A Hammerli 450 “A What” I hear you say.

Jimbobjones

Jimbobjones

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I purchased a Hammerli 450 .177 cal air rifle.”Hammerli 450?” I hear you say.

Yes a little gem of an air rifle with an unusual over lever cocking action. Designed and built by Hammerli as a match rifle , taken over by Carl Walther. It has the F in a pentagon stamp so is less than 7.5 joules.
My model is stamped made in Germany.
There seems to be very little on the web about this rifle , the Big Blue book hardly gives it a reference and generally airgun forums have little or no references to them, apart from

forum.vintageairgunsgallery.com

Hämmerli mod 450 match air rifle

Hämmerli mod 450 match air rifle This overlever pneumatic air rifle spotted on eGun.de
forum.vintageairgunsgallery.com forum.vintageairgunsgallery.com

And


As much as I can gather, the over leaver action had a weakness and broke, it could be returned to Hammerli and for a some of approximately £250-350 the mechanism would be replaced and the rifle stamped with its original serial number.
This I can’t claim to be any more than a rumour as I read about it in the past but never had it confirmed.
(It also states this in the above link.)
As far as shooting it , it’s a little gem , very accurate as it took me no time at all to be hitting a 10mm target at 15m ( two shots)
Okay I did warm up first with five shots, but to be fair I had just put the sights on! I got @TD_boy to make some nice inserts for me it , genuinely is accurate with a trigger that is a delight.
This is not a classic or rare air rifle , but a slightly flawed experimental rifle that’s accurate and fun to shoot, but I won’t be looking for spares as there are none. (Well not that I could find).
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I have to say I am delighted to be its keeper.
 
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Jimbobjones said:
I purchased a Hammerli 450 .177 cal air rifle.”Hammerli 450?” I hear you say.

Yes a little gem of an air rifle with an unusual over lever cocking action. Designed and built by Hammerli as a match rifle , taken over by Carl Walther. It has the F in a pentagon stamp so is less than 7.5 joules.
My model is stamped made in Germany.
There seems to be very little on the web about this rifle , the Big Blue book hardly gives it a reference and generally airgun forums have little or no references to them, apart from

forum.vintageairgunsgallery.com

Hämmerli mod 450 match air rifle

Hämmerli mod 450 match air rifle This overlever pneumatic air rifle spotted on eGun.de
forum.vintageairgunsgallery.com forum.vintageairgunsgallery.com

And


As much as I can gather, the over leaver action had a weakness and broke, it could be returned to Hammerli and for a some of approximately £250-350 the mechanism would be replaced and the rifle stamped with its original serial number.
This I can’t claim to be any more than a rumour as I read about it in the past but never had it confirmed.
(It also states this in the above link.)
As far as shooting it , it’s a little gem , very accurate as it took me no time at all to be hitting a 10mm target at 15m ( two shots)
Okay I did warm up first with five shots, but to be fair I had just put the sights on! I got @TD_boy to make some nice inserts for me it , genuinely is accurate with a trigger that is a delight.
This is not a classic or rare air rifle , but a slightly flawed experimental rifle that’s accurate and fun to shoot, but I won’t be looking for spares as there are none. (Well not that I could find).
View attachment 964977View attachment 964978View attachment 964979View attachment 964980View attachment 964981View attachment 964982

I have to say I am delighted to be its keeper.
Click to expand...
Now, that's an interesting looking beast, Bob... Pretty trick 👍👍
 
Backgardenplinker said:
Never seen such a rifle. Its kinda ugly but i love it 😍👍
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Agreed, it's sort of gross with a brutalist, soviet aesthetic but I kinda dig it. Honestly from the link I was ready to say that the wood looks like plastic tat but the wood finish in the photos looks really quite lovely!

Can't say it's not interesting, would definitely start a conversation at the range!
 
jukibom said:
Agreed, it's sort of gross with a brutalist, soviet aesthetic but I kinda dig it. Honestly from the link I was ready to say that the wood looks like plastic tat but the wood finish in the photos looks really quite lovely!

Can't say it's not interesting, would definitely start a conversation at the range!
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I was delighted to have the walnut stock, it blends in very nicely with the Anschutz Superair , and Diana 100.
 
Mrs. H said:
What a superb action! Looks a really nice weight for stability too.
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4.45kg well balanced , well it is for me, feels lighter than 4.45kg. Has a good bark when fired.
It is an interesting action that when mastered is quite smooth.
 
10-15 years ago they came up for sale and the prices were alway good as the sights were worth 4-5 hundred dollars
to my knowledge everyone one of the guns had a flaw and all needed to be sent to the factory and be fixed and from the states that is no easy task and at the time the repair was free
the problem was the factory never marked them as repaired so you never knew if you were getting one or the other
the repair had to do with the valve system and the repair could only be made at the factory
here is a very old post

the 450​

Post by oesir » Tue Aug 10, 2004 12:50 am

Hi there, I have a 450 and had similar problems some years back. It's the whole system needing a change. I sent mine to a factory in Germany for the job. They changed everything around the valves except the barrel. It came back working all right. The system has that problem and it's not a everyday job to fix it. The guy who took care of things for me is now working for Walther. His name is Jurgen Billharz. He worked for a Hammerli company back then.
Top

so, when ever i saw a 450 for sale i would just turn the page, while an interesting and rare rifle it has been forgotten
i would think most are hanging on walls collecting dust
 
marflow said:
10-15 years ago they came up for sale and the prices were alway good as the sights were worth 4-5 hundred dollars
to my knowledge everyone one of the guns had a flaw and all needed to be sent to the factory and be fixed and from the states that is no easy task and at the time the repair was free
the problem was the factory never marked them as repaired so you never knew if you were getting one or the other
the repair had to do with the valve system and the repair could only be made at the factory
here is a very old post

the 450​

Post by oesir » Tue Aug 10, 2004 12:50 am

Hi there, I have a 450 and had similar problems some years back. It's the whole system needing a change. I sent mine to a factory in Germany for the job. They changed everything around the valves except the barrel. It came back working all right. The system has that problem and it's not a everyday job to fix it. The guy who took care of things for me is now working for Walther. His name is Jurgen Billharz. He worked for a Hammerli company back then.
Top

so, when ever i saw a 450 for sale i would just turn the page, while an interesting and rare rifle it has been forgotten
i would think most are hanging on walls collecting dust
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I knew they had a problem before I purchased it, worth taking a gamble for something this unusual, it won’t get a hammering ,but will get used This buyer was very aware. 👍
 
I was deciding between a Hammerli and the LG400.

Hammerli reviews consistently pointed to the difficult cocking action hence decided on the LG400....
 
back in the day there was much talk about these but it was on the Yellow forum in the states and that forum is gone and all that was there is also gone
if the price is right and the sights and are there between them and the barrel and any other bit you would come out alright
the question was why the factory didn't mark the rifle as they were fixed, if that had been done you or anyone would know they have a rifle that was in good working order at some point but part if they were special would put it back on the wall
i have always found the rifle to be interesting with beautiful quality and of course the chances of a rifle going from the UK to Germany and back are higher than from the states
in the BB you see it states that the compression chamber would split and also the price was not cheap
IMG_6079.webp
 
Wow! that's certainly an unusual find...

The stock looks a nice piece of timber and the action condition looks nearly new.
What a pity there doesn't seem to a way of telling if it's been factory fixed or not...worth an enquiry to the factory to see if they can help perhaps?

How easy or awkward is it to cock with that over-lever?

Well done you for giving it a loving home 👏.
 
TD_boy said:
Wow! that's certainly an unusual find...

The stock looks a nice piece of timber and the action condition looks nearly new.
What a pity there doesn't seem to a way of telling if it's been factory fixed or not...worth an enquiry to the factory to see if they can help perhaps?

How easy or awkward is it to cock with that over-lever?

Well done you for giving it a loving home 👏.
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Cocking is pretty easy even if it’s unusual, a bit of practice gets a good rhythm to it , nice breach loading too.
 
I love Hammerlis got a mod 4 an absolute gem with a brilliant trigger, keep looking at a 420 but this is one step better. Will add it to the list.
 
Rog1415 said:
I love Hammerlis got a mod 4 an absolute gem with a brilliant trigger, keep looking at a 420 but this is one step better. Will add it to the list.
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Good hunting, I was lucky the previous keeper was a great guy.
 
Jimbobjones said:
I purchased a Hammerli 450 .177 cal air rifle.”Hammerli 450?” I hear you say.

Yes a little gem of an air rifle with an unusual over lever cocking action. Designed and built by Hammerli as a match rifle , taken over by Carl Walther. It has the F in a pentagon stamp so is less than 7.5 joules.
My model is stamped made in Germany.
There seems to be very little on the web about this rifle , the Big Blue book hardly gives it a reference and generally airgun forums have little or no references to them, apart from

forum.vintageairgunsgallery.com

Hämmerli mod 450 match air rifle

Hämmerli mod 450 match air rifle This overlever pneumatic air rifle spotted on eGun.de
forum.vintageairgunsgallery.com forum.vintageairgunsgallery.com

And


As much as I can gather, the over leaver action had a weakness and broke, it could be returned to Hammerli and for a some of approximately £250-350 the mechanism would be replaced and the rifle stamped with its original serial number.
This I can’t claim to be any more than a rumour as I read about it in the past but never had it confirmed.
(It also states this in the above link.)
As far as shooting it , it’s a little gem , very accurate as it took me no time at all to be hitting a 10mm target at 15m ( two shots)
Okay I did warm up first with five shots, but to be fair I had just put the sights on! I got @TD_boy to make some nice inserts for me it , genuinely is accurate with a trigger that is a delight.
This is not a classic or rare air rifle , but a slightly flawed experimental rifle that’s accurate and fun to shoot, but I won’t be looking for spares as there are none. (Well not that I could find).
View attachment 964977View attachment 964978View attachment 964979View attachment 964980View attachment 964981View attachment 964982

I have to say I am delighted to be its keeper.
Click to expand...
Nice find there mate! A cracking looking example 😍
 
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