I'm having a really hard time with all the break barrel Weihrauchs and Beemans. From HW30-HW95 and Beeman R1-R9...can someone give me a breakdown of what's what? I'm assuming they are pretty much all spring piston powered? Thanks in advance!
Weihrauchs and Beemans?
- Thread starter peaceful_ruler
- Start date
P
pdxFrank
Guest
I'm under the impression they're the same guns, just branded differently for international sales.
Upvote 0
Current Beeman model numbers for Spanish, Chinese, etc. guns have passed me way up! But, in the good old Beeman/Weihrauch days:
Rifles:
R1 = HW 80
R6 = new HW 50 (aka HW 99)
R7 = HW 30
R8 = old HW 50
R9 = HW 95
R10 = HW 85
R11 = HW 98
Pistols:
P1 = HW 45
P2 = HW 75
P3 = HW 40
Beeman sold the HW 35, HW 55, HW 77, HW 90, and HW 97 rifles, and HW 70 pistol, under their original names - also the HW 30 and old HW 50, in pre-"R" days. These guns are all springers except the P2 and P3 (single-stroke pneumatics), and HW 90 (gas-ram piston).
Most of the "R's" had replaceable-component differences from the German equivalents (new stock design, added safety, leather piston seal changed to plastic, mainspring and/or piston weight tweaked for more power, etc.), but the actions are otherwise the same.
Another worth mentioning is the Beeman P17 pistol, which is a licensed Chinese-manufactured copy of the P3/HW40.
Rifles:
R1 = HW 80
R6 = new HW 50 (aka HW 99)
R7 = HW 30
R8 = old HW 50
R9 = HW 95
R10 = HW 85
R11 = HW 98
Pistols:
P1 = HW 45
P2 = HW 75
P3 = HW 40
Beeman sold the HW 35, HW 55, HW 77, HW 90, and HW 97 rifles, and HW 70 pistol, under their original names - also the HW 30 and old HW 50, in pre-"R" days. These guns are all springers except the P2 and P3 (single-stroke pneumatics), and HW 90 (gas-ram piston).
Most of the "R's" had replaceable-component differences from the German equivalents (new stock design, added safety, leather piston seal changed to plastic, mainspring and/or piston weight tweaked for more power, etc.), but the actions are otherwise the same.
Another worth mentioning is the Beeman P17 pistol, which is a licensed Chinese-manufactured copy of the P3/HW40.
Upvote 0
Here's at least part of the history of Dr. Robert Beeman, his wife and Beeman Precision Airguns. It's not all of it since Bob Law played a large part in advancing better quality air guns in the US.
https://beemans.net/
Upvote 0
You are quite welcome (although it's disturbing that I remembered 90% of this list off the top of my head...but not what I had for dinner last night)!
As SteveP-52 mentioned, some of these guns had quite interesting histories in the US prior to Dr. Beeman. Robert Law's "Air Rifle Headquarters" in WV imported the HW 30, 35, 50, and 55 for years beginning in the 1960's, including some ARH-exclusive variants and accessories (but not new model numbers). Their old catalogs and magazines are definitely worth finding.
Another fascinating Weihrauch collector field is the guns sold here under the Marksman name in the late 80's/early 90's, after HW had bought the old BSF factory. Those were unique hybrids, with separate model numbers, and using some BSF parts. Today's R11 / HW 98 target rifle, for example, is actually an interesting amalgamation of two Marksman designs, the model 56 field target rifle and model 58 silhouette gun.
Upvote 0