Beema R1 Santa Rosa

[wijib]

My brother has a vintage R1. Has two barrels - .20 and .25 cal. Trying to remember when he got it from Beeman but so far haven't had any luck. The .25 cal barrel has 1159967 stamped on the bottom and the .20 cal has HS........ or something stamped on the bottom. Anybody out there know when this piece was made?

 

[stoti]

I think they were in San Rafael from the mid 70’s until like 1985 or 86 and then were in Santa Rosa for maybe 7 or 8 more years. Not exactly sure of the dates but I remember going down from Ukiah, where I grew up, to visit the showrooms as a young boy. Have a good one. 

Stoti

 

[MMCM13]

Airgun Academy has a blog article that gives a history of Beeman, including places and timeframes. Go there and search blogs for “a brief history of beeman”. It is in part 3.

 

[DualMagMike]

Santa Rosa was from 1987-1994

 

[stoti]

I was hoping you’d chime in. I was pretty confident you knew the dates. I told you about the R1 that I got for my 11th birthday. All these years I remembered it being a Santa Rosa R1 but it couldn’t have been because I got it in 1981. I went to the Santa Rosa showroom so many times as a boy, I guess that’s why Imwas remembering my R1 as a Santa Rosa model when it was actually from San Rafael. Thanks Mike

Stoti

 

[DualMagMike]

if you have any questions just send me a message...

 

[Lewis]

I got my first adult airgun (Left-handed .20 cal HW77 carbine) at that same showroom. It was in 1987 but the rifle was stamped San Rafael since it was brought to the new location as part of the move. Straight from Dr. Beeman's hands to mine. I had a great time learning from him and he spent many hours quenching my curiosity. That showroom was like nothing I had ever seen. I was in awe. I have heard many stories of the Dr. being harsh, arrogant, or rude but I have to say my experiences were absolutely marvelous. He was calm, accommodating and so full of passion for airguns.

I was not his typical customer. I was utterly broke. I would save up just for gas money to make it the 3-1/2 hours from Eureka to Santa Rosa so I could see and learn. I wish I had spent even more time there. Very fond memories indeed.

 

[stoti]

I got my first adult airgun (Left-handed .20 cal HW77 carbine) at that same showroom. It was in 1987 but the rifle was stamped San Rafael since it was brought to the new location as part of the move. Straight from Dr. Beeman's hands to mine. I had a great time learning from him and he spent many hours quenching my curiosity. That showroom was like nothing I had ever seen. I was in awe. I have heard many stories of the Dr. being harsh, arrogant, or rude but I have to say my experiences were absolutely marvelous. He was calm, accommodating and so full of passion for airguns.

I was not his typical customer. I was utterly broke. I would save up just for gas money to make it the 3-1/2 hours from Eureka to Santa Rosa so I could see and learn. I wish I had spent even more time there. Very fond memories indeed.

That’s super cool Lewis! Sounds very similar to my first trip to the SR showroom. My buddy had gotten an R1 for his 11th birthday in January, 1981. We took turns shooting that gun every single day after school or all day on the weekends. My buddies dad paid us .25 for each woodpecker we killed so they couldn’t push acorns under his shake roof. My parents saw how often we shot that gun, how much fun we had together and how much we were totally enthralled with it. Although I never expected it because it was such an expensive gift for an 11 year old, In Sept. 1981, for my 11th birthday, I got the same gun with the blue ribbon scope. We shot thousands and thousands of the Beeman Silver jet pointed pellets each year with our R1 Beeman air guns. 40 years ago and I still have such fond memories of shooting the R1’s with my buddy. Of course I sold it when I was a broke college student. My number one sale that I regret. Have a great Thanksgiving Lewis. You, me and some of us Nor Cal boys need to get together and shoot after this covid crap is over.

Stoti

 

[archerhmr]

When I was in my early 20’s I remember going to the San Rafael store. To me it was more in Terra Linda. It was more like a small Dr office. Go in, small sliding glass window if I remember correctly. They were mail order business, but had that window for locals. Then they moved to Santa Rosa and I was in Rohnert Park. Most people forget it was more than Airguns, regular firearms also. I purchased a couple of pistols from them. I worked for the state park system, one of the parks Petaluma Adobe. The ground squirrels were tearing the original Adobe up. The big boss said I don’t want to know how you do it, but get rid of the squirrels. My boss got a .25, guessing R1, I purchased .20 R1, Lazerized, Beemans scope. This would have been around 1989. We put a huge hurt on those squirrels. Park did not open until 10am, so we would shoot from 8-9 or so. Lewis now owns that rifle. The special Lazer Lube used in the gun. Red anti seize. There main gun smith was from the military, I think navy, and that was what they used.

 

[stoti]

When I was in my early 20’s I remember going to the San Rafael store. To me it was more in Terra Linda. It was more like a small Dr office. Go in, small sliding glass window if I remember correctly. They were mail order business, but had that window for locals. Then they moved to Santa Rosa and I was in Rohnert Park. Most people forget it was more than Airguns, regular firearms also. I purchased a couple of pistols from them. I worked for the state park system, one of the parks Petaluma Adobe. The ground squirrels were tearing the original Adobe up. The big boss said I don’t want to know how you do it, but get rid of the squirrels. My boss got a .25, guessing R1, I purchased .20 R1, Lazerized, Beemans scope. This would have been around 1989. We put a huge hurt on those squirrels. Park did not open until 10am, so we would shoot from 8-9 or so. Lewis now owns that rifle. The special Lazer Lube used in the gun. Red anti seize. There main gun smith was from the military, I think navy, and that was what they used.

That’s so weird. My dad was the head up here for the Corps of Engineers at Lake Mendocino for years. We used to go eliminate the ground squirrels because they didn’t like to use poison. My dad, my buddy I spoke of up above and myself use to go shoot them in the spring and fall before the camp grounds would open for the season. What a blast that was, more digger squirrels than we could ever hope to shoot.

Stoti

 

[archerhmr]

I’m sure today, they would not want us using lead. How times have changed. We did not use poison because of the predator birds. Before working out of Sonoma, I worded at Carnegie. An off road motorcycle park between Tracy and Livermore. There we had sediment basins installed with dams made of gabion baskets. The squirrels would dig around the edges, causing failure. There it was .22’s though. 

 

[boscoebrea]

Geezess memories,,bought my R-7 in 1981 at the San Rafael Beemans store,fished for Strippers at Lake Mendocino and also rode my motocross bikes at Carnegie...the best was the Trans am races though...also got a Santa Rosa P1 in Santa Rosa....oh and there are still a lot of places to go shooting here,not so much dirt bike riding though...Thanks for the memories.

 

[archerhmr]

Another local. It is amazing how so many of us are connected without even knowing it. I forgot to mention I was Beemans .20 cal pellet tester. I basically was given pellets to shoot the squirrels with, then take notes on the shots and report back. I do not remember outcomes, other than the advertised best hunting pellet was not. Almost all shots were 25-50 yards. One particular shot I will always remember. This squirrel was posting, 35 yards, he was looking in my direction. When I shot, the pellet hit him in the right front foot. As I was reloading and settling in for another shot on him, he was just standing there looking at his foot. The next shot took him out.

 

[wijib]

Sorry for all the typos in my post but grateful for all the replies. My brother's R1 is beautiful and now he is going to get it overhauled by John Thomas (my brother lives pretty close to John).

 

[SpringGunner]

My brother has a vintage R1. Has two barrels - .20 and .25 cal. Trying to remember when he got it from Beeman but so far haven't had any luck. The .25 cal barrel has 1159967 stamped on the bottom and the .20 cal has HS........ or something stamped on the bottom. Anybody out there know when this piece was made?

The barrel with the 1159967 is most likely the original barrel and the number is the serial number of the rifle. Replacement barrels came with the "HS" and then the part number for the barrel stamped on them. Being Santa Rosa and originally 25cal by best guess would be he bought it in the early nineties. Paul

 

[JohnnyPiston]

I looked up the 1159967 SN on the Weihrauch Database, says " your Weihrauch product was probably manufactured in 1989." 

This is of course an estimated year of production (based on the contents of the database entries on this site).

 

[wijib]

Thanks to all for the really great responses. My brother took his Beeman R1 to John Thomas (John in PA) for a complete overhaul. He was lucky to have John live so close to him so he hand delivered it. Can't wait to see how it shoots.

 

[GoldenStateAIRGUNer]

I use to drool over all the airguns and firearms at the Santa Rosa Beeman facility. They had racks of used airguns and firearms for sale. It was only a 40 minute drive for me. I went to the San Rafael location once to pick the newly released R10 Carbine. 

 

[wijib]

Hey there Wayne @GoldenState AIRGUNer - must have been pretty heady days back then - the "Golden Age" of springers.