Happy new Trigger's broom, an Ebay tale of good and bad.

[oddbob22]

I've had an HW77K in .22 calibre for many years, it has a Tbt kit, a 25mm piston, modified Venom type moderator/barrel latch, an HW97 synthetic stock and adjustable butt pad. Whilst it was a lovely rifle to shoot, easy to cock and quiet, the finish to the blueing was past it's best.

So when a used 97 bare cylinder assembly in .177 came up on Ebay I put a bid on it, it was a little expensive, with a ridiculously high BIN price, but I was the only bidder and won it.

It soon arrived, and it was in as good condition as was portrayed in the listing, so I stripped the 77 down, gave the cylinder a degrease, which was a good shout as there was some strange foreign object embedded in the front of the piston seal, possibly a bit of lead but not sure, and transferred the cylinder, piston, spring and guides to the 97 body, then went to fit the rear block, and that's when the fight started. The block would only screw in so far, then locked up. My first thought was I'd got something out of alignment, and took it apart, tried it again, same result. Pulled it all apart and tried to fit the back block, same result. So I had a good look at the threads. There was some damage to the threads where the stock locating plug passes through the cylinder threads, not sure why Weihrauch do it that way rather than just drill a clearance hole, but it is what it is and I had to fix it. So, 15 minutes with a file and the block threaded on. You'd think that would be it, wouldn't you? Well it wasn't, it got worse. Now I have no idea if the seller knew there was a problem, and I'd bought a badun, but the end block was so far out when screwed all the way on that there was no way it was going to nip up, this block was off a different gun! I was just psyching myself up to clock the block in my lathe, when I just thought I'd try my old block in it, just to test the threads. It fitted! What's the odds of that? This came with two bonuses, firstly, my block didn't have that horrendous safety warning stamped into the block, and it wasn't as badly tarnished as the rest of the action from my 77 so the difference in blueing was barely noticeable between old and new. Second bonus, it only needs a slight tweak to nip it up, so trigger and safety can be left in the block when stripping the rifle. The thread on the locating plug was only slightly out, so no need to drill a clearance hole through the threads, so no worries about the block being able to unwind enough to misalign the scope rail.

The spring had been cut down for the .22, and it was running high 11 ft/lbs, I was going to take a bit off the spring before this .177 action came up, but in the .177 power was down to 9.4 fpe. I'd kept the spacers from the Tbt kit, so one spacer got the power nicely above 10 fpe and shooting nicely.

So now I have a nice HW97k, it's sort of original, but it's had a new barrel and the stock's been changed, as well as all the internals.

Now, do I go for the Tbt carbine look?

 

[Sharpsman]

Just rebuilt a 77 for a mate from parts he had , the cylinder and trigger block aren't from the same original rifle so it's got a gap between the two part parts or the trigger block doesn't line up to take the trigger ect . I dare say next week it will be stripped again and back in his parts draw never to see the light of day again

 

[om606]

I've had an HW77K in .22 calibre for many years, it has a Tbt kit, a 25mm piston, modified Venom type moderator/barrel latch, an HW97 synthetic stock and adjustable butt pad. Whilst it was a lovely rifle to shoot, easy to cock and quiet, the finish to the blueing was past it's best.

So when a used 97 bare cylinder assembly in .177 came up on Ebay I put a bid on it, it was a little expensive, with a ridiculously high BIN price, but I was the only bidder and won it.

It soon arrived, and it was in as good condition as was portrayed in the listing, so I stripped the 77 down, gave the cylinder a degrease, which was a good shout as there was some strange foreign object embedded in the front of the piston seal, possibly a bit of lead but not sure, and transferred the cylinder, piston, spring and guides to the 97 body, then went to fit the rear block, and that's when the fight started. The block would only screw in so far, then locked up. My first thought was I'd got something out of alignment, and took it apart, tried it again, same result. Pulled it all apart and tried to fit the back block, same result. So I had a good look at the threads. There was some damage to the threads where the stock locating plug passes through the cylinder threads, not sure why Weihrauch do it that way rather than just drill a clearance hole, but it is what it is and I had to fix it. So, 15 minutes with a file and the block threaded on. You'd think that would be it, wouldn't you? Well it wasn't, it got worse. Now I have no idea if the seller knew there was a problem, and I'd bought a badun, but the end block was so far out when screwed all the way on that there was no way it was going to nip up, this block was off a different gun! I was just psyching myself up to clock the block in my lathe, when I just thought I'd try my old block in it, just to test the threads. It fitted! What's the odds of that? This came with two bonuses, firstly, my block didn't have that horrendous safety warning stamped into the block, and it wasn't as badly tarnished as the rest of the action from my 77 so the difference in blueing was barely noticeable between old and new. Second bonus, it only needs a slight tweak to nip it up, so trigger and safety can be left in the block when stripping the rifle. The thread on the locating plug was only slightly out, so no need to drill a clearance hole through the threads, so no worries about the block being able to unwind enough to misalign the scope rail.

The spring had been cut down for the .22, and it was running high 11 ft/lbs, I was going to take a bit off the spring before this .177 action came up, but in the .177 power was down to 9.4 fpe. I'd kept the spacers from the Tbt kit, so one spacer got the power nicely above 10 fpe and shooting nicely.

So now I have a nice HW97k, it's sort of original, but it's had a new barrel and the stock's been changed, as well as all the internals.

Now, do I go for the Tbt carbine look?

Could you not buy a HW77 std under lever latch unit £25, and shorten your underlever drill and then refit the ball detent fitting, then you would not have quite the TBT carbine the way i understood his video, but it would retain the full .177 barrel length and no HW97 tube weight gubbins to get which is £75.
Or you still have the venom latch but sorry i have no idea exactly what they are.
All the best, Its interesting all this triggers broom stuff. LOL!

 

[oddbob22]

Could you not buy a HW77 std under lever latch unit £25, and shorten your underlever drill and then refit the ball detent fitting, then you would not have quite the TBT carbine the way i understood his video, but it would retain the full .177 barrel length and no HW97 tube weight gubbins to get which is £75.
Or you still have the venom latch but sorry i have no idea exactly what they are.
All the best, Its interesting all this triggers broom stuff. LOL!

If I was going to mess with the HW latch again I'd fit a BSA or Webley type, much cleaner looking, more aesthetically pleasing, well, to my eyes anyway. I've bored out a few different moderator/barrel weight thingies over the years, my HW90k has a Theoben Rapid moderator on, moved back to retain the carbine look.
The Venom type was like a slimmer looking HW97K moderator with a long cylinder underneath, the same diameter as the underlever, and using the ball bearing type HW77 latch. On my 77, I shortened this latch assembly and bored out the Barrel weight to slide it down over the barrel, keeping the carbine length. The muzzle sound on a 77 isn't a problem so it doesn't really need silencing. I did put some photos on a thread somewhere on the forum of the 90 and the 77.

 

[oddbob22]

Just rebuilt a 77 for a mate from parts he had , the cylinder and trigger block aren't from the same original rifle so it's got a gap between the two part parts or the trigger block doesn't line up to take the trigger ect . I dare say next week it will be stripped again and back in his parts draw never to see the light of day again

It is possible to calculate how much metal to remove from the block to get it to line up, I believe it's called clocking, and I'm sure there's a video on YT of someone doing just that, but maths was never my strong point, and my lathe work often goes 'nearly there, nearly there, a little more, one more turn.........oh ferfooksakegoddamitjesuschristit'sruined............ I was just so pleased that the 77 block fitted.

 

[om606]

If I was going to mess with the HW latch again I'd fit a BSA or Webley type, much cleaner looking, more aesthetically pleasing, well, to my eyes anyway. I've bored out a few different moderator/barrel weight thingies over the years, my HW90k has a Theoben Rapid moderator on, moved back to retain the carbine look.
The Venom type was like a slimmer looking HW97K moderator with a long cylinder underneath, the same diameter as the underlever, and using the ball bearing type HW77 latch. On my 77, I shortened this latch assembly and bored out the Barrel weight to slide it down over the barrel, keeping the carbine length. The muzzle sound on a 77 isn't a problem so it doesn't really need silencing. I did put some photos on a thread somewhere on the forum of the 90 and the 77.

Mods? Spring guns?
Bit pointless personally. The std 97 Weight tube latch fixing tube idea, looks ok but the single most problematic thing about the HW97 if you ask me.
The tube is handy to add weight get some weight up front save ugly lumps stuck here and there i suppose , but its too thin the pathetic rivet idea they fix the latch housing to that thin tube is so poor its amusing.
Not thought about using other makers latch set ups but i like the idea.
I look forward to seeing any developments in this respect you might chose to share on this aspect of the HW97, i have three std HW97s and although only one has had the latch housing thing, its so profound a problem when it happens i genuinely feel the need to cure my others with a substantial reliable alternative. What exactly is a moot point for now its 3mm nylock +bolts fiddle and faff and locktite 638 solving the problem, but there has to be a better solution i am sure.