Cheaper materials?
Have you never seen the cheap sintered metal cocking shoe on an AA that's known to crack?
Or the cocking linkage that wears out and causes lockup issues?
Or the 10 cent oring breech seals that need replaced often...
Look a little closer than the shiny thin bluing on the Air Arms and I think you'll see that you may have it backwards. The Weihrauch is a simpler gun, but that doesn't mean it's cheaply made.
The price for either gun has gotten a little out of hand as of late IMO
Hey, no need to get defensive or jump to conclusions.
I'm not here to bash the HW97. I actually love it. So much so that I own two: a 2012 model in .177 and a 2023 model in .22
It's true that the '23 .22 model uses slightly lower-grade metals, a poorer piston seal (I've had to replace mine twice in about 3000 shots), and required some deburring on my part. The bore is oversized too. Does that make it bad? Not at all. I still think it's a masterpiece. It's smooth and incredibly accurate after addressing some of the issues that slipped past quality control. Are there signs of cheaper materials? Yes, definitely. The sintered sears in the Rekord trigger are another example.
I'm not blindly loyal to the TX200 either. I'm well aware of the issues you mentioned. In fact, the cocking shoe on my HC failed too.
I'm also familiar with the oval pressure tubes, scraping cocking arms, badly fitting pistons, sloppy assembly work, scratches or burrs in the compression tube, trigger assembly nuts going missing, unsquared spring ends, excessive lubrication, etc., in the HW97. Fortunately, these are more exceptions than the norm, but they seem to be appearing more frequently compared to pre-COVID manufacturing.
I love both rifles equally, and I think everyone here has done a great job explaining the pros and cons of these two great rifles.
The only point I was trying to make is that I understand why the TX is more expensive and smoother out of the box. You don’t have to agree, but in my humble opinion, the TX has the edge in quality.
Again, nothing takes away from the HW97. It's still an incredibly awesome rifle.
Have a great weekend!