HW50 the original version. Spring option

[TonyL]

Tinkering Pass stamped for Wednesday.

[TonyL]

I got her all built up yesterday.

I'd previously removed 30mm from the end of the spring as it was kinked at the end and there seemed to be an awful lot of preload as standard. It was previously doing 10.8 ft.lbs, which is much more than I guessed it might do. Shortening the spring would facilitate easier fitting, reduce power and cocking effort.

I'd asked Mick if he could supply some thrust / preload washers with the new top hat and altered HW synthetic guide. I used three of these, one at each end of the spring and one ahead of the top hat.

New piston seal fitted too. Quite a snug fit.

Result? Lovely, smooth shooting. Even easier cocking. Chrono checked after about 20 shots - a nudge under 9ft.lbs with Hobby and 8.6 with Suoerdome. Very consistent - sub 5fps variation with Hobby and 1.5fps with Suoerdome. I expect the power will rise slightly as the seal runs in.

I'd have loved to keep it on opens but the cheekpiece is too high for me for opens (and my eyes are struggling with opens these days, too). So I'll fit a 4x32 atop. Nice and accurate at garden range with the opens, though.

Job done. Thank you once again, Mick.

[Mach 1.5]

Nice result there TonyL. Mach 1.5

[TonyL]

Thank you, Paul.

I'll bring it along to The Bash in a few weeks' time.

Although the Perfekt trigger is performing better than I'd remembered from years ago and I managed to achieve excellent grouping with it on Wednesday, it's obviously no comparison to the Rekord and you have to put conscious thought into the odd shot on trigger release. So I think I'll end up fitting the Rekord unit that you kindly sold me all those years ago (bought specifically for this rifle) which will make it even better. I have a little 4x32 Bushmaster that used to live on my original HW95 that I'll fit onto it also. Should make it a very fine little proposition then.

By the way, the barrel detent isn't half firm. Like a bank vault! I stripped the detent, gave the latch and spring a clean, cleaned out the groove and applied moly grease. Smooth but still very firm. You really notice that after a good few shots, especially when you've been using the HW35 with its quiet and effortless manual latch for a while.....

[TonyL]

Fitted the Rekord yesterday. Prior to fitting I made sure it was clean. Gave it a light oiling and adjusted the sear engagement and weight. Lovely. Makes a huge difference and restores the feeling of Weihrauch finesse.

Fitted the scope also. It only needed a few clicks to get it on zero at eight yards. Should be fairly close-ish at around 25 yards; will have to fine tune at The Bash.

And now that detent feels smoother too. It's probably had just over 100 shots through it since the fettle and everything will still be settling in. But the detent certainly feels smoother and less like hard work. Guess the clean and the moly did the trick, then.

Will chrono again soon to see if the power has risen slightly with the new seal running in.

Firing cycle feels lovely. Like a '30. In fact, the rifle sort of feels like a '30 with a longer barrel, chunkier detent and old-school stock with those finger grooves and shorter forend.

[evert]

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Firing cycle feels lovely. Like a '30. In fact, the rifle sort of feels like a '30 with a longer barrel, chunkier detent and old-school stock with those finger grooves and shorter forend.

And that may be why the old 50 is partially forgotten, many examples didn't provide much more power than the 30s.

[TonyL]

And that may be why the old 50 is partially forgotten, many examples didn't provide much more power than the 30s.

To be honest, evert, I thought I'd remembered seeing them produce around 8 to 9ft.lbs, so I was somewhat pleasantly surprised that this one was doing 10.8 prior to stripping. As the end of the spring was a little kinked and as I didn't fancy rebuilding with too much preload and would be quite happy with lower power but even better manners, I'd cropped 30mm off the spring but added back in a tiny bit in the form of the preload washers as supplied by Mick. Now doing a shade under 9 and I guess it will rise a tad. It does feel nice and soft to cock and shoot.