HW 55

[Hoppalong Doc]

   I'm not an experienced collector, but I'm looking at a HW55. What can you tell me about this rifle? Orv.

[PaulK62]

The HW55 is a target gun introduced in the '50s. There are many variations, including several imported by Beeman back in the day, and they all came with a fantastic trigger that can easily be adjusted to a crisp 14 oz. second-stage break (its design served as the inspiration for Weihrauch's renowned Rekord trigger, which is almost as good). Until recoilless guns came along, the HW55 was arguably the best there was. They're also prized collector's items. Do you have photos?

[MDriskill]

WARNING: long and extremely biased reply follows! The HW 55 is my favorite air rifle of all time. DO NOT pass up a chance to get a nice one.

The 55 was made from the early 1950's to the late 1990's, and is a modification of the HW 50 sporter rifle of those days (which was much different from the current gun of that name). Air Rifle Headquarters in WV, and later Beeman, imported them to the US. The 55 has the 50's barrel and receiver, to which was added a heavier target stock, match diopter sights, a weaker target spring, other internal tweaks, a more refined version of HW's famous Rekord trigger, and most notably an adjustable locking breech assembly. It has a very close-fitting leather breech seal, and all but very late ones have a leather piston seal.

Early ones have quite a few detail variations - including no Rekord! - but those made since the early 1960's (6 or 7-digit serials) all have very similar actions. For most of its life several different stock types were offered, all well-designed, and the factory offered two different barrel sleeve weights. Velocity is around 600 FPS - typical for any .177 target rifle - but the gun can be boosted up near 700 FPS with an old HW 50 or aftermarket spring. Parts are still out there, and Jim Maccari and Vortek make some fine tuning bits for the HW 55.

If you have pics and/or a serial number...I can bore you with even more pedantic trivia, LOL! Here are a couple old forum threads, notes from Tom Gaylord's blog, and the HW 55 section from Danny Garvin's "Vintage Airguns Gallery" site (fabulous place to research ANY old airgun) to peruse. Please feel free to PM me if you have questions.

https://www.airgunnation.com/threads/weihrauch-hw-55-stock-types.1286748/

https://www.airgunnation.com/threads/hw55-is-the-one.655641/

https://www.pyramydair.com/blog/2008/11/hw-55-tyrolean-part-7-time-to-test-the-tune/

https://forum.vintageairgunsgallery.com/weihrauch/weihrauch-hw55/

[MDriskill]

A clarification: all HW 55's except very early ones use the Rekord trigger. But on the 55 it has some additional internal polishing, and a lighter first-stage return spring. After the mid 1960's they added a locking sleeve for the weight adjuster screw.

Older HW 55 with early Rekord:


Later one with lock:

[Duckfish]

   I'm not an experienced collector, but I'm looking at a HW55. What can you tell me about this rifle? Orv.

Buy it, if you don’t like it, sell it to Mike.

[MDriskill]

Buy it, if you don’t like it, sell it to Mike.

Ha...stranger things have happened!