HW95 less than 500 rounds!?

Eek and what a bummer. I have an hw95 with 4k in shots. The seal looks brand new. Sometimes it depends on the temperature the item is stored. Definitely reach out to the distributor, as this is unbelievably quick to fail. As for the manufacturing, it isn't wrong sized or anything, but rather a faulty part. Since the item has been pulled already, perhaps you can replace it with an aftermarket seal as there are several on the market and some people swear on their superiority. Personally I keep things stock on the 95, since I am pleased with the quality, but if I had your experience I might try to get the company who you bought it from to send an aftermarket replacement to change it up (the stock seal should have last 10k at least).

The gun is nice with the metal safety and the trigger is phenomenal...one of the best. The rekord trigger is my baseline on judging pretty much all others

That is a bit ugly! Reminds me of the time I took my fairly new HW-77K (first generation one [with the ball-detent cocking arm latch], so quite a few years ago) apart (even though it seemed to be working fine) and found the piston seal had quit a few (say, > 10) fairly large metal shavings/chunks embedded in the end. At least it did not look melted like your new HW95 seal though! 

Some years later, I put one of Jim's (ARH) tune kits in it and all has been good since! I really like the fact that his kits (at least the ones I've installed: the HW77K, HW55, HW35L and FWB-124) have almost no pre-compression, so once I got the OEM/long springs out, closing them back up (w/o any spring compressor) was easy. I don't really get any higher velocities with the ARH kits, but he doesn't claim that as a result and that's been fine with me. Oh yes, other than with that one HW77K, I've never found piston seal damage like that on any HW I've taken apart. Hope yours works fine once you get the new parts installed!

Seen any number of new owners and even a couple pro tuners who post on the different forums saying they're finding what you did. Nicked/damaged seals, over lubed, underlubed, bone dry. Guns with scuffed stocks, uneven bluing and even one with a bent barrel also have been.

Pea-Shooter:

I guess I'm way out-of-date on HW rifles, as I have no idea what the part is you call the "keeper". I guess HW rifles no longer come apart by un-screwing the whole rear-end of the receiver (after taking out the trigger-block)? Seems I wouldn't know how to get to the insides of a newer gun like your HW95.

I think a melted looking seal (what 'lube' or ? did they put in there to soften it up like that?) isn't quite as bad as out-of-round/varying diameter compression tubes (like Jim M./ARH seems to mention quite often). I will say besides the springs/tune kits I've gotten from ARH working great, it has been the same for the seals (though sometimes it's a bit of guessing game as to which seal to get for a given gun) he sells. I've also been able to resurrect a few older guns that had leather (and no longer available) piston seals with the adapter/seal kits Vortek sells (though that's not a need for yours as I don't think HW has used any leather seals for a long time!).

I used to think most of the 'better' guns would not have issues/problems, but it appears even HW guns are not immune (nor was the Air Arms TX-200 I got some years ago). Maybe I should not have been surprised when I bought a new Gamo "Stutzen" (like the Diana K98, a real nice looking air rifle to my eyes) and it turned out to be pretty horrible (I never shoot it anymore it's so bad) considering another Gamo gun ("PR-45" single-stroke pneumatic pistol) I got (actually, won at the NRA Silhouette Championships 20+ years ago) only lasted 50 shots before it began leaking air. On the much better side, all the FWBs I have have proven outstanding (then again, I don't expect any problems with piston seals on the "match" guns [models 90 and 300] with steel piston ring seal).

Anyway, after all this un-necessary info, I would expect your HW95 to be great after the seal issue is solved. I sure hope they haven't changed the "Rekord" trigger on the new guns.

They have a LIFETIME WARRANTY if you don't mess around with them.

Nothing like a little game of "cram the ram" to get the fun started.

As ugly as that piston seal is, and as much of a letdown as it is, it would have probably shot fine for a long time and you'd have never known. I've never had a Weihrauch seal come apart in the compression tube, and I've pulled out some that looked about like that from 10-15 year old guns with thousands of shots through them. The spring almost always goes first. 

Hopefully AoA will take care of it. But if they don't, don't be too upset since you opened it up. Just put a tune kit in it and carry on. You'll be happier with a kit in it anyway. 

Owners need to read the 'fine print' on those so-called "Lifetime Warranties". I recall the original Beeman Lifetime warranty had a disclaimer that springs and seals were not covered. And then the fact the whole Beeman warranty thing 'went away' when Beeman's sold the company (even though the new owners retained the Beeman name). Finally, one has to realize that as soon as the model(s) you have are discontinued and factory parts are no longer available, the warranty will mean nothing...

I'm about to test the Diana warranty with a new K98 (springer) that broke in less than 100 shots fired. Even with warranty repair, one has to consider the hassle and expense of shipping the gun off for repairs (and of course, risk handling damage there and back). I wonder if the shipping companies here have the same sky-high shipping costs for airguns as they do for 'real' guns being sent for repairs [that being; overnight shipping required (cost in the $70 range) due to the fact so many people in their own shipping companies were stealing guns being sent