This Walther LG55 Tyrolean has double set triggers.
This report covers:
- Breakbarrel
- Recoil?
- However
- A secret
- However number 2
- Hair trigger
- Sights
- Thank you Frank
- Summary
Happy two days after Christmas! This Christmastime most of us have been eating candy and desserts we shouldn’t touch. But it’s Christmas and we do. The Jews celebrated Chanukah earlier this month and I bet they did the same thing.
Well, boys and girls, it’s time for another trip down memory lane with your storyteller, BB Pelletier. Get the coffeepot going and let old BB tell you about the Walther target rifle that shouldn’t have existed.
Breakbarrel
The LG (for Luft Gewehr, which is German for air rifle) 55 was almost the high-water mark of the Walther breakbarrel recoiling target rifles. Only the LGV — the real target LGV from the 1960s, not the LGV sporting rifles they made this century — was more advanced. But the LG55 predated the LGV by a decade and was the big boy in the Walther tent for all that time.
Plenty of shooting clubs in Europe had LG55s on hand for their members to shoot. They were breakbarrels that cocked easily and they had good triggers. Oh, they recoiled a little and their triggers weren’t of the match quality found on, say, an FWB 300, but they were a darn sight better than any sporting triggers, except for the Rekord. These club guns are the tired LG55s that you sometimes see for sale at what seems to be a very reasonable price. Much of their finish is gone from hundreds of different hands holding and cocking them hundreds of thousands of times, but they still shoot very well.
The LG 55 was manufactured from 1955 to 1967, and existed at a time when recoiling spring-piston rifles competed at the national and international level. In fact in 1969 a Weihrauch HW55 MM, another recoilling spring-piston target rifle, won the European championship in competition against the newer sidelever Feinwerkbau match rifles. But the hyper-accurate sidelever recoilless FWB 150 and especially the FWB 300 soon destroyed all the breakbarrel springers, including the Weihrauchs and the Walthers.
Everything about the LG55 was made for target shooting. It existed in the days when shooters wanted heavier rifles to cut down on random movements. So a recess in the forearm was made to hold a lead slug that was poured in while molten to ensure there were no voids. And a steel jacket on the barrel added even more weight.
That lead slug adds weight to the LG55. This is to slow down the rifle’s movement while shooting offhand.
That knurled nut on the LG55 muzzle (bottom) holds a steel jacket on the barrel. Remove the jacket to lighten the rifle.
Recoil?
Strictly speaking, the LG55 is a recoiling air rifle. I just fired a shot with this one to verify that for you. Yes, I felt an impulse, but it would be hard to call it recoil. It was more of an impulse than a recoil. This is the same experience you’ll get when shooting a Walther LGV or a Weihrauch HW55 CM. Yeah they kick, but it isn’t very noticeable.
However
The LG55 I am reviewing for you isn’t the standard rifle with a beech stock. This one has a beautiful walnut stock that’s shaped in the Tyrolean style with a deeply cupped cheekpiece.
I mentioned in the beginning that this rifle shouldn’t have existed and now I’ll tell you why. Tyrolean stocks have been banned from competition for many decades for reasons that nobody can pin down. Maybe they positioned the sighting eye so accurately every time that they gave an unfair advantage to shooters who used them. Or maybe, because they can only be used in offhand matches, they require a second target rifle to shoot the other positions. Or maybe the manufacturers couldn’t get enough of the wood that was thick enough to make them, so they had them banned.
1
The high cupped cheekpiece of a Tyrolean stock is its trademark.
Whatever the reason, target rifles with Tyrolean stocks can’t be used in sanctioned matches. Beeman found that many shooters who had never seen them before were attracted to them, and thus they were an upscale sales item.
A secret
Now I will tell you a secret that nobody else will tell you. Tyrolean rifles either fit you or they don’t — there is no in-between. And most of them don’t fit most shooters. Back in the days when Schuetzens and Zimmerstutzens were being made, the stocks were handmade and fitted to their owners.
I have owned several Tyrolean stocks and not a one has fit me. My head ends up in the wrong place when it’s held by that high cupped cheekpiece. That was true for the two Zimmerstutzens I owned, the R1 Tyrolean as well as an HW55 Tyrolean. And let me tell you something else about the Tyrolean stock. If it’s on an air rifle that recoils like the R1, you get one heck of a punch in the face when the rifle fires! This Walther LG55 is the most pleasant Tyrolean I have shot and even it feels odd to me.
So, a Tyrolean stock is a major selling point that will leave most shooters unsatisfied when they shoot it. But people see them and they want them.
However number 2
The rifle being tested also has double-set triggers. It has whaaaaat? It has double-set triggers. If Tyrolean stocks are scarce, air rifles with double set triggers are almost unheard of!
1
Pull the rear trigger blade to set the front one. The rifle can be fired without setting the trigger and the pull is still reasonable.
And here is the funny thing. You can compete in a match with a trigger that breaks at 50 grams, but not with a double set trigger that breaks at 80 grams after being set! It isn’t the weight of the trigger pull that infuriates the match officials — it’s how you get there. They no likeee the DST!
Hair trigger
Very few double set triggers are real hair triggers, though you will often hear them called that. When Bubba sets his Hawken rifle trigger to break at 2 ounces he thinks it is a hair trigger and he calls it that unknowingly. A true hair trigger is a steel blade so thin it’s almost impossible to see and it’s set to release so light that it will fire the rifle when the action is cocked and the muzzle is raised to the vertical. The weight of the infinitesimally thin trigger blade will fire the rifle. The bellows dart guns from the 18th and 19th centuries have triggers that can be adjusted that light. But to use a trigger set so light effectively, your trigger finger has to be extremely sensitive — as in sanding-it-until-it-bleeds sensitive! Unless it is that sensitive you will never feel the trigger blade before the gun fires.
I was unaware that air rifles had double set triggers until reader Kevin stopped by my house many years ago and showed one to me. It was a Walther LG55 Tyrolean, as a matter of fact. Following that encounter I have seen one other at an airgun show — also an LG55 Tyrolean.
This LG55 has a double set trigger that’s unlike any I have seen — and I have seen quite a lot of them. The mechanism for this one lives inside the stock — not on the barreled action!
1
On the LG55 the double set trigger mechanism resides in the stock and stays with it when the barreled action is removed. Sorry for the blurry image. That’s me not adjusting the camera correctly.
This is the part of the trigger that remains with the barreled action. The trigger unit shown inside the stock that you see in the picture above releases a lever that pops up and hits the sear, causing it to release.
Sights
There is a full match target sight, front and rear. The front one accepts inserts and came to me with a solid post. I hope to exchange that for a clear aperture. If not I’m sure I have solid black aperture inserts that will fit.
Thank you Frank
When reader Frank Ballistreri and I were discussing me purchasing the FWB 110, he mentioned that this rifle was also available. He priced it very reasonably, so I bit the bullet and bought it, too. Remember — I had only ever seen two of these before! Now I get to test one and you get to watch!
Summary
There are Walther LG55s and then there is this one — a Tyrolean with double-set triggers. This one is unique and as I test it and report on it, I hope to get the uniqueness into the reports as well.
Oh, BB . . . with that pseudo “hair” trigger, I hope that there won’t be any more holes in the sofa or your office walls. Orv.
Orv,
Here’s hoping! 😉
BB
BB,
Tyrolean stocks may be banned from competition but I sure do wonder what those officials would think now of the stocks that can be adjusted every which way that now comes with those 10m competition rifles. Pictured below is the PARDINI GPR1.
Siraniko
Siraniko,
Those they allow.
BB
BB-
Dittos on how Tyrolean stocks rarely seem to fit as is. The late Gary Staup had one on his table that magically fit me perfectly. Alas, it fit him also and was not for sale. We always giggled about being skull brothers.
That double set trigger harkens back to the old muzzle loading days of construction. Very interesting to see that.
Errata- section- However
Last sentence- …many shooters who had never seem (seen) them….
Paco,
So you knew Gary Staup? He is the one who helped me with mt article on Zimmerstutzens that I wrote for Shotgun News and also put on the Pyramyd AIR articles page — the one I linked to in this report.
BB
BB-
Yeah, Gary was a regular table holder across the room from me at the Lima (Ohio) show. An absolutely great, knowledgeable and enthusiastic being of the first order. I still get a big smile thinking of him. Did you ever see him in his lederhosen?
B.B.
Agreed on the Tyrolean stock! That is why I had mine custom made.
-Y
BB
Cool gun. Will be waiting to hear more about it.
B.B.,
Agree with you about Tyrolean stocks. Most don’t fit well and need to be shaped to your unique facial contours. I know, blasphemy on a vintage gun.
You said, “This Walther LG55 is the most pleasant Tyrolean I have shot and even it feels odd to me.” Guess that R8 with a tyrolean stock is a forgotten red headed step child. 😉
Kevin,
Oh, phooey! You know that it isn’t! I LOVE that air rifle. But it does recoil more than this one.
BB
B.B.,
Of course it recoils more. I was talking about the fit of the tyrolean stock.
Speaking of rare airguns that have double set triggers…have you ever shot a Weihrauch HW55 with DST’s?
Here’s my old HW55M “Gullwing” with DST.
Kevin,
I never even heard of one.
BB
B.B.,
Frank surely put together a nice collection of airguns, and this one’s a real beauty, a good score for you. 🙂
Happy 3rd day of Christmas,
dave
BB, Maybe the match officials consider Tyroleans a fashion, not a function? I dont know, for Xmas family dinner gathering, I got to teach about why .22 blanks and pellets dont shoot well in oversize bores, and about the difference between dieseling and detonation, what happens when you squirt 3in1 into the compression chamber your wallyworld 1,400 fps fire breather, and hopefully, why you never do that to the much better quality Diana 54 airking my inlaw also has. He shoots expensive skeet and trap guns and reloads too, but he’s under 30 years old, so I let him know that he will be able to pass on the RWS rifle to his son because it will last that long and, there will undoubtably be a source for parts years from now, Lord willing and the creek dont rise. I learned that the1948 HD hardtail he has, came with drilled out headstock, ( to stop cracks running) and that a Triumph transmission works in there and looks right too. I noticed the pipes were wrapped for duty as a drag bike. No body work left, but it does have nice blue paint. The roast beef was awesome.
Thanks for all you do!
R
I sure hope he wears a helmet, and not a vintage leather one either. lol.
-Y
BB
I am looking forward to more info on the double set trigger of this Walther. It’s an interesting design and concept to allow more control of firing a competition gun.
I looks so very similar to my recently acquired Diana model 60 that was made in 1966 with the Tyrolean stock but with just a single two stage trigger versus the double set trigger of the Walther. Mine is actually recoiless with the GISS system it has which is just so nice a gun to shoot. It’s very easy to cock as well with the very small diameter dual spring set it has in the model 60. Luckily my Tyrolean stock fits me very well.
BD
BD
You posted pictures of it the other day. I thought it was a nice gun then and still do today. 🙂
What is the average distance and group sizes you get with it. Either way I bet its a nice plinking gun.
BB,
Once again you have me drooling. You are being so mean to me. Tyrolean stock?! Double set triggers?! Oooowwhhh!
P.S. Thanks Frank. Your sharing of your collection is wonderful. People such as yourself and BB inspire me to do so also.
I’ve been looking forward to part 2 on this gun. I hope you haven’t forgotton it
If you ever decide to sell it, I’m your buyer.
Tim,
I haven’t forgotten. I tried to test velocity and the pellet didn’t make it out the barrel, so it’s piston seal time. I am so swamped with work on airguns that I haven’t even ordered the seal yet.
I will order it and we will see this one shooting again.
BB
Just a reminder on this one as it has been some time now. I saw a single trigger LG55 Tyrollean at the Texas show and it was very tempting but didn’t it fit quite right as would be expected but it wasn’t too far off. I do woodworking as a hobby and so I was still tempted. I would love to see an accuracy test on this gun! I think he was asking $415 for it , not sure if it was priced right or not and my pic as a bit blurry on the tag, but he had well worn tags with lots of details on the guns and did not seem the type to haggle so I imagine that you probably know him.
This one
Bob,
I paid a LOT more for mine. It needs to be rebuilt, which I knew when I bought it, so it’s in the que,.
BB
Tom, Roger that! I knew it was a special gun but I just couldn’t find much on it as to value and I felt like his other guns that I did know, were all on the high side. I will be watching in the future for this one to come back around and prepare to kick myself for not buying it when I had the chance.
I bought mine today for 225 euro .good deal ?
Knees,
Best deal I’ve heard of for one of these.
BB
Okay nice and it shoots great.