HW30s power issues..

[barghmatt]

Good morning all!

Could anybody please help point me in the right direction?

I have a lovely HW30s that’s struggling to push the pellet through the barrel around every other shot or so.

Any thoughts? Broken spring maybe?

All the best, Matt

Apologies, it’s a 30s & not a 35..

[Phil Russell]

I fear the only way to find out is to have a look;
Moisten a bit of tissue and place on the breech junction with rifle loaded. Fire shot safely, if tissue blows up, new breech seal is needed.

Strip and check mainspring. Check piston seal.

Personally I would replace spring and seals unless you are sure one or more are perfect.

I think this is the only way to restore normal working.
Cheers, Phil

[barghmatt]

Many thanks Phill,

I’ll check the breech seal first. Good advice!

Thanks again..

All the best, Matt

[CapitalBee]

As stated, best open her up. I did have a similar set of symptoms on an hw30. It turned out to be a slightly loose piston seal, which was allowing a bit of grease migration in front of the seal. Remedied with an Aussie red seal, which were known to be slightly larger than original.

[TonyL]

As always, top advice above. It would be a very nice and a quick, easy fix if it did turn out to be the breech seal.

[evert]

As mentioned above, you'll have to open it up and see.
In my experience, rifles that are too low on power to push out pellets usually have sagged springs and/or very tight piston washers.
Leaking breech seal may be a reason, but usually not the only reason if the other components are up to full spec.
Dried out sticky grease may play a part too.

[Hsing-ee]

HW30 rifles are awful out of the box. They are not finished properly.

You need to strip the thing and go over all the edges of the cocking slot and smooth them all off. They're razor sharp and can draw blood - use a small flat needle file then some aluminium oxide paper wrapped round the same. The trigger pin holes you can do by getting a small spherical Dremel bit and threading it through the holes and giving it a few spins by hand to round off the inner face. If you don't do this the piston seal can get two or more nicks in it and you lose power.

You then need to reduce the depth of the cocking lever (barrel side) with a file until it no longer galls on the underside of the compression chamber, so there is a tiny gap.

Then you need to thoroughly check, deburr and smooth out the tip of the cocking lever to make sure its not grinding on the cocking slot, which you must check for trueness - I had one that was not parallel to the cylinder (!).

Finally make sure you have a good piston seal and a good UK or USA specification spring, not one of the 5.5 fpe German ones.

It's about 90 mins work but it will make your rifle super smooth and work how it should have from the factory.

Those Americans on YouTube etc saying they need a few thousand rounds to 'break in' their R7 (as the HW30 is called there) are just grinding metal together until it wears into some kind of shape. That's just wrong. Old school 'running in' a springer meant shooting five tins of pellets to get the leather piston washer settled, not grinding badly finished parts together. A new synthetic seal and spring should only take a few hundred shots to settle.

[jjjohn]

Will you update on the findings please?

[TonyL]

As mentioned above, you'll have to open it up and see.
In my experience, rifles that are too low on power to push out pellets usually have sagged springs and/or very tight piston washers.
Leaking breech seal may be a reason, but usually not the only reason if the other components are up to full spec.
Dried out sticky grease may play a part too.

Agreed.

[TonyL]

HW30 rifles are awful out of the box. They are not finished properly.

You need to strip the thing and go over all the edges of the cocking slot and smooth them all off. They're razor sharp and can draw blood - use a small flat needle file then some aluminium oxide paper wrapped round the same. The trigger pin holes you can do by getting a small spherical Dremel bit and threading it through the holes and giving it a few spins by hand to round off the inner face. If you don't do this the piston seal can get two or more nicks in it and you lose power.

You then need to reduce the depth of the cocking lever (barrel side) with a file until it no longer galls on the underside of the compression chamber, so there is a tiny gap.

Then you need to thoroughly check, deburr and smooth out the tip of the cocking lever to make sure its not grinding on the cocking slot, which you must check for trueness - I had one that was not parallel to the cylinder (!).

Finally make sure you have a good piston seal and a good UK or USA specification spring, not one of the 5.5 fpe German ones.

It's about 90 mins work but it will make your rifle super smooth and work how it should have from the factory.

Those Americans on YouTube etc saying they need a few thousand rounds to 'break in' their R7 (as the HW30 is called there) are just grinding metal together until it wears into some kind of shape. That's just wrong. Old school 'running in' a springer meant shooting five tins of pellets to get the leather piston washer settled, not grinding badly finished parts together. A new synthetic seal and spring should only take a few hundred shots to settle.

Yep, excellent info. And a good, detailed "mini tutorial" there, Alistair.

[Hellequin]

Yep, excellent info. And a good, detailed "mini tutorial" there, Alistair.

It's good info Tony, but it also puts me off getting a 30. I know they're loved by many (including your good self) and I don't mind a bit of 'fettling', but that sounds drastic and, to be blunt, bloody unacceptable on a new out of box rifle from a company like Weihrauch.

Tuning is one thing, but having to file down rough/sharp edges and still this sodding galling issue (on the 99 too) is just wrong. It should have been rectified at factory by now.

[TonyL]

It's good info Tony, but it also puts me off getting a 30. I know they're loved by many (including your good self) and I don't mind a bit of 'fettling', but that sounds drastic and, to be blunt, bloody unacceptable on a new out of box rifle from a company like Weihrauch.

Tuning is one thing, but having to file down rough/sharp edges and still this sodding galling issue (on the 99 too) is just wrong. It should have been rectified at factory by now.

I can't disagree with your comments.

However, they're not all afflicted.

And they do shoot so very, very sweetly that many of us 30/99 fans are quite happy to check / fettle and enjoy the superb firing manners, fantastic trigger and awesome accuracy.

[Hellequin]

I can't disagree with your comments.

However, they're not all afflicted.

And they do shoot so very, very sweetly that many of us 30/99 fans are quite happy to check / fettle and enjoy the superb firing manners, fantastic trigger and awesome accuracy.

I'm sure I'll still buy one at some point mate. Resistance is futile, and all that jazz...

[ashf9999]

I can't disagree with your comments.

However, they're not all afflicted.

And they do shoot so very, very sweetly that many of us 30/99 fans are quite happy to check / fettle and enjoy the superb firing manners, fantastic trigger and awesome accuracy.

No they are not all afflicted.
I’ve had my 30 apart to see if there were any easy improvements, given moanings on this site, and mine had no sharp edges, no graunching, no incorrect greasing nor any other noticeable issues. It was new out the box (last year). Depending on pellet, so varying a little bit depending on pellet quality, mine averages 7.5 to 8 ft/lbs (checked before it was taken apart for inspection, as per factory spec).

[Hellequin]

No they are not all afflicted.
I’ve had my 30 apart to see if there were any easy improvements, given moanings on this site, and mine had no sharp edges, no graunching, no incorrect greasing nor any other noticeable issues. It was new out the box (last year). Depending on pellet, so varying a little bit depending on pellet quality, mine averages 7.5 to 8 ft/lbs (checked before it was taken apart for inspection, as per factory spec).

That's good to hear. Maybe there are just some 'Friday afternoon' jobs out there...