HW35 Export?

[Mr.Fixit-Norm]

Ah, seeing the thread title and reading the earlier part of the thread, it filled my heart with joy that you may have seen the light and converted to HW35 ownership, Nick.. But alas, not.. You never know, though, once you've built it up and tested it, it may well cast its spell on you? Fingers crossed....... And then we just have "Pesky Pete" to convince.

Hi Tony,

This will gladden your heart slightly. As you know last year I bought an HW35K and tweaked it from a gun that was almost impossible to cock to something that’s a joy to shoot.

I’ve started going down our club again on a Wednesday evening and last night took the 35 down along with my custom made pcp 0.177 target gun. I spent 15 mins on the 50yrd indoor range ringing 30yrd bell targets then a whole one and a quarter hours on the outdoor range with the 35

With the Hawke 3-9x50 on it I was also putting holes in some big dried thistle teasels at 50yrds on the outdoor range !!

The pcp target rifle didn’t even get taken out of its bag

A most enjoyable evening ( but I shan’t get rid of my PCP’s )

Nick, is that finger groove on the stock smooth or has it got lots of horizontal grooves in it ?

Norm

[TonyL]

Hi Tony,

This will gladden your heart slightly. As you know last year I bought an HW35K and tweaked it from a gun that was almost impossible to cock to something that’s a joy to shoot.

I’ve started going down our club again on a Wednesday evening and last night took the 35 down along with my custom made pcp 0.177 target gun. I spent 15 mins on the 50yrd indoor range ringing 30yrd bell targets then a whole one and a quarter hours on the outdoor range with the 35

With the Hawke 3-9x50 on it I was also putting holes in some big dried thistle teasels at 50yrds on the outdoor range !!

The pcp target rifle didn’t even get taken out of its bag

A most enjoyable evening ( but I shan’t get rid of my PCP’s )

Norm

Marvellous!. Quite stunning, aren't they? A classic rifle that feels like it belongs to a different era but can show up so many modern rifles, proving that quality is timeless. Keep enjoying.

[T 20]

Hang on, didn't you have a really nice 35E before, Nick --- I believe you sold it to the Ripper at my place ?




All the best Mick

[tinbum]

Hang on, didn't you have a really nice 35E before, Nick --- I believe you sold it to the Ripper at my place ?




All the best Mick

Twenty terrible minutes I owned that for. This time I am separated from my boingery pals, so have to keep it at least until I am forced to return. That along with some other puffers and a few old school bmx's.

Karen is bringing some seals back next week, and having now put a few hundred shots through it, I can actually say I'm enjoying it. That and it's great for hooking the crisps off the top shelf

[Mr.Fixit-Norm]

Marvellous!. Quite stunning, aren't they? A classic rifle that feels like it belongs to a different era but can show up so many modern rifles, proving that quality is timeless. Keep enjoying.

Hi Tony,

Yes I think this one is definitely a keeper, especially as it’s got what I believe to be a rarer stock

I got the impression when I did the tuning it thread last year that the 35 isn’t that well thought of but I can’t see why as it’s got the potential to be a lovely gun when fettled a bit.

It’s still got a slight twang, nothing too much but I may have another look some time and see if that can be improved on but for now I’ll just keep shooting it

Out of interest do people put the 35 action into posh stocks ? Like thumbhole or laminated ones ?

Norm

[tinbum]

Nick, is that finger groove on the stock smooth or has it got lots of horizontal grooves in it ?

Norm

It's smooth Norm

[Muskett]

A pellet is going to take yonks to get down and out of that barrel At least it's a heavy rifle to keep everything stable while it does.
All 35's benefit from smoothing out from either being well run in or a good old tune up. Nice wood and great trigger plenty to love. And the open sights aren't half bad.
A lot of work has been done to optimise the 35, as most needed to be. Eventually even HW made the progress that was wanted and brought out the HW80/77. These just delivered more consistently.

The 35 is a very good farmyard rifle. It betters the competition in its day. Takes a bit more for it to extend the range beyond that.
I only say the above because in truth they didn't always perform as well as expectations out of the box. Its why tuners started appearing, get them to. The rest is history.
That Moonlighter demanded that 35m was a tac driving reachable range. If it has the BDC then circa 1984 onwards.

[TonyL]

I think it's pretty fair to say that, back in the 70s / very early 80s, some may not have performed as some hoped. But mainly as regards power. This may have been down to the well-documented porous breech issues. But may have been due to guns not making 11.999999 ft.lbs that was so lusted after by some. Maybe some needed to just be properly run in? However, they've always been very solid and reliable. And dependably accurate. To the point where, in my book, it's far more than a "yard gun". Multi-purpose, too. Scoped up, a "longer range" tack driver. But fabulous at bell target and paper target shooting disciplines with its superb open sights / option dioptres.

Did I tell anyone that I love them?

[Mach 1.5]

A collector friend of mine had a venom 35 from 1983. It was doing a comfortable 14.6 ft lbs before he took a few coils off the spring to bring it down to 11 ft lbs. Mach 1.5

[T 20]

A collector friend of mine had a venom 35 from 1983. It was doing a comfortable 14.6 ft lbs before he took a few coils off the spring to bring it down to 11 ft lbs. Mach 1.5

Hi Paul.

The HW35 is one of my favourite platforms to play with, I found my 1972 HW35 was very easy to get upto 15ftlbs with a piston head change and a longer stroke --- I should point out that this happened accidentally after I sealed the porous breech.

The earlier leather sealed HW35s normally had a 65mm stroke and a 4mm transfer port, Hw35s after serial number 843636 had a lighter synthetic sealed piston and a stroke of 69mm and a 2.8-3mm transfer port.

Starting with the earlier leather sealed piston it's very easy to alter them to take a synthetic seal and alter them to a 71mm stroke for a calmer firing cycle.

Venom used to advertise the early HW35 at 15ftlbs at FAC power, from the few pictures I've seen of the internals of these guns they used an O ringed piston head with a longer stroke.
Once the synthetic seal was introduced in 1981 Venom seam to have ditched using O rings as the factory seal was efficient enough to get the job done.


I'm presently rust bluing a .177" HW35k barrel to fit to my .22" HW35 with rotary piston in order to bring its power back under 12ftlbs --- I'd rather swap barrels than mess with action, and .177" pellets are cheaper than .22".




All the best Mick

[tinbum]

The earlier leather sealed HW35s normally had a 65mm stroke and a 4mm transfer port, Hw35s after serial number 843636 had a lighter synthetic sealed piston and a stroke of 69mm and a 2.8-3mm transfer port.




All the best Mick

That's interesting Mick, this one is serial no. 854636, maybe it's a little earlier than I thought? Perhaps it was bought with the Moonlighter as a kit? I'll start scouring the mags to see where it could've come from

[TonyL]

Hi Paul.

The HW35 is one of my favourite platforms to play with, I found my 1972 HW35 was very easy to get upto 15ftlbs with a piston head change and a longer stroke --- I should point out that this happened accidentally after I sealed the porous breech.

The earlier leather sealed HW35s normally had a 65mm stroke and a 4mm transfer port, Hw35s after serial number 843636 had a lighter synthetic sealed piston and a stroke of 69mm and a 2.8-3mm transfer port.

Starting with the earlier leather sealed piston it's very easy to alter them to take a synthetic seal and alter them to a 71mm stroke for a calmer firing cycle.

Venom used to advertise the early HW35 at 15ftlbs at FAC power, from the few pictures I've seen of the internals of these guns they used an O ringed piston head with a longer stroke.
Once the synthetic seal was introduced in 1981 Venom seam to have ditched using O rings as the factory seal was efficient enough to get the job done.


I'm presently rust bluing a .177" HW35k barrel to fit to my .22" HW35 with rotary piston in order to bring its power back under 12ftlbs --- I'd rather swap barrels than mess with action, and .177" pellets are cheaper than .22".


All the best Mick

A wonderful little technical overview of one of my favourite rifles. Cheers, Mick.

[KarlSwe]

Hi Paul.

The HW35 is one of my favourite platforms to play with, I found my 1972 HW35 was very easy to get upto 15ftlbs with a piston head change and a longer stroke --- I should point out that this happened accidentally after I sealed the porous breech.

The earlier leather sealed HW35s normally had a 65mm stroke and a 4mm transfer port, Hw35s after serial number 843636 had a lighter synthetic sealed piston and a stroke of 69mm and a 2.8-3mm transfer port.

Starting with the earlier leather sealed piston it's very easy to alter them to take a synthetic seal and alter them to a 71mm stroke for a calmer firing cycle.

Venom used to advertise the early HW35 at 15ftlbs at FAC power, from the few pictures I've seen of the internals of these guns they used an O ringed piston head with a longer stroke.
Once the synthetic seal was introduced in 1981 Venom seam to have ditched using O rings as the factory seal was efficient enough to get the job done.


I'm presently rust bluing a .177" HW35k barrel to fit to my .22" HW35 with rotary piston in order to bring its power back under 12ftlbs --- I'd rather swap barrels than mess with action, and .177" pellets are cheaper than .22".




All the best Mick

Im thinking that it must be quite easy to increase the stroke to 71 mm (or at least close to it) on a syntetic sealed 35 with a shorter seal? Is there any of the custom seals that are shorter than the factory seal?

[Muskett]

The 80's "power craze" where lighter fluid down the transfer port was le rigour But so was sniffing glue.

Farmyard is more than a backyard. Backyard was for Cadet Majors.

I suspect some of the power thing was getting the .22 dustbin to get beyond 30m with a little less loop. Everyone bought .22 for vermin as few ever tried to go beyond farmyard ranges. With the new fangled Jap inexpensive scopes everyone could see the critters better
A big rifle like the 35 should have got right out there, but didn't quite....177 there wasn't enough oomph either.
Heck a Webley Vulcan MK1 had more whack on Dinky Toy tanks than an expensive 35.

So the wonderful hobby of tuning went ballistic to get better ballistics.

Then, 40 years ago, I just bought a FWB Sport, which was better

[Mach 1.5]

My old FWB Sport ran at 14.8. Comfortable..again it was detuned years ago. Back in the day these old classics were designed for the USA with no power limits. Amazing to see the HW35 still in production after all these years. A timeless classic. Mach 1.5