HW55M

[wijib]

Got this 55m out for inspection and a coat of museum wax. Decided to run a crony on it and fired a few pellets - Crosman Premier domed 7.9gr. Restored the stock and rebelled the With the new Maccari spring, leather seal and breach seal it's shooting at around 720 - 730 fps. Smooth as silk. Wondering if I can get a new Iris for the sight that might accommodate my poor eyesight? Any suggestions?

 

[Flintsack]

That is a beautiful rifle. I have found I do better if the rear hole is larger on the aperture. I like to see more light. A small change is usually pretty big. If you decide to try it on your original, use the smallest drillbit you have that just barely doesn’t fit through.
Mike

 

[MDriskill]

Pick up an adjustable iris from Gehmann or Centra. These are all made to the same standard "M9.5" thread (9.5mm x 1.0mm) to fit just about any German sight made since the '50's.

The most important thing is being able to adjust the aperture size. Any modern iris will have a range of at least 0.8mm to 1.8mm; some go on up to 3.0mm (the opening in your OEM eye disk is probably around 1.0mm; gives a great clarifying effect in controlled bright lighting, but not too versatile otherwise). Adjustability enables you to balance brightness and focus depth-of-field for any lighting conditions. Such a basic unit is not too expensive and can be had from about any target-shooting specialist retailer. Even at top-level 10-meter matches, most competitors use nothing more than this.

But...note that irises can also be had with three additional features, in literally any combination of one, two, or all three: 1.5x focusing magnifying lens; colored filters; polarizer. Those add quite a bit of cost and may or may not be of use to you.

Obviously the lens is attractive for older eyes (but is not legal in sanctioned 10-meter competition), I use one a lot! The filters improve contrast under some conditions - a typical range of colors on an iris might include yellow, green, orange, brown, and a couple shades of gray. The polarizer can be good to reduce glare and heat mirage, etc., outdoors, but I haven't found too much application for short-range airgunning.

Gehmann makes some even more exotic stuff; their site can make your head swim! Fun to look at, but mostly not things I need! https://www.gehmann.com/en/Sighting-Equipment/Rearsight-Irises/

WIth apologies for my typical "TMI" reply here...sights are fascinating collectibles on their own, and sometimes you find nice usable old goodies for cheap. The pic shows a classic 1970's HW diopter with a Hensholdt iris and lens from the 1950's. Left to right below it are a Gehmann basic iris, another with lens (also in my avatar pic), a rare Parker-Hale iris with a German thread adapter, and the "kitchen sink," a Gehmann 565 with all three add-on gadgets (these are all older units - new Gehmann stuff looks rather cooler).

 

[Michigander]

I have three rifles with rear diopter, HW, FWB and Anschutz. All came standard with 1.1mm (0.043") disks so I am guessing that is what you have on your HW. For shooting indoors where the light never changes I have a disk I drilled out to 0.052" (#55). For outdoors I have an adjustable diopter that I can set according to the light conditions. It came with the lens that lets you adjust focus to balance sharpness of target and front sight, but I personally didn't find it very helpful. One problem with the HW front sight is that it doesn't take standard inserts. I bought a set of the plastic Anschutz inserts and turned the OD to fit. The standard HW ring is 3.2mm, I am currently using a 4.0mm for indoor offhand.

 

[MDriskill]

It is odd that HW has never offered more inserts in all these years, than the basic half-dozen that come with the sight! But Anschutz front sights will fit HW's rails just fine, and do indeed open up a new level of available factory inserts. Here's an Anschutz globe on an HW 55 barrel.

And beyond house-brand metal inserts, other accessories are out there. The removable sleeve in the HW front sight has an M17 thread (17mm x 0.5mm), which was an industry standard for years (old Walther and Diana target rifle sights are also M17; HW and Diana use them on sporters to this day), but is now obsolete for match use. The Anschutz is a slightly larger M18 thread (shared by most of the old recoilless springers like Anschutz 250, DIana 75, FWB 300, etc.) for which plentiful accessories are still made.

Many target houses sell a selection of clear acrylic inserts. The Anschutz set that Michigander mentioned, is economical and will actually fit any M18 sight. And if you want to go nuts, you can get adjustable-width posts and rings and other stuff...!

 

[Michigander]

The spare front sight I have came off an Anschutz 250 and actually sat so low that I ran out of adjustment on the HW rear. It was either make a riser for the Anschutz front or modify a set of disks. Turning the disks seemed simpler.

 

[MDriskill]

Thanks - that's very interesting. I'd never noticed before, but the center of the Anschutz tunnel does sit about 1 to 1.5 mm lower than a typical Weihrauch one. I've never had an issue sighting one in, but I can certainly see how that could happen.

 

[Michigander]

Mike, these are the areas where I had trouble trying to use the Anschutz 250 front sight on my 55:

There was enough adjustment in the rear sight itself to accommodate the Annie front, but since I use the HW rear in its most forward position, there was interference between the bottom of the sight and the stock itself that prevented lowering the sight far enough to zero at 10 meters.

View attachment P6160175.jpg

Additionally, the Annie front would not clear the locking screw for the sleeve.

It would have been possible to address both, I just took the easy route and modified some acrylic inserts to fit the HW front. As a side note, there are laser cut "cards" of front inserts for Lyman, Redfield, etc. front sights available at very reasonable prices. With all the HW rifles that have been sold over the years you would think there might be a market for 17mm inserts. On the other hand, I bet the first thing that 90% of US and British owners do with their brand new Weihrauch is take off that front sight, put it and the package of inserts in a drawer somewhere and install a scope.

 

[MDriskill]

Thanks again - and again, interesting to see!

HW must have struggled with these details over the years, ha. My oldest 55 with a "drop down" type diopter has a simple flat area in the wood behind the action. The sight was filed on the bottom to add a little clearance, and then touch-up painted black! (Older guns had different sights without this issue; newer ones added the dished-out area seen on all newer 55's).

As for the sleeve...
+ I have a couple 55's with the 400g sleeve, and the same setscrew-clearance issue at the front sight as yours (they probably used the same screw for the fatter 900g sleeve?).
+ One older gun has a flush setscrew underneath at the breech end. It has an older, lower type of front sight that would never work with the top-mounted setscrew.
+ One "Burgo" labeled rifle has a threaded muzzle with Walther-like nut, and a set screw at each end below; that sleeve ain't goin' nowhere!