block is machined to fit much closer than the old HW 50's; the seal face protrudes only 1/100 of an inch or so. You can replace it with HW's standard plastic seal but it takes some careful trimming at a weird angle on the back of it.

Older 55's (up to 400000 serials or so) have another unique feature - a long smooth breech leade, done by actually hammering in a tapered mandrel. HW claimed some beneficial effects (per ad below). These oldsters do best with pellets that have larger skirt diameters; I go straight for the classic RWS designs (Hobby, Meisterkugeln, Superdome, Superpoint) which have the fattest skirts out there.

If you haven't discovered this yet, the tension in the breech lock lever can be adjusted via the big "wagon wheel" screw under the breech. Turning the screw "out" (CCW) = tighter.

The prices in this classic 1970's ad from a UK dealer might make you cry...but some of the claims will make you laugh. BETTER than recoilless! :LOL:


the pri
 
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