.177 Beeman R9 "Limited Edition" Performance & Maintenance Review

Jump to latest Follow Reply
B

bdzjlz

Member
Jul 11, 2016
2,383
2,415
Terre Haute, Indiana
Now several months ago, a great AGN member approached me about acquiring one of my tuned .20 Weihrauch springers. He asked if I was interested in trading, and I really wasn't, until he presented this rifle for consideration. I have not seen another one of these before or since - perhaps one of you will know their origin and/or history.

It arrived in the "as advertised" very good condition, with only the few wear/handling marks that had been described in evidence. Upon initial testing, I was a little disappointed with its accuracy, shooting about 1" groups on my 18 yard indoor range. The rifle exhibited considerable buzz.

I spent several hours on this rifle, removing all of the internals components and hand polishing, changing out the seals and power plant using Vortek components. I did remove a coil or two off of the new Vortek spring to tame it some and make it easier to cock, as the PG4 HO kit on the first pass produced > 17 fpe. I also completely disassembled the trigger and polished all of the metal surfaces that work off of one another, and lightly lubricated it, before final adjustments were made.

I tested a significant variety of .177 pellets, with the H&N FTT 8.64 gr 4.52 diameter pellets coming out on top.

Considerable improvement in the accuracy resulted. Today, the maintenance amounted to checking screws, cleaning the barrel (I was surprised how black and oily the first patches came out considering I haven't owned this gun that long), scope zero confirmation. The results are as found below - not bad for a break barrel.

I have to go back to my real job tomorrow after a five day Thanksgiving break, so my reviews will be fewer and further between until I complete working through my vault. I hope you all had a great holiday weekend! It has been fun to share some of my shooting experiences with my AGN friends!

1 - Rifle image.jpg
1.5 - Rifle image 2.jpg
2 - Limited Edition marking.jpg
3 - Grip cap.jpg
4 - test target @ 18 yards.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ramjet, Hw9720, shambozzie and 6 others
I've never heard of or seen that version of the R9, either. So I learned something today. I'll say my own R9 likes the same pellet with similar results. Well, it did before I had it tuned. I honestly haven't worked with it since having it tuned to know if that changed or not. Still using the factory barrel, though, so maybe.
You have a good looking rifle, there. I can see why you traded.
 
Upvote 0
Thanks all.

Jon, great question! I have owned a few of those along the way that were disappointing. I just chalk those up to a bad experiment, and move them out. I don’t keep a rifle that won’t shoot the eyes out of a squirrel at reasonable ranges every time.

I have also sold some phenomenal shooting rifles just to support other AGN members desires and friend requests.

Along the way I have assembled a half dozen or more custom tuned springers that shot really well that have been auctioned off for hospital, Boy Scout, and other benefits too.

I just appreciate the really cool airgun hobby and the many terrific people I continue to meet and get acquainted with along the journey.
 
  • Like
Reactions: maxtrouble, fishing43 and Sqwirl57
Upvote 0
bdzjlz said:
Now several months ago, a great AGN member approached me about acquiring one of my tuned .20 Weihrauch springers. He asked if I was interested in trading, and I really wasn't, until he presented this rifle for consideration. I have not seen another one of these before or since - perhaps one of you will know their origin and/or history.

It arrived in the "as advertised" very good condition, with only the few wear/handling marks that had been described in evidence. Upon initial testing, I was a little disappointed with its accuracy, shooting about 1" groups on my 18 yard indoor range. The rifle exhibited considerable buzz.

I spent several hours on this rifle, removing all of the internals components and hand polishing, changing out the seals and power plant using Vortek components. I did remove a coil or two off of the new Vortek spring to tame it some and make it easier to cock, as the PG4 HO kit on the first pass produced > 17 fpe. I also completely disassembled the trigger and polished all of the metal surfaces that work off of one another, and lightly lubricated it, before final adjustments were made.

I tested a significant variety of .177 pellets, with the H&N FTT 8.64 gr 4.52 diameter pellets coming out on top.

Considerable improvement in the accuracy resulted. Today, the maintenance amounted to checking screws, cleaning the barrel (I was surprised how black and oily the first patches came out considering I haven't owned this gun that long), scope zero confirmation. The results are as found below - not bad for a break barrel.

I have to go back to my real job tomorrow after a five day Thanksgiving break, so my reviews will be fewer and further between until I complete working through my vault. I hope you all had a great holiday weekend! It has been fun to share some of my shooting experiences with my AGN friends!

View attachment 308941View attachment 308942View attachment 308943View attachment 308944View attachment 308945
Click to expand...
Dan, my concern was it fine a good home. More then happy with the r9 .20.
20200906_081005.jpg
20221106_074333.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: maxtrouble and fishing43
Upvote 0
Those blue ones had a bit of a hairy history as far as "limited editions" go. Doc Beeman in his classic con-man style pulled a fast one of sorts.

I remember seeing quite a few "blue ones" and the "green ones" floating around back on the Yellow Forum.

Russ Best posted this in a thread about them from many years back. Maybe this will help shed some info on it.

Copied:
"Originally, there were something like 125 Limited Edition .20 R-9's and 275 .177 Limited Editions. I believe the total was 400 guns, but may have been 500. Each one came with the blue/silver gray laminate stock, and had "Limited Edition" engraved in gold on the left side of the main tube, plus a Beeman Limited Edition button embedded into the heel of the pistol grip. This series all started with an "sXXXX" serial number. I jumped one early on (hence the single digit s/n) like many others did, hoping these would eventually have "some" collectible value years down the road. Soon after these were gone, Beeman started selling more blue laminate R-9's. Apparently they were selling well and Beeman was onto a good thing. These did not have the 'special serial numbers' or gold lettering, but they still had the limited edition button inset in the pistol grips. This tended to annoy those of us who had just recently purchased the real LE's, as we'd been told via a Beeman newsletter that only 400 (or 500) of the blue lam guns would be sold. At any rate, they finally sold out of the blue laminate stocks. Recently, HW discovered another 30 odd stocks.. either in their storage or at SILE ( the stockmaker), and made up some more blue lams for sale, with completely different s/n range. So- there are basically 3 serial number ranges for these guns, but only the original Limited Edition guns have the letter S asa prefix to a 4 digit serial number. RB"

I absolutely hate blue in a gunstock, but I bet the little extra heft of the laminate makes it shoot NICE.

Actually, does it seem any heavier than a beech one? Never had a laminate R9 in my hands.

Sweet rig, looks like it's doing well!
 
Upvote 0
bdzjlz said:
Thumper - great info and background. This rifle is a little more “solid” feeling than the beech stocked R9s I own.
Click to expand...
How sweet would it be if they did a run with grey laminate and a black adjustable buttpad? :love:

Weihrauch could really stand to jazz it up with some limited editions of their own, ya know? Wouldn't be very much trouble on their end it seems.

No problem on the info, I just robbed it from an ancient page. Enjoy your gun!
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back
Home
Forums
Resources
Menu