TargetTalk

Does anyone know of a book or source about the history of Hammerli firearms? Wikipedia has a little something, but not nearly enough.

How many people did Hammerli employ? Who designed the pistols? What were the annual sales? Who owned Hammerli? That sort of thing.

Why did it essentially go out of business while producing great target pistols?

IIRC, Hammerli started as an independent firm, then was absorbed into the SIG combine. SIG, in turn, merged with Sauer to form SIG-Sauer. Which was focused on military and defense arms. They sold Hammerli to the UMAREX combine...which appears to have bought it mostly to sell Chinese plinkers at inflated prices under the Hammerli label.

On the other hand, I could see someone buying Hammerli out and reviving it.

The german made Hämmerli's isn't that bad at all.
I've got a new one in .32 last year and the out-of-the-box accuracy with both factory lapua 98 gr. load and 100 gr. handload was below 1 inch @ 25 meter.
I have been using it for Center fire pistol and military rapid fire with satisfying results, with very few malfunktions ( less than 10 in over 3000 rounds )

I do however, agree that the present ownership, may prove to be problematic, but there are, for the time being, no problems in the matter of spareparts and accessories for the pistols, on the european side of the atlantic.

Hämmerli and Walther have been close before. For sometime in the 50-60's the Hämmerli KK rifles were the Walther KK action.

As far as i know walther has owned hammerli. My mother has a Hammerli 208 and my father has an earlier model Hammerli-Walther 208

I've been a long time TT subscriber and just now came across this thread.
I have a question to ask if I may...
Did Hammerli ever make a .22 revolver?
Thanks!
JLK

German Walther bought Swiss Hammerli in late 2005.

The Swiss made Hammerli firearms moved production from the Swiss origins and are now being made in Germany as of 2005/2006.

If you want a Swiss made Hammerli it would be prior to this buy out and move.

It is my understanding that when Walther bought Hammerli they actually purchased their production machines as well as the right to the name and designs. So the present Hammerli firearms for the most part are made in Germany but using at least some Swiss machinery.

FYI.....Hammerli as well as Walther have had some of their guns made under contract by other manufacturers.

If you want "A real Swiss Hammerli" check the gun to see if it says "made in Switzerland" or " Swiss made"........

An example of a gun made for Hammerli by another manufacturer is the Hammerli FP 10 free pistol in 22LR.....this gun was made in Switzerland by SAN, not by Hammerli themselves.

Its simply an example of out source-ing.... :)

If you do some searching you can get bits and pieces of info about Hammerli from multiple sites and articles but I know of no authority or source of information that has a complete or comprehensive history about the company......maybe something is available in German, but nothing like this is in English that I know of.

:)

Hello, and another Hammerli question. Is there any documentation on the serial numbers and date of manufacture of the Hammerli series semi automatic 208s or any of the Hammerli line pistols?
And where to look??