Don't swap the barrels!
Swap them and grind off the evidence.
Get the barrels re-stamped.
Restore your FWB Sport instead.
I have got a really sweet HW80 in .177 with the full-length barrel. Thing is I don't like 80s, they are too heavy and long and OTT for 12 ft/lbs.
I've also got a luxus-stocked HW85K in .22. It's really nice but it's .22! Yeuch!
I want to swap the barrels and sell off the HW80.
Except the Weihrauch family have decided to stamp 'HW85K' on the .22 barrel, and 'HW80' on the .177 barrel.
So swapping them will mean confusion.
Should I not swap them? Or grind off the stampings? Or fake up the stampings with a Dremel?
Just swap the barells over, no one is going to care about a letter stamped on the breech.
ATB
Jack
Living in Australia (despite the blooming gun laws)!
Do whats best for you-they are your guns!
The solution is surely to lighten and shorten the HW80, with careful use of a file and hack saw, and squeeze the HW85 barrel down to .177 with the use of a strong vice.
In fact, the HW80 could be made lighter by removing the butt pad, drilling holes in the woodwork and filling these with helium or other "lighter than air" gas.
Matt
Sell them both, restore your fwb sport for about £150 ( reblue £60, tune kit £90 tops, refinish stock yourself if needed )
Keep a lookout for a different hw85 in .177 if you still feel the need for one, that you could buy with the spare cash
I wouldnt mess with the barrel changes - because it would niggle at me and i'd wish i hadnt done it, even though they might be a great combination ?...
Does that last bit make sense or is it just my OCD taking prominence?
Founder & ex secretary of Rivington Riflemen.
www.rivington-riflemen.uk
If you put the .22 barrel on the 80 you may even have to detune it as well. If its not a MK1 80 sell it, if it is a MK1 keep it forever.
I agree they are a big old lump but I only shoot mine in the garden so its not an issue, and why all this anti .22 sentiment, up till Fred Grimwade everybody thought the .22 was the Dog's.
It is a Mk 1, and a nice Mk 1 as well. Detune would deffo be needed coil snip snip.
I don't like .22 as much as .177 because it is
1. Fat
2. Slow
3. Loopy
On the other hand, it is nicer to load, and it wallops things nicely. I don't shoot critters so I haven't a use for one really. But maybe I shouldn't be so narrow-minded.
The prospect of a nice MK1 80 for sale in .177 should have the BBS masses rushing to their PC's to say "yes please".
My own 80 is a mk1 and was orginally .22 but donkeys years ago I swapped barrels with a .177 80, also mk1. It runs around 790 fps with Superdome, god knows what it would do with a .22 barrel back on it.
I used to try to get the .177 version if I was buying a rifle but to be quite honest I doesn't bother me now if its .22 or .177. I only shoot in the garden or at my local rimfire club (25 yard max) so a flat trajectory is not an issue. If I were to hunt at longer ranges, do HFT or want a smaller rifle/pistol then .177 is the choice, but if its a sporter I am not fussed.
I even bought a .177 35 barrel off my local dealer to fit to my .22 35K (brand new £40 how could I say no) and have'nt bothered to fit it.
Keep your 85K as a .22 and enjoy.
Last edited by coburn; 10-03-2011 at 08:25 AM.
Ive had a 85 barrel on my 80 for years no probs leave it with original engraving
[B]To err is human to arr is pirate
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Its ok. I've got enough 85s to do the trick now. And leave the 80 alone. Its a really nice 80 but all that weight for 12 ft/lbs? And I am too short for the length.