Posted this review elsewhere thought someone here might fine it interesting.

I bought this rifle some time ago December 2007 to be exact and can assure you the Weihrauch HW 50s is a brilliant rifle.

The listed specs on the Weihrauch website for the HW 50s are the same as for the HW 50 MII and are as follows:

Total length: 1030mm
Barrel length: 395mm
Weight: 3.1kg
Velocity: 250m/s

Where the HW 50 MII and HW 50s differ are as follows.

-The HW 50s possesses the famous ‘Rekord’ trigger which is regarded as one of the best triggers in the industry- it’s adjustable and very crisp.
-It also comes with 6 interchangeable front sight inserts, some of which are specialised for use in a diopter sight.

-The HW 50 MII possesses on the other hand a match type trigger which isn’t adjustable and is not as good as the ‘Rekord’, but it is good enough to be better than most triggers out there.
-It comes with a standard, single front sight.

Interestingly enough the HW 50s is often used as a ‘budget’ priced 10m target shooting airgun hence the specialised diopter front inserts all that is required is the rear diopter sight.

To tell you the truth I debated quite a long time on whether I should purchase the Weihrauch and even when I decided to invest the necessary capital I still had my doubts. When the rifle arrived, however, those nagging feelings quickly dissipated.
When you pick up a Weihrauch air rifle it exudes quality, it is solidly built and very well balanced.

My reasons for looking at this particular model where as follows:
- I wanted a medium powered airgun to fill the gap between my HW 30 and my Air Force/ Gunpower Shadow pcp.
- I wanted something with good quality open sights so I could test my open sight shooting skill.
- I wanted something that didn’t give of a sharp crack with every shot that would send over the neighbours.
- I wanted something that was accurate; I believe that ‘only accurate guns are interesting’.

This gun full fills all of the above and more in my opinion.
-Its specs put it shooting at just bellow the 12 ft/lb legal maximum limit in the UK. This makes it suitable to hunt all airgun pest quarry. Remember that us (Gauteng’ers Johannesburg, South Africa) are unfortunately shooting at higher altitude and thus suffer losses in a spring airguns power (All springers suffer losses in power as the air is less dense at altitude and therefore the compression cycle is less efficient). My Weihrauch has energy figures of approximately 9.5ft/lb with JSB exacts here in JHB. I think many people would be surprised at what velocities their rifles are really doing. The only way to do that is to get a chronograph.
-The gun is not very loud when it fires sure it is not silent, but it is not loud either. I am sure my neighbours and other non-airgunners have no idea what it is and take no notice of it.
-The open sights are of exceptionally good quality, they hold their settings securely and are made of steel (not plastic). In my opinion one negative is that they could have made the front sights finer to enable even more accurate aiming, but I guess it helps those with fading eye sight. The front and rear sights are removable for scope use which ends up giving the gun very smooth lines.
-This gun in my opinion is very accurate. My best group to date was a 0.707 inch or ~18mm 5 shot group shot with open sights at 35 meters. This is a tribute to the good balance and fit of the stock as well as the excellent trigger (and the quality of the ammunition). I shot the group in the sitting position, resting my elbows on my legs. In addition it has also been my experience that the HW 50s is not very hold sensitive, thus making it a more of a forgiving springer to shoot. It is generally accepted that lower/medium powered airguns are less hold sensitive compared to that of the more powerful springers.
For fun I often shot off-hand at bright yellow coke bottle lids at ~35 meters in my garden and misses are definitely my fault and not the guns. My success ratio is probably about 50%.
-The gun is very solidly built, but not to heavy and I believe it should last many lifetimes as long as it is looked after and properly maintained. That includes giving it a wipe down with a silicon cloth after shooting it to prevent rust.
-Initially the cocking action is rather strange at first and stiff, but it smoothes out after a little while and you get use to the cocking action.
-My gun doesn’t demonstrate much spring twang which I think is a good thing.
-After about 3500 rounds I guess on could say my gun has been shot in. I get a SD (Standard Deviation): 3.74 and an ES (Extreme spread): 10.14fps. Over 10 shots which is exceptionally good, I was shooting from the sitting position (from a bench the spread might have been even smaller). My pcp has a larger spread than that over 10 shots.

For all those out there who think that 9.5 ft/lb isn’t enough energy let me just say that I was shooting large bean cans at ~80 meters (paced out). The pellets still easily penetrated both sides of those cans at that range. Chairgun a downloadable ballistic program gave it energy figures of 3 ft/lb at that range, which according to online literature is still enough to humanly shoot something the size of a pigeon. Obviously I would not shot at something living at that range as there is too great of a margin for error, but I am just highlighting the amount of energy still available. I have used it on a couple of pests at about 25 meters and I did not have any lack of power problems. I think less emphasis should be placed on the fps hype and more on the accuracy of the gun. Out to 30 meters there is no problem using this gun, put a scope on and you could go out a bit further.

I think this gun fills its role to perfection it is a medium powered, medium/light weight, accurate gun that is very well engineered, perfect for plinking and occasional pest control. The price well... unfortunately you have to pay for quality.

HW are doing great guns now. They had a few issues 2 or so years ago, but all the new ones I see are spot on.
Is yours a .22?
We use mostly .177 because of the power restriction but I perfer .177 even with loads of power.

Once that gun is well run in, get it tuned up a bit. A couple more fpe makes it a serious tool.
9.5 fpe seems low, most HWs I check are at least 10.7 even in this stupid country.
I think at the moment you get more than you pay for from HW.

Mine is in .177 in our country you need a licence for .22 caliber or larger.

Can't complain about the caliber mainly use it for target practice so the ammo is cheaper. I actually have a Gunpower shadow for more serious work, I have it putting out about 19fpe in .177.

Concerning the fpe we live at a rather high elevation here approx. 1600m so a fall off in power in springers is unavoidable.

quote:

in our country you need a licence for .22 caliber or larger.

That's pretty dumb.
A guy here makes super heavy .177 slugs I think they are around 40 grains.
Now if you could them going 1200 fps .....