Weihrauch auction special

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gunsaholic

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I just picked up this rifle I bought at auction about 45 minutes from me. Some of you likely saw it online. It is A Weihrauch HW66 I'm guessing from the 80's? No one wanted it because bubba welded a chain to the bottom of the barrel. So I took a gamble. I can't believe someone would do something like that. Then I got to thinking that maybe someone used the rifle for trapping and the chain was to secure the gun while travelling on snowmobile or whatever. I have already cut the chain off and will grind away the weld. The bore was dirty so I couldn't see what possible damage there might be internally from welding. I got the bore cleaned and it is nice and shiny with nice rifling. By eye, I can see no damage or signs of heat penetration in the bore. There was no issue running a bore brush or patches through it. The true test will be shooting it but I'm guessing the gun has seen a number of rounds through it since being welded. The gun was advertised as coming with one magazine. So I go to pop the mag out and no go. I'm thinking what else did bubba do. Looking a little further I see it is actually a single shot. So I went online and yes, there is the single shot variant. With the barrel out of the stock, I see where there is a pin that goes through to hold the adapter in. Does anyone know off hand that if I knock the pin out and remove the adapter, all I would need to get is a magazine to make it into a repeater?
The stock is nice walnut. It has usage marks but no cracks so I will refinish it. Should be a nice winter/Covid project.
 

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This is a HW60/66 repeater action. It looks like you have the magazine latch in place so if the SSA is only pinned in, you may be good to go with a mag.

This fellow will sell you a magazine - The 5's seem to work more reliably than the 8's IME. Looks like he's currently out of stock though.

https://riflemags.co.uk/weihrauch-5-round-22lr-17hm2-magazine-hw60-hw66/
 
Yes, the magazine latch is there. From what I could gleam online, the single shot variant is the same gun as the repeater except it was just minus the mag. At least that's what I understand. I will look into a mag. I have ordered from riflemags UK before. Triple K may be another. But first I am going to get it all spruced up and check to see how it actually shoots as far as accuracy.
 
Thanks for posting . I couldn't imagine why someone would weld that chain link to the bottom other than it was locked up so it couldn't be used or stolen . and to do that to any rifle especially a quality piece like that shows that the previous owner was a real Twit. a no mind .
 
cement head said:
Thanks for posting . I couldn't imagine why someone would weld that chain link to the bottom other than it was locked up so it couldn't be used or stolen . and to do that to any rifle especially a quality piece like that shows that the previous owner was a real Twit. a no mind .
Click to expand...

I think the OP was right that the original owner probably built it to tie to a snowmachine or whatever for running a trapline. As these are not super well known outside shooting circles and as it is a single shot and as they are not really pretty I could imagine a trapper picking it up cheap at a farm auction or pawn shop.

When i was a kid I bought a CIL 125 (which is of course an anshutz) at an auction for 75 dollars. Stock was a bit beat. I spent hours sanding it down and "checkered" it with a wood burning iron and then stained it. I still have it. I was 12 when I bought it and 45 now. When I look at it I shake my head at the checkering but the darn thin shoots like a charm. Nowadays the price of these is considerably higher than $75.

I inherited a deutzwerks .22 that belonged to my great uncle. He drowned in lake athabaska in the 30s while skating across the lake to visit his sister and play hockey. He was trapping in the winter and taking geo samples in the summer. On the .22 you can see his initials carved into it and it is carved on the barrel and the wood stock behind the pistol grip where he was going to cut it down to make a pistol. Easier to carry and sufficient for a trapline.

A couple years ago I was trapping and carried a little orange henry single shot I had bought years ago for my kids ti dispatch animals. I wound up drilling a hole in the forstock and putting a piece of inner tube through that I could stretch over the muzzle. I also screwed a peice of inner tube to one side of the stock and put 3m velcro on the other side to attach the inner tube over the action. I put caulking all around the trigger. Why would I do this to the poor innocent little gun? Well usually you use a .22 to dispatch canines. Cats choke easily so usually if they are caught in a padded leg hold you drop a snare over their neck and they are unconscious in seconds. Unless they are caught by a back leg. In which case they have a long reach so you dispatch them with your .22. Unless it has frozen solid from powdery snow that has crept into your pack even though it was done up tight. in that case you put on your snowmobile helmet, zip your collar up as high as it will go, put on every mitt and glove you have with you and armed with a snare wade into a pissed off lynx that can move his entire stretched out body length plus a foot or 2 of anchor chain. You only do this once before you start thinking of solutions and that may involve drilling holes in guns.

A good friend of mine that I hunt sheep with has an old rem 700 in .270 that is his sheep rifle. He has a great swaro scope on it. Rather than drop a pile on a new mountain rifle he cut the stock off just ahead of the pillar blocks and attacked the rest of the stock with a drill and a jigsaw. He cut part of the bolt handle off etc etc. It is the single ugliest thing I have ever seen. But he cut the weight down by a lot. And it has killed at least 11 Dall Rams that I can swear to.

So i guess what I am saying is that sometimes to some people guns are just tools. Form over function as it were. The chain link might have served to tie a rope to as a sling or god knows what else. Probably seemed like a good idea at the time.
 
gunsaholic said:
It is A Weihrauch HW66 I'm guessing from the 80's? No one wanted it because bubba welded a chain to the bottom of the barrel. So I took a gamble. I can't believe someone would do something like that. ... I'm thinking what else did bubba do.
Click to expand...

What else did he do? How about that tapped hole just in front of the bolt release?

Any chance that the model number located on top of the receiver says HW660 rather than HW66? (See photo below.)

The HW660 was a single shot match rifle. The HW66 comes in two models, the HW66 Production, which is usually a repeater but also a single shot, and the HW66 Jagd Match, designed for Running Boar, and is/was made as a repeater and a single shot.

 
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I erred when I wrote that the HW66 was only a repeater. The HW60J is a sporter available as a repeater and as a single shot. The HW66 Production, a newer model, is also available as a repeater and as a single shot. The same goes for the HW66 JM, the Running Boar model. The single shot versions are much less common. The Weihrauch action is robust enough that it's also chambered in .22 Hornet and .222 Remington.

For anyone wondering what the rifle looks like, here's a HW60J repeater I had a while back.

 
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There is a Weihrauch listed on Switzer's auction. Guess what--it has a link welded on the bottom of the barrel as well. It also has a tapped hole in front of the bolt release. What are the odds of that?? Same Bubba?? And it's only 3 numbers out in the serial number from mine!! I think the tapped hole is factory because I see they have a second HW60J listed as well and it has the same tapped hole in front of the bolt release. Don't know why but that is 3 with the tapped hole in front of the bolt release. . But it doesn't have the link on the barrel, lol.
 
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Based on that rifle's known history, I'd be dismantling that bolt and give it a good clean up too!
These are robust actions and as long as that bore is OK, the accuracy may still be there.
Others may disagree but I rate these actions the equal of a 54. Accuracy seems to be a bit of a lottery but a good one will shoot with pretty much any production 22 out there.
 
gunsaholic said:
I think the tapped hole is factory because I see they have a second HW60J listed as well and it has the same tapped hole in front of the bolt release..
Click to expand...

Someone other than the factory must have drilled and tapped the hole in your receiver. The internal thread appears somewhat crude and quite course for a firearms-related purpose.

Here's the other side of the same rifle I posted above, sans tapped hole on the receiver. I believe this is what they usually look like, without part the name of the place of manufacture, Mellrichstadt, drilled out.

 
gunsaholic said:
I just picked up this rifle I bought at auction about 45 minutes from me. Some of you likely saw it online. It is A Weihrauch HW66 I'm guessing from the 80's? No one wanted it because bubba welded a chain to the bottom of the barrel. So I took a gamble. I can't believe someone would do something like that. Then I got to thinking that maybe someone used the rifle for trapping and the chain was to secure the gun while travelling on snowmobile or whatever.
Click to expand...

Would it be too much to ask how much you bought this rifle for?
 
grauhanen said:
Someone other than the factory must have drilled and tapped the hole in your receiver. The internal thread appears somewhat crude and quite course for a firearms-related purpose.

Here's the other side of the same rifle I posted above, sans tapped hole on the receiver. I believe this is what they usually look like, without part the name of the place of manufacture, Mellrichstadt, drilled out.

Click to expand...

The tapped hole could very well have been done by someone but strange that 3 guns have been discovered in the last couple of days all having the tapped hole in the same place and likely the serial numbers are close.
 
gunsaholic said:
There is a Weihrauch listed on Switzer's auction. Guess what--it has a link welded on the bottom of the barrel as well. It also has a tapped hole in front of the bolt release. What are the odds of that?? Same Bubba?? And it's only 3 numbers out in the serial number from mine!! I think the tapped hole is factory because I see they have a second HW60J listed as well and it has the same tapped hole in front of the bolt release. Don't know why but that is 3 with the tapped hole in front of the bolt release. . But it doesn't have the link on the barrel, lol.
Click to expand...

There's actually two in the current Switzer's auction but with slightly different titles so only one shows up. The other is under "H. Weinrauch"

This is a FYI and I won't be bidding on either.

This is an interesting thread and it's one of the reasons I like CGN.
 
*lawrence said:
There's actually two in the current Switzer's auction but with slightly different titles so only one shows up. The other is under "H. Weinrauch"
Click to expand...

Nothing comes up with H. Weinrauch (a misspelling of Weihrauch). But one does for "H. WEIAHRAUCH" an HW60J. The other is under H. WEIHRAUCH, also an HW60J.
 
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