A Couple Favorite Mid/Lightweight Sporters

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jaykb49

jaykb49

Member
Feb 17, 2021
71
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Bellevue, WA, United States
... well they're my favorites anyway. Top is an HW55 Sporter and under that is a Beeman R8. In terms of size, weight and power they're quite similar. Both are light and handy rifles that are just a pleasure to shoot.

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They share the same type of screw on receiver end. Always fun to get the dovetails to line up when screwing it back together.

The HW55 is a mid-seventies gun. It has the lever breech lockup a target trigger and no safety. Leather piston seal.

The R8 is a mid-nineties gun. It has the same wedge type breech lockup mechanism that you'd find on today's HW50. It also has the auto safety. Synthetic piston seal.

I'd like to get fancier target type diopters for each of these. The 11 mm dovetails on the R8 present no problem. I'm not sure what (aside from the HW) diopters are available for the 13 mm dovetails on the HW55.

Neither of these is a powerhouse but both I enjoy shooting each of them quite a bit.

Jay 

(Topic suggested by r1lover)

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HW55

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R8

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P3070010.1646694445.jpeg


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Great looking guns. They seem to be in great shape. I'm relatively new to quality airguns. My favorites are the compact models.

My favorite overall is my Hw30s 

My favorite to carry around in the woods is my Hw50.

All in 177. I have a few bigger heavier models but I could live without them. They don't get near the same use. There's a lot to be said for a handy sized accurate rifle. 
 
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Very nice! A lovely pair of classics in great condition. As your photos nicely show, these are actually very close relatives. Both are derivatives of the original HW 50 design, which was manufactured for over 50 years starting in the early 1950's. I like the way you put the appropriate Williams sight on each one - finger knobs for the target, flush adjusters for sport!

If power is a concern, the HW 55 can be upgraded with an HW 50 / R8 spring (and often was in Beeman days), or one of the alternates from Jim Maccari. Velocity-wise these guns fall nicely between the HW 30 and current "HW 50" (really the HW 99!), at around 700 FPS in .177.

Unfortunately I'm not aware of any diopter fitting the older "13 mm" HW's other than their own. But those do turn up if you are patient.
 
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