A few years back when i got back into my old love of all things airgun, i went out and was bought a .22 Weihrauch HW35 for my birthday as a present from my wife.
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| Weihrauch HW 35 Luxus |
I did have an old Relum Telly that had been sitting around for years, but as i then lived in a city and with no affordable airgun club around it sat forgotten in the back of an airing cupboard. But then with a move to the countryside with a large back garden and a permission on promise, i was free to indulge myself in my old passion once again.It's been a good 20 years since i last had a decent air rifle which was an old .22 Diana underlever, it had big old 3-9x50 scope, moderator, and a trapdoor loading mechanism which opened when cocking the underlever. It was a beast of an air rifle that kept me in free meals for years, it was a sad day when some thieving little git had it away.
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| Raised combe works well with scope fitted. |
I had remembered Weihrauch's as a quality air rifles and on seeing this one with the rare luxus walnut stock and its deep bluing that is almost black i was smitten, i didn't care that they usually produced 10. 5 ft/lb as it was a pleasure to use.
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| No finger grooves on the Luxus stock. |
On removing the stock i could see it had a square Ox spring fitted, this explained why it was a little hold sensative. How ever i put over a chronoscope recently to find it only producing 7 ft/lb, and with a big spread in FPS between shots.
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| Checkering on pistol grip. |
Having gained experience in tinkering and a new Titan XS spring in the spares box i thought it time to give her an overhaul, and as it's an older 1978 model it would be interesting to see if it still had the original leather piston seal.
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| Sling attachment on the barrel |
HW 35's are known to suffer from barrel droop, and this one does to the extent that i have to shim the rear scope ring to compensate.
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| Rear sights are a joy to use. |
But the open sights are excellent on these rifles with fine definate clicks when adjusting the rear, and interchangable circular shims that screw into the front hooded sight that fits on a dovetail above the barrel crown.
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| Front sights do come with five inserts, i only have the one though. |
The good thing about the barrel is that it has a lock in the form of a sliding thumb latch on the breech, it silently slides out of it's detent in the compression tube allowing the barrel to drop so it can be cocked.
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| Latch for the breech lock |
There's no slapping of the barrel here or snapping it shut, the only sound comes from the articulated cocking linkage moving against it's guide.
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| Articulated cocking arm allows for a much shorter cocking slot in the stock, simply it's more solid. |
It becomes second nature in no time to use the barrel lock, just thumb the latch, slide your hand to the end of the barrel as it drops, then cock.
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| Break barrel at rest when unlocked. |
The trigger is the world renown Rekord trigger which some reckon is the best trigger ever made for a commercial air rifle, it's a two stage trigger with adjustment on both stages.
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| Rekord trigger and really tasty trigger gaurd. |
Some say the Air Arms TX trigger is better but i have yet to try an Air Arms air rifle with one fitted, my Shamal has a wicked trigger but it's not a TX. I have never bothered adjusting this trigger as it had already been set to a pretty light second stage let off, and i like a small bit of first stage movement as i prepare to take a shot which it has. Working on or adjusting this trigger would be a blog entry of it's own, there is a lot of info on the web any way and hopefully i won't have to add to it.
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| Scope rail and stops. |
There is a good size 11 mm scope rail with two scope stop holes at the rear of the compression tube, and with the combination of the Ox spring and the short compression stroke a scope stop they are really needed.
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| Easy to reach safety |
The automatic safety pops out on the left at the rear of the trigger unit just above the stock, this easily thumbs off with the thumb of your trigger hand before you fire if you are right handed like me.
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| Safety on. |
Though it has been getting a little sticky lately and not fully engadging if i don't fully press home the barrel when cocking the rifle, this is just going to get worse so is another reason to strip the rifle.
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| Cocking stroke of HW 35. I don't make a habit of leaving my springers like this, i always support the barrel or cocking arm till its returned. |
Stripping this rifle seems pretty straight forward, i just hope i don't find anything too expensive to fix once inside. There is a guide on Youtube for stripping the HW 80 which is pretty much the same as the HW 35, plus i have also got airgun magazines with strip down guides for the HW 35 and the Record trigger unit. On top of that there is a full step by step guide on Anotherairgun blog which is a really good blog i follow, so i'm sure i should avoid any pitfalls along the way.
A hell of a lot of people love these HW 35's including me, and i think i have been very lucky to find myself such an original example. I usually store my finest air rifles wrapped in a towel so i don't accidently mark them when storing them together, there is a small mark on this stock because i didn't take care originally but it is tiny and will most likely iron out. I have children in the house and a lot of air rifles so i have to keep them safely out the way, the safest storage place is a small airing cupboard where i can protect them from damage with the towels and from rust because of the dry air. And locked away from kids.
TTFN
Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe
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