Hammerli 480 K2 - should I?

[Brimfire]

Hi folks.

I've been offered a Hammerli 480 K2 which looks in pretty good condition and shoots well. It has two removable cylinders, one perfect and airtight, the other with a slow leak from somewhere although I don't know at this point if it only leaks while it's off the pistol and is ok while on it. I put a few pellets through it last night and everything seems good - fits pretty well, shots going in generally the right place and feels like it's doing around 500 fps.

There's not a lot of info out there on this pistol so I'm appealing to the TT fraternity for some views on this gun. I'd be getting the Hammerli in a swap for a gun I never use and wouldn't miss and I'm not a serious competitor so it wouldn't have to compete with top tier pistols, just in some casual comps at the local club.

What do you think - avoid like the plague or snap it up?

[dschaller]

I have both the original 480 (carbon fibre permanently attached cylinder) and 480K (bulbous removable cylinder). I still shoot the 480K, although not in any major matches due to cylinder age. Both still function fine, and I have absolutely no concern about the cylinder age.

Back in the day I was capable of shooting 570 with them. I doubt I would have shot much higher with anything else. If you just want a good shooting gun and consider the trade "price" reasonable, then the only issue would be the cylinder date if you wanted to shoot any match where they did a complete equipment check, as there is a 10 year limit on cylinders now.

[Gwhite]

The original 480's & 480K's had a different regulator design that was prone to failure. I think they fixed that with the K2. Eventually, when they came out with the AP40, they had conversion kits to replace the 480K regulator with an AP40 regulator (which may be the same design as the K2). That also allowed you to get new cylinders.

The college team I help coach has 21 480K's that we got converted to use AP40 cylinders. By the time we did that, I think the O-rings in the conversion kits had fossilized. We have about 5 of them where the regulator O-ring has failed. The guy who had all the parts & know-how to do the conversions & repairs passed away a few years back. I may have to figure out how to fix them myself, especially if they keep failing...

As for the rest of the pistol, the trigger is excellent, as are the sights. They are VERY capable pistols in the right hands.

[Brimfire]

Thanks for your input guys.

These seems like a coin toss job but I'm leaning towards taking a gamble on it so I think I'll press ahead with the swap.
I'll let you know how I get on in the coming weeks.

Cheers,
Brimfire.

[Brimfire]

A successful swap with both parties happy about the transaction.

Thanks again guys for your views on this pistol, there's not a lot of info anywhere for these pistols so your take on things (along with another helpful chap's input) swayed me into having a punt on this little known gun.

Cheers!

[brent375hh]

These were not a little known gun back in the 90s. I had one and liked it until it released all it's air on the 23th shot at a state tournament. Mine was sent back twice for sealing problems. Maybe if I had been brave and learned to fix it myself, I would still have it.

Good luck with it.