HW/Weihrauch HW80 K long range hunter

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I’ve had a Weihrauch hw50 .22 lemon before. It was putting out less than 9 fpe straight out of the box according to the included chrony tape and verified by my chrony. It vibrated so bad I could not keep a scope on it because it would shear off stop pins! I tore it down and discovered a broken spring and burned up and cracked piston seal. A vortek kit and some elbow grease made it shoot like a dream now. Send your gun back if you don’t want to go through it. The old “shoot two tins through it and it will settle down” ain’t the gospel for every gun.
 
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Bear-of-Grayling said:
So it seems. What is up with Weihrauch these days? This long making airguns one would think they'd have it all figured out. Are parts being made elsewhere? China maybe? Seems something has changed.
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They've had very sloppy assembly work since 2019 maybe 2018. It's been common since then that they come over lubed and with piston seals damaged during assembly. Very common that the piston seals burn through from excessive dieseling and detonation. This also causes the springs to brake prematurely. Guns aren't properly cleaned of swarf and as a result scored compression tubes are common. The 95 family guns with droop and false lock up due to cocking arm interference.

On top of those poor assembly methods, lately in the last year or two they've been cutting corners on material and machine work. Hw50s with excessive barrel droop when they they were fine before that. Tube ends with braze slag in the tube. The latest thing I've seen is its obvious they're using seamed tubing. Now you can see a continuous seam the full length of the compression tube. I don't remember seeing that in earlier guns. If they were using seamed tubing it was machined smooth and invisible. Nowadays the seam ranges from a discoloration that has no affect to gouge that can't be properly sealed.
I think 6 of the last 7 new guns sent to me had one or more of these flaws. Most were fixable two weren't.

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Jezz Bayman,
My last Weihrauch was purchased in the Fall of 2022, it was a HW80SLK. While tuning it, I noticed the barrel pivot bolt was too long by a whisker and I was able to add an additional washer to correct the issue. I could have ground the bolt down 1/16"... That was it - otherwise it's a great gun.

The pics and things you reference are pretty scary. Looks like all spring airgun manufacturers are scrambling to cut costs and hang in there.
My gun was purchased from Krale, but new members with little airgun knowledge would likely be in a tough spot if they purchased from abroad.
 
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Weihrauch knows there are limits on how much the market is willing to bear for a quality springer. The market has been moving away from springers for years as it is. Easy to see all the cutting they have been doing. Even down to the laser printing in place of stamping. Stocks have been cheapened. Next may be the elimination of wooden stocks altogether. With functional issues on the rise however, it would appear that Weihrauch is farming out some of their machining. These types of issues like excessive barrel droop, bolts to long, seams in receivers, weak pistons and such would suggest they have gone away from producing these parts in house. With Germany’s economy in a downward spiral, anything could happen. IMHO
 
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13.5 is really weak for an HW80 22cal. I’ve owned at least 5 and all were at least 17.5 foot pounds stock in .22cal. I would send it back immediately. I sold a carbine on here once that was shooting 20.5 foot pounds with H&N FTS 14.66 with a Vortek tune kit, but when you start out with 13.5, something is very wrong from the factory and a tune won’t fix it. Tolerances are off.
 
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rokonman said:
What about the sleeves that the new guns contain? I have seen pictures of the sleeves and an amateur tuner complaining that a vortek kit wouldn’t fit until he discovered and removed the sleeve. Does the sleeve line the piston?

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Yes. What about them? Weihrauch has used these for a long time.
 
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rokonman said:
I didn’t think I hit post on that one! I read about them while I was looking for a picture to add to the post. I thought they were something new. The only HW80 I have freshened up with a Vortek kit had apparently already had the sleeve removed?
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I believe they all came with it. My 1992ish R1 and a virgin 1982/83 R1 I worked on had liners. Unless you got your gun new, it was removed. They were initially installed to help support the early style cocking shoe. They still kept them after the development of the new style cocking shoe in about 2012. They still function as grease shield and take up space around the spring which arguably helps reduce spring buzz. It's quite common for the liner to get damaged beyond use when a spring breaks. The 35s, 80s and 95 family guns use them. Here's an 80 liner with a new and old style cocking shoe. I've taken most of them out of the guns I've worked on.

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Bear-of-Grayling said:
Weihrauch knows there are limits on how much the market is willing to bear for a quality springer. The market has been moving away from springers for years as it is. Easy to see all the cutting they have been doing. Even down to the laser printing in place of stamping. Stocks have been cheapened. Next may be the elimination of wooden stocks altogether. With functional issues on the rise however, it would appear that Weihrauch is farming out some of their machining. These types of issues like excessive barrel droop, bolts to long, seams in receivers, weak pistons and such would suggest they have gone away from producing these parts in house. With Germany’s economy in a downward spiral, anything could happen. IMHO
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Newest one I have is my 2018 R7 .177 bought from a fellow member over on GTA when they were just starting that laser etching of the name on the receivers, shoots very well and I've had absolutely no issues with it. I know many have gotten good rifles since then, but the stories have also piled up on issues you mentioned and to be honest, makes me glad I went the route I was already on trying to find/buy the Beeman R Series rifles I now own vs anything HW. Seems to be a cr@pshoot anymore whether you'll actually get a well made one or not. A lot of the time these days, it would seem not.
I've always been one of those in the camp that says if I'm spending THAT much for a rifle, I shouldn't have to do anything to it out of the box...lol.
 
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Bear-of-Grayling said:
Weihrauch knows there are limits on how much the market is willing to bear for a quality springer.
With functional issues on the rise however, it would appear that Weihrauch is farming out some of their machining. These types of issues like excessive barrel droop, bolts to long, seams in receivers, weak pistons and such would suggest they have gone away from producing these parts in house. IMHO
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Hey BOG,
I would bet ....... you're right (y)!
 
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Mycapt65 said:
I believe they all came with it. My 1992ish R1 and a virgin 1982/83 R1 I worked on had liners. Unless you got your gun new, it was removed. They were initially installed to help support the early style cocking shoe. They still kept them after the development of the new style cocking shoe in about 2012. They still function as grease shield and take up space around the spring which arguably helps reduce spring buzz. It's quite common for the liner to get damaged beyond use when a spring breaks. The 35s, 80s and 95 family guns use them. Here's an 80 liner with a new and old style cocking shoe. I've taken most of them out of the guns I've worked on.

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Wow thanks for a great explanation. This is a great community.
 
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