Weihrauch sales literature, 1959 style

[MDriskill]

A little airgun history courtesy of eBay--an HW sales brochure from almost 55 years ago!  Actually a very interesting time when the company was young and models were rapidly evolving.

The original is printed on a single piece of paper, folded into a neat little brochure making six, European "A5" sized sheets (roughly 5 7/8 x 4 1/8 inches) in horizontal format.













There are several points of interest...well, at least if you are an airgun history goober like me!

1. Note the "Received" stamp on the front cover.  Not only does it nicely date the brochure for us, but the HP White Laboratory is the very same that did all the velocity testing for WHB Smith's landmark 1957 book, "Gas, Air, and Spring Guns of the World."  (By the way, they still do that sort of stuff to this day.)

2. HW's range in those days consisted of only three models--the HW 35, 50 (one more time: NOT the same as the current gun of that name), and 55, though there are variations of each.  The HW 30, pistols, etc., etc., were still in the future.

3. The HW 55 TF version--basically a modified HW 50 action with no locking lever--is illustrated on the second page.  The other 55 versions listed include the S with plain beech stock, MM, and MF.

4. All the guns shown here have the "long block" rear threaded section, proving the previous "short block" HW's pre-date 1959.  The 55 and 35 all have Rekord triggers, but the 50 shows that there was also a "long" version of the previous simple trigger.

5. There are no less than 4 versions of the model 50, Weihrauch's first rifle.  The base model; M version adding an improved adjustable trigger; S adding an improved rear sight to this; and SD with both open and diopter rear sight.  Wow!

6. The detailed section drawings of each model on the last sheet is outstanding, making the trigger operation and other details very clear.

7. The variety of sights and accessories on this sheet is also interesting.  Note the simpler front sight used on the 35 and target versions of the 50, and also the solid steel "turret" style diopter sight available for those.  Both of those had previously been seen on the HW 55, but in the meantime it had graduated to the improved, interchangeable-insert tunnel front sight, and "square" pattern diopter rear--again helping us to date that transition.

[Calmark]

That's a great piece of Weihrauch history from the early days. Preserving old ads like that help give documentation on some of Weihrauch's early stuff. What I really like is how an old brochure like that can scratch needing to collect any actual 1959 models, since all the info and nice pics are there. . Of course, it isn't that easy and I'm sure we both would have a hard time actually passing a real one up!

Thanks for sharing.

[aljaz11]

Hi, any chance of getting the images of the old HW sales literature up againa? The links are broken :/

I just bought an early model HW55 T  and I would love too see some info on it.

Thanks a lot!!!

[zielvier]

maybe this can help:

https://sta.sh/01xysh9zirxi

https://sta.sh/0ycz7e6ohzr

atb Jochen