HW57 finally on a diet!!!!

[tjk]

As a preface into my ag journey with the .22 HW57, here are a few details of its history with me.
I bought this rifle from Krale about two or three years ago. It was during the plandemic so there was a waiting period. But well worth it for me. After a couple of tins worth of CPHP's to wear it in, I decided to install the Vortek PG4 HW50 HO kit. For those that have a 57, if power is what you are looking for, then this is the kit for you! But as a caveat, be prepared to shoot heavy pellets,.....and for my 57, this was a requisite, and a requirement. My original plan as to have a low to mid powered underlever. I already have a HW77 for a power gun, and the trigger on the TechForce 97 was God awful!!. Putting the Vortek kit in the 57 was like dropping a V6 in a go cart,.....hold on!!!! I could shoot JSB domes and CPHS's for a few rounds, but then she would get lively and loud. it was fun for a little bit, yet not exactly what I had had in mind for this rifle.
So today, I tore the 57 down and reworked the action. I used a lot of non chlorine break cleaner and flushed out the comp tube. I bought this led probe camera on Amazon  a few months ago and I will have to admit was one of my better impulse buys. The Tube looked good with no scratches or abnormal wear. I thought I may have had an out of round compression tube but I dont think this was the case. Now this rifle has had its fare share of inadvertent dry fires, detonations, and super sonic pellet shots, so what surprised me the most was that the Vortek Peston seal was in pristine condition. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around that one. How is that possible!?!?!?! So anyways, I removed the Vortek top hat and removed 1 1/4 spring coils with the ole dermal tool. Allow me to toss I a disclaimer here. I have installed several Vortek kits in my guns and a few for some friends of mine. I initially thought this kit had a multi position spring seat top hat for which I planned to set the cut mainspring to, but this was not the case. This kit only had one tophat spacer setting,........must have been the Diana 34 or HW77  kit that had that configuration. When I realized this fact, I decided to add the extra 1/4 coil into the coil cutting procedure. And Boy did that make a world of difference!!! Honestly an unbelievable difference!!! I purposely rebuilt the HW57 rather dry of lubes just to see how it would go.We're talking the very bare minimum lubrication. I normally burnish the comp tube with moly and clean out as much excess as I can. This go round the tube was brake cleaner clean with just a light coating of moly on the  outer edge of the piston seal, the rear of the piston, and a super light application on the cocking slide portion of the piston. I literally had to push the piston into the comp tube with more force than normal. I light burnish of moly on the rear Vortek guide, and just barely enough tar to make the spring black. A super light dab of moly on both sides of the spring assembly,....top hat and rear side of the seat guide were in contacts the trigger block. BTW, I only used ARH Maccarri moly and black tar with this rebuild. I like the Vortek Amber tar which looks just like the Eurogrease MAccarri used to sell,....but opted not to go with this lube. When I got the 57 all back together and gave it a few dummy shots into the earth, I was relieved to not hear any detonation or excess dieseling smoke from the barrel do to a fresh tune. There wasn't anything at all and the report was just a nice pop sound. This with the cheap CPHP's. The Sun was going down quick and I didn't get a chance to run any crony numbers, but the cock effort was a bit less than it normally was, and the shot cycle felt a lot better. I still think it is shooting at normal HW50/57 velocity range, but definitely not the wild beast she was before. I will post some numbers tomorrow.
If anyone out there is interested in purchasing a led camera probe, the one I have is called a Depstech branded model. I think this is Chinglish for Depthcheck but no matter,.....it works and only cost around $75 or so.
If there are any other HW57 enthusiasts out there, I hope my experience will help you if you run into the same obstacles I have had. While I have "better" more powerful guns, and super pickers like the HW30, the HW57 remains one of my favorite go to rifle from the safe when I just want to plink. A well balanced, easy to shoulder, and not a heavy gun compared to the 35, 77, or a 95. That's my tale for this evening. Shoot safe and have fun!!!!

[Mark 611]

Nice write up Tom,

[SpiralGroove]

Glad you got her tuned to your liking .  My HW50's are tuned to 10.5/11.5 fpe respectively .

How does the HW57 compare to the HW50, HW77, HW95 in accuracy?  I always wanted a HW57, but shied away because of accuracy/consistency issues . 

[tjk]

The 57 Kirk is very similar in size and weight to the HW50. And the shot to shot consistency is on par as well. The 57 suffers the same issue as just about all springers do,…..inconsistent pellet weights and sizes we find on occasion. I have never had any issues with accuracy any more than most of my other springers. Now the 77/97 and 95/98 guns are more inherently accurate to shoot but all four are heavier guns, and as most folks know, are easier to shoot accurately. I have never experienced any leaks with air escaping the transfer ports and I have repeatedly used the tissue test to check.
In all fairness though. We’ve all had that instance where we shoot a ‘hot’ pellet and our guns go bang or shoot a bit faster. And to no fault of our guns. With break barrels, we typically get a bang and a heavy dieseled smoke in our barrels. If not for the detention keeping the barrel in place, the barrel might crack open. With the 57, the same can happen but the loading port can actually push itself up from its position. Weihrauch knows this and that is one of the reasons for the rubber oring on the stem of the breech loader to stop the breech from popping out of the gun. But the orings within the port are big and strong enough to hold it in perfectly in place during normal operation. The one gripe I have with the tap loader is that like a lot of German products,….it is an extremely over engineered component. Personally, I have removed the stem oring to ensure the joint in the stem doesn’t get too stressed if the cocking arm is cocked too hard by other shooters that are not familiar with this rifle. Just about every one of my friends that has shot this rifle is amazed at the 30 meter accuracy and velocity to which I normally plink at. Of course most of them are only familiar with Crosman 760’s and redryders. 😁