Weihrauch HW 35

The Weihrauch HW 35 is a break barrel, spring powered air rifle first produced in 1951, manufactured by Weihrauch & Weihrauch located in Mellrichstadt, Bavaria, Germany. It is available in .177 (4.5 mm) and .22 (5.5 mm) calibers, with standard and carbine (K) length barrels and has been in continuous production since its launch, even though the Weihrauch HW 80 superseded it in the late 1990s.

Specifications

 * Overall Length Standard: 1140mm - Carbine (K): 1050mm.
 * Barrel Length Standard: 500mm - Carbine (K) : 410mm.
 * Weight (without scope) 3,8 to 4,0 kg.
 * Velocity 4,5 mm 230 m/s - 5,5 mm is 175 m/s (in 5.5mm caliber)

Operation
The HW (Hermann Weihrauch) 35 was the first air rifle with Weihrauchs famous Rekord 2-stage adjustable trigger and used a conventional piston and spring assembly. The spring is compressed by breaking the barrel through 125° before loading a pellet directly into the breach. The barrel was then returned into place and locked with a special Breech lock. The first production models had a leather piston seal with a 4mm diameter transfer port but at the end of the 1970s Weihrauch switched to synthetic seals and a 2.8mm dia port from serial #843636.

The rifle has "blued steel" finish on the metalwork, a beech or walnut sporting stock with finger grooves in the forend, checkering on the pistol grip and a rubber recoil pad. The 35 had an articulated cocking link that allowed the cocking slot on the underside of the stock to be shorter, an automatic safety catch and most models were fitted with sling swivels. The HW 35, being a spring-gun suffered with recoil and was quite noisy for an air rifle. Range was limited to about 35m, with 20-25m being the maximum realistic hunting range as the rifle was designed to produce only around 10.5 ft•lbf (14.5 Joules) of muzzle energy.

The HW 35 has a locking breech latch to ensure barrel alignment after cocking. The lock extends from the left side of the breech block where the shooters thumb slides it forward during cocking. The front iron sight is a globe with interchangeable inserts and the rear is a ramp style tangent, with a choice of four different shaped notches. At the rear of the action there's an 11mm dovetail to mount a telescopic sight with two or three vertical holes for Weihrauch's own diopter target sight.
 * Breech lock
 * Sights

Models
The internal action on all 35s was identical but the rifle was available in three "custom" versions with varying degrees of aesthetic refinements and three different lengths of barrel. The HW 35 STD (Standard) has a beech stock while the HW 35L (DeLux) a Walnut finished one with a raised cheek piece. The top of the range was the HW 35E (Export) with a selected walnut stock, palm swell, rosewood pistol grip cap with a white line spacer and a 60mm longer barrel (the longer barrel did not increase power). Later this version also had a sound moderator on the muzzle. Both the Standard and the DeLux were available as a "K" for Karabiner (Carbine) style with a shorter barrel.

In 1977 Weihrauch produced the HW 35 Lochschaft (HW 35LS Thumb-hole stock) verstion, then in 1986 the HW 35 Safari, a variant of the HW 35 standard with a green tinged stock. Perhaps the most sought after by collectors is one of a limited run of 1000 .22 (5.5 mm) Jubilee 55 Edition (HW 35 KLS ) to celebrate 55 years of continuous production of the HW 35 in 2006. This model had a screw cut barrel with a sound moderator, a blue laminate stock and was supplied without open sights.
 * Limited Edition Models

Weihrauch also produce the HW 35 STL (Stainless Steel Look) with a black synthetic stock and Nickel plated action from around 2004. Some enterprising gunsmiths and importers often switch the actions from STL's with other HW 35 variants and marketed HW 35 STL's with Walnut stocks and traditionally blued actions with black synthetic stocks.

Between 1979 and 1981, Norman May of Bridlington produced a specially tuned version for the UK market. The rifle had a chromed mainspring, piston, guide tube and breach lock with the logo 'VIXEN' engraved on the right of the barrel block. They came with a gun bag with an embroidered Vixen logo. In 1979 a HW 35E Vixen cost £170 when a standard HW 35 cost £57 and the Vixen was not a commercial success.
 * The HW 35 Vixen