HW 50 S

I've had this rifle for a long time, but never had more than an incidental shot or two of it posted here. It's a classic HW 50 from the early 1970's, with a 260,000 serial. The 50 was reportedly Weihrauch's first production airgun, and stayed in production from the early 1950's to just a few years ago.

This classic rifle is not to be confused with the current "HW 50," a completely different gun introduced as the "HW 99" in the late 1990's (and, seemingly, a constant source of confusion on the yellow forum!).




The styling of this rifle is rather plain, no checkering or even a buttplate in sight. But the rounded fore end and grip, finger grooves, characteristic "hog's back" comb line, and carefully contoured rear face fit my particular anatomy as if it were custom made. It carries easily, balances perfectly, and swings to the shoulder like a good shotgun. The lines are very elegant to my eye (in spite of my bad re-finish job on the wood...oh,well!).






The sling swivels on this rifle are not original, but do serve to illustrate one advantage of the HW 2-piece cocking linkage: the short fore end slot leaves plenty of room to put the front swivel on the wood, instead of clamping it to the barrel.

The HW 50 shared much in common with the equally classic HW 35 and HW 55. This shot shows the HW 35, HW 55, and HW 50 breeches, from left to right. The cocking links are the exact same parts in each gun. The breech blocks are the same basic forged extrusion, though as you can see each gun is machined for a different breech detent design. The HW 55's block is slightly longer as well.








The silver blade of the Rekord trigger shows this to be the "HW 50S" variant. These seem surprisingly hard to find, most 50's must have been sold in Germany with the simpler Perfekt unit. Also note the Rekord blade is slightly differently curved, and more slender on older guns. In the photo below you can also see the characteristic joint for the threaded-on rear section of the receiver, a detail that instantly distinguishes the "old" HW 50 from the "new" one.




The rear sight on this rifle is a find in itself. It's an Air Rifle Headquarters model "ARH 624," a Williams sight made especially for them, to fit the pre-1978 Weihrauch models with the wider 13 mm scope grooves. Outside of HW's own match diopter, it's the only peep sight I know of made for this design.






For what it's worth, this .177 example currently has a Maccari spring/guide kit and lubes, powering the reconditioned original leather seal. I also put in a new breech seal; HW's modern plastic ones are a drop-in fit for this example's leather original. It is a smooth and crisp, and will shoot in the 680's with lighter pellets.

The HW 50 is to me perhaps the finest mid-size spring-piston sporter made in the postwar years. Legend has it the original Hermann Weihrauch himself considered the 50 his company's best product...and was known to sneak off from the office to go hunting with his! Think of it as the "Speedster" version of the HW 55--same basic action but with less weight, skinnier stock, simpler details, and more power. What's not to like about that?