Hammerli 402

[Gareth W-B]

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As much info as poss please -- links to photos, history, model variants, the lot . Cheers chaps. Atb: G.

[Gareth W-B]

Found this: https://www.airgunsofarizona.com/Use...ollection.html (please see last entry), but any more for any more ??? Thanks in anticipation. Atb: G.

[Gareth W-B]

Found this, too: http://www.airgundepot.com/hammerli-air-rifles.html ... Any further specific info on the particular Spaniard in question however (the 402) like production dates etc etc, will be very gratefully received . Atb: G.

[yoshiwolves]

Found this, too: http://www.airgundepot.com/hammerli-air-rifles.html ... Any further specific info on the particular Spaniard in question however (the 402) like production dates etc etc, will be very gratefully received . Atb: G.

i thought hammerli were german, did they get bought out or something ?
i think i remember the name sig hammerli, was there some connection with the swiss too ? also thought the 402 was .22 and the 401 was .177
just shows you what i dont know
i would like to no more about these rifles aswell,, wasn,t it fred grimwade who spoke highly of them ?
atb
paul

[Topi]

As far as I know, the Hämmerli brand really used to be Swiss and I guess a 402 might still be Swiss-made.

The current owner of the Hämmerli brand for air rifles seems to be Umarex, however.

Sorry, no special information about the 402 here.

Cheers,

-Topi

[Gareth W-B]

i thought hammerli were german

You may very well be right. I am just on the Hammerli learning curve, and thought that due to the tie-up with Norkia, that they must be spanish . Lets learn together, as every day is a school day, innit . Atb: G.

[Gareth W-B]

As far as I know, the Hämmerli brand really used to be Swiss and I guess a 402 might still be Swiss-made.

The current owner of the Hämmerli brand for air rifles seems to be Umarex, however.

... Thanks Topi, very valuable info, cheers . Swiss eh? Very interesting indeed . Any more with any more please: G.

[Gareth W-B]

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Cribbed, crimped, and copied photo of an example of the type of Hammerli 402 side lever rifle I am currently researching attached below for ref etc. Am also now interested in all/any info on the Hammerli 401, too . Atb: G.

[Mark D]

Hi Gareth

Made in the German factory. The gas pistols were made in the Swiss factory and the German factory in Tiengen West Germany till the production line was destroyed by fire in 1977. The 400 series was introduced in 1978 and replaced the 'Puma' series as the name infringed copyright. The basic 400 was a sidelever with auto safety on the sidelever to prevent it snapping shut during cocking. The 401 has micro adjustable sights, fitted just behind the loading port. Model 402 - has no iron sights as standard, but is fitted with a scope rail and hopefully a scope! Model 403 is the target version with a barrel sleeve, rubber adjustable butt plate and a match grade aperture sight. Model 420 was a 400 action in a military style stock made from abs with a dummy magazine. All the 400 series were side levers with a rotary loading port. Not particularly powerful, but very accurate with the right pellets.Only made in .177 Weight from about 7.5lbs standard model - 9.5lbs for the target model. HTH

[Topi]

... Thanks Topi, very valuable info, cheers . Swiss eh? Very interesting indeed . Any more with any more please: G.

Well, to further confuse the issue, I think the Hammerli Pneuma pcp rifle in the Airgundepot link you provided isn't a Spanish Norica but a Turkish Hatsan AT44.

As far as Swiss Hämmerli air rifles are concerned, they used to make a springer match rifle (or at least one with such aspirations), a CO2 match rifle or two and an SSP, the 450. The 450 is an overlever like the Haenel 550 (that seems to predate the Hämmerli, btw).

Then there naturally was the rather extensive line of CO2-powered (8 or 12 gram bulb) match pistols made by Hämmerli. Single, Duel and whatnot, you know.

Cheers,

-Topi

[Topi]

Hi Gareth

Made in the German factory. The gas pistols were made in the Swiss factory and the German factory in Tiengen West Germany till the production line was destroyed by fire in 1977.

I stand corrected.

Cheers,

-Topi

[Gareth W-B]

Thanks again Topi, that clarifies further, and to Mark D ... many many thanks indeed. Am now sufficiently excited as to buy the one I have been offered. Don't you just love being a collector ??? Cheers chaps . Atb: G.

[Hsing-ee]

THE HAMMERLI SIDELEVER

I used a 401 in the early days of FT, and I eventually found one a few months back. I am looking for an original foresight element for it still.

Power on the 401s and 420s is from 7.5 to about 8.5 ft/lbs in .177. Individual rifle and pellet combos might make 9 ft/lbs, one AGW writer said his did 10.6 but I can't see how that is possible from the small swept volume.

This is an old piece from an old thread...

The Hammerli 420 military-style rifle was produced in the mid 1970s before the Sussex Armoury Jackal. Hammerli is a Swiss company, although I think the factory was in West Germany at this point. Some say that the Jackal is a larger, beefier copy of the design and that some of the early Jackal barrels were made in the Hammerli factory. The 420 is a Hammerli 400 target/sporting rifle in an assault-style stock, not sure why this target gun company decided to make one. Perhaps for the Swiss market? they have a citizen's army so are obliged to practise shooting their G3s and it might be something they could use at home in their gardens/fallout shelters! Anyway, it was reviewed twice in AGW and always did extremely well in the accuracy section, although it wasn't very powerful, about 9 ft/lbs tops. The mythical 'Fred Grimwade' in AGW was a great fan of the wood-stocked Hammerli 401 series in .177 as a HUNTING rifle, he valued accuracy over power and was the first person in the UK to 'come out' and say that .177 was superior to .22 for hunting.

Internally, the 400 series has an extremely long spring (you really need a spring compressor) which is under a great deal of pre-load and which has a long, tightly-fitting spring guide. This gives a very sweet firing cycle and very little recoil or vibration. The chamber does not have a large swept volume, so there is not much room for improving power, but the transfer port and loading tap have little 'dead space' so they are very efficient. According to Hammerli legend, there is a tight choke on the barrel which contributes to its superb accuracy and relative lack of pellet sensitivity. DON'T 'carbine' this rifle, you will lose its excellent accuracy.

The trigger is sweet as they come, although the stamped parts cause the problem of wear if the trigger mounting bolts are not done up tight. It's mechanism employs very long levers which allow a light and crisp action.

The lack of sear engagement is quite common. The trigger unit is held onto the compression cylinder by six or eight tiny allen screws (too small in my opinion) and if these are not tightened up properly then the sear will not engage, or it will only partially engage and then wear the tip of the sear off. The sear itself is a small flat piece of tempered stamped steel with an angle on it, if it is worn out any competent engineer or gunsmith could make one up in 20 minutes for you. The screws holding the trigger unit on should be carefully screwed in, first just finger-tight and then finally with an allen key, doing them in sequence so the pressure is spread evenly, just like when you are fitting a cylinder head on a car engine.

The rifle should have an anti-beartrap mechanism which is quite noisy, you can press down a lever which juts up near the cocking slot and ease the spring down if you need to de-cock, but be careful or you will chop your finger tip off!

The strange drum-style loading tap, with its knurled round knob annoys some people but I soon got used to the one on my 401 and could open it very easily with the left thumb by applying a sort of rolling pressure. Once I got practised I could load and fire it at the same speed as a break-barrel.

The open sights on the military 420 rifles comprise the quite nice interchangeable tunnel foresight from the Hammerli 401, which is held on by a bolt squeezing the unit on the muzzle, plus the non-windage-adjustable rearsight from the Hammerli Model 3. But to experience the great accuracy these guns exhibit you need to fit a scope. I seem to remember they have quite wide scope rails, 13mm, the mounts from the older Weihrauchs fitted well.

It's a really nice rifle and I think the only reason they didn't sell well is that they were not '11.9 ft/lbs' which is all anyone ever cared about in those days. There were probably about 100 military-style 420s sold in the UK, most of them with the swoopy stock, sometimes black in colour, sometimes green. They are far better rifles than the Sussex Armoury Jackals which were larger British copies of the Hammerli, but as the Jackals were very popular (11.9 ft/lbs!) they allowed Sussex Armouny/NSP Engineering/Air Arms to develop and eventually come up with the TX200 series. Of course the TX is Ken Turners 'perfected' HW77 and owes nothing to the Hammerli in terms of design, but in spirit, the Hammerli 400-type is the great-grandmother of the TX200!

You can still get mainsprings from Chambers, but other parts are not available. The piston seal is leather so you can make your own, but the design is very simple so you shouldn't need any other spare parts (other than the sear, which can be made up) really.

To answer your question, were they target or hunting, they are really both for the time that they were sold in. They were good hunters up to 35 yards, and they were the same power as most .177 hunter rifles anyway. The BSA Airsporter and Original 50 (which are comparable fixed-barrel hunting rifles of the time) both did about 9 ft/lbs tops in .177, only the BSF and Feinwerkbau rifles were really powerful in .177. Of course it is not a match rifle but it's superb for informal target shooting and plinking. Its a peach!

[Gareth W-B]

From an old thread ....
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Yeah, but did you really have to précis it Alistair, as the above hardly gives me any info whatsoever . Ha ha. That is absolutely FANTASTIC my friend, many many thanks, and yhpm . All the "blooming" best: Gareth.

[yoshiwolves]

hi gareth, just found two review/tests on the 401 in airgun world, first one august 1978 gun test by geoffrey boxall,, the second is december 1978 country gun by fred grimwade,, could copy them and send if you like ??
atb
paul