HW/Weihrauch Is This the HW30s’ Biggest Weakness?

[Xun]

I’ve been really enjoying my HW30s — it’s a beautifully made rifle, incredibly smooth and just a joy to shoot. The craftsmanship overall is top-notch, and it’s easy to see why this rifle is so highly regarded.

But… there’s one small thing that’s been bugging me — the rear sight.

It looks great and has a clever design, but I’ve noticed there’s a bit of play or wiggle between some of the parts. There are actually three areas where there’s noticeable play, and unfortunately, it’s enough that I think it could affect accuracy when using the open sights. It’s not loose in a “falling apart” kind of way, but there’s definitely some movement that feels out of place on a rifle that’s otherwise built like a clock.

To me, it doesn’t seem like a defect or something broken — more like a general looseness in how the pieces fit together. Which makes me wonder:

Is this just how the HW open sights are, or did I get unlucky?

I’d love to hear from other HW owners — especially those with a 30s or similar models. Is this rear sight play something you’ve noticed too?

 

[jkingrph]

I have not paid much attention to factory rear sights, installing aperture sights on most of mine. The best factory rear sight I have seen is that on my newer FWB Sport.

 

[Berserkeley Mike]

That type of sight (I see them on my HW and the pile of Hatsans) wiggles, but usually returns to the same place after being wiggled. If not, maybe check the mounting screws? But as jkingrph said, aperature (peep) sights are more solid, and I find them easier to be more accurate. Some may worry about variability in the lockup of the barrel causing inaccuracy when one sight is on the receiver and not barrel, but if your gun is "built like a clock", there won't be much variation in lockup.

And welcome from the North East Bay!

 

[Struckat]

That looks normal to me. Both my 30 and 95 are like that. Could it affect accuracy? Sure, but
I have much more play in me than that. Meaning iron sights are not precise enough for me to notice.

I run peep sights on mine.

 

[beerthief]

I’ve been really enjoying my HW30s — it’s a beautifully made rifle, incredibly smooth and just a joy to shoot. The craftsmanship overall is top-notch, and it’s easy to see why this rifle is so highly regarded.

But… there’s one small thing that’s been bugging me — the rear sight.

It looks great and has a clever design, but I’ve noticed there’s a bit of play or wiggle between some of the parts. There are actually three areas where there’s noticeable play, and unfortunately, it’s enough that I think it could affect accuracy when using the open sights. It’s not loose in a “falling apart” kind of way, but there’s definitely some movement that feels out of place on a rifle that’s otherwise built like a clock.

To me, it doesn’t seem like a defect or something broken — more like a general looseness in how the pieces fit together. Which makes me wonder:

Is this just how the HW open sights are, or did I get unlucky?

I’d love to hear from other HW owners — especially those with a 30s or similar models. Is this rear sight play something you’ve noticed too?

 

[Motorhead]

Iron sights on spring piston air guns is closer distance thing ( Like 40y and less use ) IMO.

 

[EMrider]

It may indeed be a weakness with HW springers, but the first thing I do with all my new guns is ditch the iron sights and mount a scope.
R

 

[MJS]

...if you can't say anything nice don't say anything...

 

[Mycapt65]

Omg Really? You gotta be kidding me. And I thought I had OCD. Seriously the amount of movement there pales in comparison to human ability to discern them. They're all like that and nobody ever had a problem with them. They're simple open sights if you want to micrometer precision get a set of match grade peeps and they'll cost more then the rifle. Most people scope these things anyway.

Good luck. Wait until the cocking arm starts grinding the compression tube. You'll have fits.

 

[maxtrouble]

@Xun - Those sights are fine and act like mine. I have a HW30 and a HW50 that I shoot with the iron sights. They work very well and the rifles are nice to shoot without a scope on it. I can hit cans consistently with them.

I suggest trying them out. I think you will be surprised at how well they work. My only complaint about the Weihrauch iron sights is that they cannot be set for close (10 meter) shooting. The closest I can get them to shoot is 20 yards on mine.

I like how simple but elegant they are with all the different combinations available. I think there are 64? combinations available with the front inserts and the four rear sight choices.

Try them out, you will be surprised at how well they work.

 

[Bedrock Bob]

No problem with a little "wiggle" in there. It's not enough to be concerned with.

Hatsan on the other hand needs some shims. They will flop around about 2-3 clicks in windage. The play is between the upper and lower leaf and can be tightened up with a couple layers of painters tape. The fit of the locator pin to the bore needs a single drop of epoxy. After that the sight is as solid as the HW.

The play in the HW is less than one "click" on the windage screw. At 50 yards that's not very much. Most of the play is in the rear aperture and that centers itself pretty closely.

I'm not crazy about HW sights because of the very limited view in the front hood. You can't "hold over" much past 40 yards or you run out of front post. You need to elevate the rear sight for long shots and that is a huge pain. I can shoot to 100 yards with every other iron sight setup I have (Diana, Hatsan, Cometa) but the HW is only good to 45 yards without holding below that ridiculously small front tube.

Peep sights suck for hunting and plinking because you have to adjust the sight to elevate. You can't even see a 50 yard target through the peep if you are zeroed for 25. They make great target sights but they just don't work for targets at multiple distances unless your screwing the sight up and down all the time.

The rear sight is OK on an HW even with a little play. It's the front sight and a very limited elevation capability that bothers me. I can still hit shotgun shells at 60 yards with it but I'm holding the rear blade way below the front post down on the front sight dovetail lug. With a little larger "korntunnel" and a taller front post the sights could work a lot farther out without fiddling with the elevation screw.

I filed a little notch on the front sight "ring" and it makes centering the post much easier. Still when you are that far down the front sight it's just guesswork. The sights were designed to be adjusted for range and are just not as adaptable to hold over as the sights found on most other pellet rifles.

 

[Jesfranco]

I’ve been really enjoying my HW30s — it’s a beautifully made rifle, incredibly smooth and just a joy to shoot. The craftsmanship overall is top-notch, and it’s easy to see why this rifle is so highly regarded.

But… there’s one small thing that’s been bugging me — the rear sight.

It looks great and has a clever design, but I’ve noticed there’s a bit of play or wiggle between some of the parts. There are actually three areas where there’s noticeable play, and unfortunately, it’s enough that I think it could affect accuracy when using the open sights. It’s not loose in a “falling apart” kind of way, but there’s definitely some movement that feels out of place on a rifle that’s otherwise built like a clock.

To me, it doesn’t seem like a defect or something broken — more like a general looseness in how the pieces fit together. Which makes me wonder:

Is this just how the HW open sights are, or did I get unlucky?

I’d love to hear from other HW owners — especially those with a 30s or similar models. Is this rear sight play something you’ve noticed too?

Hi Zun !

Don’t worry about that .

I shoot mine with a Bushnell TS 25 red dot .

I’m almost blind of course !

Jes

 

[jkingrph]

Iron sights on spring piston air guns is closer distance thing ( Like 40y and less use ) IMO.

True

 

[jkingrph]

That type of sight (I see them on my HW and the pile of Hatsans) wiggles, but usually returns to the same place after being wiggled. If not, maybe check the mounting screws? But as jkingrph said, aperature (peep) sights are more solid, and I find them easier to be more accurate. Some may worry about variability in the lockup of the barrel causing inaccuracy when one sight is on the receiver and not barrel, but if your gun is "built like a clock", there won't be much variation in lockup.

And welcome from the North East Bay!

I have aperature sights on all of my guns lacking scopes and that is most of them, break barrels and under levers. Break barrels include 4 FWB guns and several HW guns an honestly exhibit no inaccuracy or variations in impact points. I have had a Williams/Beeman receiver sight on one of my FWB 124 rifles since 1975.

 

[Xun]

That type of sight (I see them on my HW and the pile of Hatsans) wiggles, but usually returns to the same place after being wiggled. If not, maybe check the mounting screws? But as jkingrph said, aperature (peep) sights are more solid, and I find them easier to be more accurate. Some may worry about variability in the lockup of the barrel causing inaccuracy when one sight is on the receiver and not barrel, but if your gun is "built like a clock", there won't be much variation in lockup.

And welcome from the North East Bay!

Thanks! Fewer people here are interested in shooting, and even fewer in airguns. Great to hear from you!

 

[Xun]

Thanks to you all for your replies!

The title was a bit of a clickbait — sorry about that!
This obviously isn’t a huge issue, and I know I might be nitpicking here — but that’s only because I genuinely like the sight picture and was impressed by how feature-rich the sight system is. With the interchangeable front sight, rotary rear notch, and positive click adjustments — and coming from Weihrauch — I just expected it to feel a bit more mechanically solid.

That said, it’s good to know this isn’t just an issue with my rifle, and that many of you are totally fine with it.

Peep sights and scopes are great, but I also really enjoy shooting with open sights — not just because they add a bit of extra challenge, but also because they were the first type of sights I used when I was a kid.

As for how much this play actually matters — I agree it’s not a huge deal, but I don’t think it’s completely negligible either, if you’re serious about shooting with opens. In my case, there are three areas where play is present, creating around 0.2–0.3 mm of total movement (though it’s hard to measure precisely). To put it into perspective, the amount of play is roughly equivalent to two or three clicks of windage adjustment on the rear sight. These parts may “reset” to a relatively consistent position after each shot, but it’s hard to verify how consistently or to what extent that actually happens.

Given the HW30s’s sight radius of 39 cm, a 0.2 mm shift at the rear sight translates to roughly 1.8 MOA of potential point of impact shift. That’s not catastrophic, but still significant if you’re trying to squeeze the most out of open sights.

For example, here’s what I got with a rimfire — about 1-inch groups at 50 yards, which is about 2 MOA. A possible 1.8 MOA sight shift would noticeably open up a group like that.

For reference, the rifle was a CZ 457 Lux, which is known for its accuracy and comes with nice iron sights. Interestingly, it doesn’t have interchangeable front sights or a rotary rear notch like the HW, which is why I feel pity that the weihrauch sights are so awesome but having the play.

Of course, if you’re not particularly into open sights, or not too focused on squeezing the last bit of precision out of them — that’s totally fine too! I get that most people scope these rifles anyway, and this level of detail might not matter at all in regular use.

 

[Xun]

Omg Really? You gotta be kidding me. And I thought I had OCD. Seriously the amount of movement there pales in comparison to human ability to discern them. They're all like that and nobody ever had a problem with them. They're simple open sights if you want to micrometer precision get a set of match grade peeps and they'll cost more then the rifle. Most people scope these things anyway.

Good luck. Wait until the cocking arm starts grinding the compression tube. You'll have fits.

I know, right? Glad to hear your symptoms aren't as bad as mine!

I didn’t notice this for a long time. You can’t really see it with your eyes, but your fingers can definitely feel it. And once you do notice it — you just can’t unsee it!

Now the first thing I do with any iron sights is poke and push them in every direction with my fingers, just to check if there’s any play.

 

[Xun]

@Xun - Those sights are fine and act like mine. I have a HW30 and a HW50 that I shoot with the iron sights. They work very well and the rifles are nice to shoot without a scope on it. I can hit cans consistently with them.

I suggest trying them out. I think you will be surprised at how well they work. My only complaint about the Weihrauch iron sights is that they cannot be set for close (10 meter) shooting. The closest I can get them to shoot is 20 yards on mine.

I like how simple but elegant they are with all the different combinations available. I think there are 64? combinations available with the front inserts and the four rear sight choices.

Try them out, you will be surprised at how well they work.

Yeah, the combination possibilities are awesome — 6 fronts × 4 rear notches = 24 total options!

Interestingly, I’ve been shooting my HW30 mostly at 10 meters, and there’s still plenty of room left for elevation adjustment. I have seen a few posts where people mentioned similar complaints, though. Not sure where the difference comes from.

 

[Xun]

No problem with a little "wiggle" in there. It's not enough to be concerned with.

Hatsan on the other hand needs some shims. They will flop around about 2-3 clicks in windage. The play is between the upper and lower leaf and can be tightened up with a couple layers of painters tape. The fit of the locator pin to the bore needs a single drop of epoxy. After that the sight is as solid as the HW.

The play in the HW is less than one "click" on the windage screw. At 50 yards that's not very much. Most of the play is in the rear aperture and that centers itself pretty closely.

I'm not crazy about HW sights because of the very limited view in the front hood. You can't "hold over" much past 40 yards or you run out of front post. You need to elevate the rear sight for long shots and that is a huge pain. I can shoot to 100 yards with every other iron sight setup I have (Diana, Hatsan, Cometa) but the HW is only good to 45 yards without holding below that ridiculously small front tube.

Peep sights suck for hunting and plinking because you have to adjust the sight to elevate. You can't even see a 50 yard target through the peep if you are zeroed for 25. They make great target sights but they just don't work for targets at multiple distances unless your screwing the sight up and down all the time.

The rear sight is OK on an HW even with a little play. It's the front sight and a very limited elevation capability that bothers me. I can still hit shotgun shells at 60 yards with it but I'm holding the rear blade way below the front post down on the front sight dovetail lug. With a little larger "korntunnel" and a taller front post the sights could work a lot farther out without fiddling with the elevation screw.

I filed a little notch on the front sight "ring" and it makes centering the post much easier. Still when you are that far down the front sight it's just guesswork. The sights were designed to be adjusted for range and are just not as adaptable to hold over as the sights found on most other pellet rifles.

I’ve added shims to some of my other sights before, but I can’t really think of an easy way to improve the Weihrauch ones — hence the complaint.

Really interesting insights on using open and peep sights at longer ranges. Hitting shotgun shells at 60 yards with open sights is seriously impressive!

 

[Bedrock Bob]

Really interesting insights on using open and peep sights at longer ranges. Hitting shotgun shells at 60 yards with open sights is seriously impressive!

I shoot offhand with iron sights at shotgun shells daily. I start them about 25 yards and knock them downrange until I can't hit them anymore. I give myself 5 misses in a row. If I miss 5 times I go to another shotgun shell.

They usually wind up between 50-60 yards when I miss them 5 times. I've taken them out past 70 yards when the stars are aligned just right. Give me 10 misses and I can knock them out past 70 every darn time. At 70 yards I can BARELY see a red shotgun shell on a light sand background. If I put it too close to the front bead it completely disappears.

We have a 3" steel plate painted black at 70 yards. I'm about 3:5 on it as long as it's calm and I have a couple shots to "find the spot". The gun won't shoot much better than that with a scope off a rest.

We shoot in a sand pit and you can see every miss. As long as I can see my misses I can hit very accurately. In gravel or grass my average goes way down. If I can't get feedback from my misses it's like shooting in the dark and I miss a lot.

I use a Cometa 400 gas ram. The HW95 is a bit more accurate and a joy to shoot. But I can't target a shotgun shell past 50 yards or so without getting creative with that front sight. The Cometa has enough post and enough gap below the post to get out to 100 yards no problems. So despite the HW being the "better" gun I can hit more shotgun shells with the Cometa.

I've got a Williams peep. It's great if you want to adjust that sight every shot. It's definitely more precise and helps to make range transitions. I just can't knock a shotgun shell 20 yards and shoot again without cranking on the elevation knob. I like open sights so I can just hold over and follow my target out as I knock it downrange.