This is a single stroke pneumatic pistol; it uses a manually operated air cylinder to compress the air, and works basically along the same lines as a PCP gun. Except this cylinder compresses only enough air for a single shot to each cock of the action
The big advantage of this PCP type method, is that it reduces the overall weight of the pistol (no heavy spring to compress), and it makes it totally recoilless to shoot


The pistol is constructed from plastic, with all moving parts either steel or aluminium, with a steel rifled barrel
Now don’t let the idea of it being plastic put you off, lots of modern items are made from polymer, including many modern firearms. Its very hard wearing, lightweight and extremely strong


The gun itself is styled along the lines of semi-auto sidearm, lots of mouldings to imitate it as such; it even has a false slide release switch and false magazine release catch. You may think all this is unnecessary on an air pistol, but you either like its styling or you don’t, it just a matter of individual taste

To cock and load, you first have to pull back the “hammer” at the rear of the action, this is in fact a catch that releases the top half of the action.


This is then swung almost 180 degrees forward, as it nears the end of its stroke, a nice hiss is heard as air is drawn into the cylinder.
You can clearly see the telescopic, silver coloured, cylinder.


In many aspects this over lever/barrel configuration is the tried tested system incorporated for many years by the Webley & Scott Company on their ageless Tempest pistols, and their many siblings, only they were spring powered

The pellet can now be loaded into the rear of the rifled barrel (now at the front), this is a little fiddly at first but once done a few times, it becomes very straight forward



When the action is closed, the barrel will then mate up with the transfer port


Now a word of caution on closing the action
As the air in the cylinder compresses, it gets progressively harder to push down on the action, until a point is reached where it snaps into place quite alarmingly. Be sure to push down with the flat of your palm, with fingers and thumb out stretched as it would cause considerable pain if you where to nip your skin.


Also try to keep any loose clothing out of the way, as once the gun is cocked and the action closed, it cannot be reopened until it has been fired. I have so far managed to catch my jumper only the once, but it made a rather comical situation as I tried to discharge the gun while it was attached to my chest

In following the modern trend, the HW40 is fitted with Tru-Glo sights. The rear notch and front post have a light gathering fibre optic straw attached, this give a really nice sight picture and prevents the sights getting lost in a dark target background


Many people think these are a gimmick, but believe me, once you’ve tried them; it’s really hard to go back to standard open sights

The rear sight is fully adjustable for both windage and elevation; the elevation screw turns with nice positive click. The windage adjuster on the other hand is just a plain adjustment screw, with no clicks and also no scale to compare movement with


The HW40 is fitted with an automatic safety catch on the left-hand side, this catch is engaged upon opening of the action, and then can be made safe/unsafe at will after the loading cycle is complete.


For some strange reason it seems to be set up for a left hander, as its simple to flick the safety off with your trigger finger when holding the gun in your left hand but when holding it right handed it becomes a two handed affair to disengage the safety

All that’s left now is to actually fire the gun, and here you will appreciate the excellent 2-stage trigger that Weihrauch have fitted to the HW40. A wonderfully smooth first stage is followed by a definite stop and a very crisp release. The trigger is adjustable for pull weight, but out of the box it appears perfect for me, just enough weight to prevent any premature firing, but light enough to stop the aim being pulled off
If this is the standard of the Weihrauch trigger on a £125 pistol, I wonder how much better they can make them on a top end gun costing 4-5 times as much

The muzzle report is fairly quiet, not as quiet as a silenced PCP, but not much louder, there is no recoil whatsoever, and very little (if any) muzzle flip. The front of the action does have three slots cut into it, these could be a form of muzzle flip compensator, but I personally think they are just there for styling


The top of the action is fitted with a standard scope rail, to allow the fitting of a pistol scope or a red-dot sight. I may add a red-dot in the future and will update this report if so

Another good point, is due to its PCP nature, it’s perfectly safe to dry fire it, so you can quite safely practice your shooting technique indoors without any fear of putting a pellet thru a window

I ran several shots across the chrono and this example was doing around 2.5 fpe, this may creep up a little as it beds in and loosens up, but don’t go expecting power nudging the legal limit. This is not a gun for 25-30 yard bean can bashing; it’s more of a shorter range plinking tool and semi-serious 10 or 6 yard target tool
I say semi-serious, as without doubt it could hold its own against more out and out target models, the lack of a target grip will always hold it back

In my opinion it a perfect tool for backyard plinking, along with target work, just keep the ranges to under 15 yards for best results

ADDITIONAL INFO

Many shops will also stock a Beeman pistol, in fact there are 2 Beeman models available
They look identical in every respect to the HW model, and one of them is !!

Beeman P3 - This is a rebadged Weihrauch, made in Germany just rebadged for the US market
Beeman 2004 Deluxe - This is a Chinese rip-off, it looks and feel identical only £40 cheaper. By 'all accounts the longevity is questional, and the materials used may be sub-par

If you get offered one of these Beeman models, try to find out if its made in Germany or China

On my model "Made In Germany" is stamped next to the barrel within the top action, its easily visible when the gun is cocked