Reanimating a HW80K, Part 1

A reader of the blog offered me his HW80K for a reasonable trade. He said he was never able to get it to group right which is odd considering the reputation the HW rifles have.

He shipped it in this impressive crate.

A "Venom" sticker which, along with the "Hull Cartridge" stamping on the barrel, means it came from the UK. Venom are known for their tunes so I had high hopes that the rifle would be a diamond in the rough... as it turns out it was more rough than I expected.

I slapped the rifle together...just so I could show the complete disassembly.

Unscrewing the forward stock screws.

Hmmm, one screw hole is all wallowed out...

And the screw is bent?

Two screws on the triggerguard.

And back.

That bit done.

The Rekord trigger unit...

So the mounting tabs on the tube are crudely welded and one is at least 1/8" out of line with the other. This explains the bend screw and wallowed hole. In Tom Gaylord's R1 book he mentions the tab on his first R1 (which is largely the same as the HW80) breaking off. So at some point the tabs must have come loose and were rewelded.

Welded by a drunk and myopic monkey. Yikes. Well that's project #1, getting the screw hole back to where it should be.

Two pins hold the Rekord trigger unit in the rifle.

Pin one.

Pin two.

Two pins.

When you lift out the trigger unit the safety wants to come loose.

The trigger unit was smeared with oily moly grease. On the outside. Which makes no sense.

A bit of preliminary cleaning...

The safety spring was hiding inside the end cap.

Safety and spring.

Much more to come...