P1 has arrived

[EMrider]

The P1/hw45 is an industrial work of art and a plinkers best friend.  Very well designed and accurate once you establish a consistent shooting technique.  I have many thousands of pellets through mine.  I alternate frequently between low power and high power.  Low power when I want a quieter plinker and full power for longer distances.  It was designed by Weihrauch to have two power levels and I’ve never seen any evidence that it is “bad” to shoot the gun on low power.

R

[WyoMan]

Howdy all
It is good to hear about other people shooting the HW45 and P1 pistols.
 I have a HW45 .22 Bought it new earlier this year, and now have around 2000 pellets thru it.
It has had from day one the feeling and sound of the spring being compressed when cocking.
 I have a Hw30 That is and has been butter smooth from the start.
How does your Hw45 or P1 feel and sound when cocking.

Hi Tony, both of my HW45s made spring noises when cocking. That bothered me somewhat but what I really noticed was the shape of the springs when cocked. They were bulging in and out and weren't straight on the guide. This led me to believe (after the first spring broke) that the spring ends were not free to rotate....

So I took them apart and confirmed my suspicion... here's the factory spring end, rough, unpolished, and binding on its bearing:


After I clipped a couple coils (they're over-sprung at my elevation), I polished the spring ends and applied moly to the spring ends and the spring guide. No need to lube the piston seal, it's Teflon. Reassembled and the cocking on both are now smooth-like-butter, require less effort, and are dead silent when cocking.

Not sure if that's what is causing the issue in yours or others, but it was in mine. If that is the issue, it's a shame that HW doesn't spend an extra 5 minutes to finish the spring ends on a $500 pistol...

Wyo

[aladdin]

Thanks for the info about polishing the spring ends. I just need to get in the mood to take it apart. Or maybe I will shoot it until the spring breaks then polish the new spring.

[Tom Tucker]

When it needs a new spring, I will definitely polish the spring ends.  Just to update after 600 pellets.  The gun has stopped producing visible smoke, and now it's just a slight diesel smell.  Avg FPS over 10 shots is 499 fps with 11.6 grain pellets, ES of 6 fps.  I took a couple of shots on low-power just to see how fast they would go and they averaged 388 fps.

[Robert 5mm]

Just got my Beeman P1 new piston seal from Custom Air Seals in Australia and I also got a new P1 spring from ARH.
Disassembled my P1 and the 1987 original spring is 1.5 inches shorter than the new one, glad I made a spring compressor.
My chrono results with the original spring were not very good, averaging 4.7 FPE at 500 Elevation with .20 cal.

So I am cleaning all and replacing spring and seal. I have polished the ends of the new ARH spring.
The spring guide fits tight to the spring at the end - which may not allow spring to rotate.

Question : Do you think I should try to fit a stainless steel washer at the end of the spring over the spring guide and inside the piston ?
Thanks for the help.