TargetTalk

Hello all, i am still looking for a free pistol to get me going and there has been one advertised on a site for a few months now. It's a Hammerli 152 with accessories for $850.
Is this a reasonable weapon to get me started?
Are there parts still readily available if it does have issues?
Can the barrel be changed without a degree in astro physics should it turn out to be buggered?
Is it worth the money or should i save up for something else? suggestions?

any feedback would be appreciated as i do not want to hand over my hard earned for something i will grow out of after a year.

Cheers Haemish

http://home.exetel.com.au/wilsonstarget ... rli152.jpg

haemis762 wrote:Hello all, i am still looking for a free pistol to get me going and there has been one advertised on a site for a few months now. It's a Hammerli 152 with accessories for $850.
Is this a reasonable weapon to get me started?
Are there parts still readily available if it does have issues?
Can the barrel be changed without a degree in astro physics should it turn out to be buggered?
Is it worth the money or should i save up for something else? suggestions?

any feedback would be appreciated as i do not want to hand over my hard earned for something i will grow out of after a year.

Cheers Haemish

http://home.exetel.com.au/wilsonstarget ... rli152.jpg

Are you in the USA? If so, check with Larry Carter about support. Parts for older Hammerli products were hard to get before Walther acquired the assets of Hammerli.

Richard Ashmore

I'll throw a word in edge-wise here... If you were to buy a 152 at that price and found the barrel was as you say, "buggered" then you could probably part out the gun and come very close to breaking even or even making a profit. Hammerli parts are expensive, to say the least. But the joy of these older Hammerli's is that they very rarely break. My 150 has a very low serial number and is completely original. The spare parts that were purchased by a previous owner have never been used. And of course the other up-side to these older Hammerli's is that they have beautiful barrels with very tight match chambers and excellent steel in them. You'd have to work hard or be exceedingly careless to ruin one. As a case in point, a local shooter decided to drill vent holes in the top of his 150 barrel in very much the same style as the Steyr LP-10 air pistol is vented. He accomplished this by using a drill press. It's ugly. And the gun will still outshoot either one of us!

Indeed these old Hammerli are very nice, well made pistols.

Their design is also not so different from the current FP60.

Actually, the whole family, 150, 160, FP60 is more a soft evolution of the same original design than completly new models (the FP10 is not a member of this family since it is not a Hammerli design but was designed and manufactured by SAM).

Now, may be one negative point: you say that it is a 152, i.e. the electronic trigger version. Personnaly, while I have no problem to buy a mechanical trigger old Hammerli (I own a 160), I would not buy an old electronic trigger Hammerli since I do not know if the electronic trigger can be repaired in case of failure.

I used a 152 for years and never had any trouble with it. The previous owner left it stored cocked, so the firing pin spring was compressed. Replaced it for a couple bucks. Otherwise, no problems. The gun is very well made. The electronics seem well made and are modular. I'm sure they could be repaired or replaced as needed. That being said, I always suspected one could fit a mechanical trigger from the 150 if the desire or need arose. Hammerli sold them separately to owners, as the model 150 owner's manual describes, so they are probably not too rare. Interestingly, the model 152 owner's manual never referred to this, possibly because the electronics did not give much trouble?

Actually I got rid of my Hammerli 152 because the electronic trigger was very unreliable and went down on me in a middle of a match. I use a Morini CM-80 Super Comp and a Toz 35 for a backup because I the problems I had with the 152 trigger system. I also thought that the gun was extremely heavy compared to either one of the ones that I have now.