When I was asked if I would like to visit the Weihrauch airgun factory, it took me about a Zillionth of a Nanosecond to say “Yes”!
After all, what airgun enthusiast would not want to look around place that’s widely regarded as the “Holy Grail” of quality airgun manufacturing?
So let’s go…
Above. Our heading photograph shows Hans and Felix Weihrauch in front of the main office building.
Weihrauch Airgun Factory Expectations
Like everyone, I have expectations about places, people and things before seeing them for the first time. So what was I expecting to see?
Well, I have visited a number of airgun factories over the years. They are always interesting. All have similarities, yet every one is different. So I was expecting to see machines, metal, employees and workshops.
Below. Stamped Rekord trigger boxes prior to bluing.
But somehow I imagined that the Weihrauch factory would be different. Having previously written about what it’s like to work at Weihrauch, I was aware that this is a family company with many long-service employees.
I knew that it is closely identified with the values and community of its North Bavarian homeland. I also knew that the company is proud to be a bastion of German quality manufacturing – where “Made in Germany” really means something.
Most of all, I knew that Weihrauch is proud – make that very proud – to be a family business.
Below. Steel stock holding area.
The company is 126 year old. It’s still a real “family company”, run on a day-to-day basis by the direct descendants of the original founders. It’s never been sold-out, taken-over or absorbed by some big, soulless corporation or get-rich-quick venture capital group.
So I had imagined a “Swiss watch making” environment. Quiet, dedicated, long-service employees focused on their tasks. Pride in work. Determined, efficient professionalism. Tidy, organized workshops. Clean floors.
And yes, this is what I found. Except even more so. For example, the floors were so clean that you could eat off them. Just look at the photos!
Below. CNC milling shop in operation.
The Weihrauch Airgun Factory Environment
The Weihrauch facility is located in the pretty small town of Mellrichstadt, Bavaria (population 5,500). Although I knew that, somehow I was not prepared for just how rural the location is.
Mellrichstadt is surrounded by mile-upon-mile of beautiful rolling arable farmland in every direction. Huge open fields with occasional areas of carefully-managed woodland.
There’s many scenic trails for hiking and cycling. There’s a strong tradition of hunting here – hunting stands and towers are everywhere – to protect the crops from any predators that may appear.
Below. Turning machines.
Like some other parts of Germany, there are also many roadside shrines. This is a Catholic area and the population is obviously religious in a practical, sensible sort of way.
The roads are perfect. I didn’t see a pothole anywhere! Civic pride is strong.
There’s a high proportion of electric cars and solar panels everywhere – including at the Weihrauch factory. Environmental consciousness is clear.
So the Weihrauch factory workday starts at 6:00 a.m. Farm hours. This is a rural community grounded in its environment, right in the heart of Germany.
This is where Weihrauch people come from. This is their background and it shapes their attitude to life and work. Everyone – owners, management, workers – lives close to the plant and shares a similar background.
Below. Machined receivers for HW 100 X air rifles.
Inside The Weihrauch Airgun Factory
Weihrauch machines or manufactures almost every part of their air rifles themselves. This includes barrels, triggers and compression tubes. That’s few companies in the airgun industry that include such a high proportion of in-house manufacturing in their products.
Below. Milling shop and storage area at Lunch time.
So we find multiple different metalworking shops in the factory. There’s shops for turning, cutting, stamping, grinding and so-on. Weihrauch manufactures its own barrels and there’s a shop dedicated to that task too.
The company has a good number of CNC machines for parts manufacturing. But far from all work is done using these machines. Weihrauch still uses highly-skilled handwork for some manufacturing and finishing processes.
Manual work is used where it makes sense. For example on some short-run parts batches. It’s also used in some cases where the work is so intricate that a better result is obtained manually than could be achieved using a CNC machine.
Below. HW35 – Edition 75 actions ready for final assembly with stocks.
The company also does all its own steel bluing. Anyone who has seen bluing operations knows that this is usually an environment something close to the hell realms!
There’s evil-smelling and highly caustic chemicals, nasty corroded tanks and the like. (Bluing is a controlled chemical rusting process after all). Bluing is just nasty, there’s no way around it…
But not at Weihrauch! Somehow they have managed to make the bluing shop clean, the tanks are in great shape and there was just about no smell.
Yet everyone can see the outstanding quality of the work. Weihrauch bluing is a really deep blue, almost black and superbly uniform on the superb metal finish of the parts. It’s magic…
Below. Sample Weihrauch bluing on an HW98. Perfect!
There’s multiple dedicated assembly areas, each for a different type of product. One is for break barrels (photo below), another for PCPs, another for pistols, and so on.
With dedicated assemblers at each area, this means that every Weihrauch airgun is hand-built at the bench by one highly-experienced person. Only triggers are pre-built as sub-assemblies in advance.
After assembly, every Weihrauch airgun is test-fired in one of the company’s internal ranges. The longest is 75 Meters (82 Yards).
Oh! One thing that I noticed in the Weihrauch factory was the complete lack of waste. There was no scrap or parts awaiting re-work to make them fit. Manufacturing is clearly “right first time” just about all of the time…
Below. Stamped Rekord trigger box part.
Weihrauch Airgun Factory Suppliers
However much is done internally, every company has external suppliers, of course. Weihrauch is no exception.
The company is careful to source all its steel from local, German suppliers. Obviously it makes sense to buy compression tubes – for example – pre-manufactured as raw stock. But Weihrauch cuts them to length, machines, drills and finishes them to perfection.
Yes they source screws, nuts and bolts too. It makes no sense at all to make them, after all, when they can be sourced from local German specialist suppliers.
Card packaging is another specialist manufacturing process. Here Weihrauch partners with a local packaging manufacturer to source the shipping boxes for its products – below.
That futuristic-looking new workshop that you see at the entrance to the plant was deigned by a local architect. There’s that word “local” again!
Basically, Weihrauch airguns are designed, manufactured and assembled by the company to be as completely German – and you even can say as completely Bavarian – as possible.
The only real exception is wood buttstocks. These are sourced from high quality Italian specialist manufacturers, but to Weihrauch designs and strict quality specifications. Weihrauch has long-standing relationships with these stock suppliers and visits them frequently. Northern Italy is just a few hours drive from Bavaria on the Autobahn.
Weihrauch Airgun Factory People
This company invests in its people. Weihrauch implements paternalism in its finest sense.
Below. Left to right: Thilo Schallenkammer, Felix Weihrauch, Hans Weihrauch.
For example, there’s a 3 1/2-year apprenticeship training scheme that’s supervised by the company’s training instructor. Newly qualified apprentices go on to more senior roles within the company, are presented with certificates and a special gift. Felix Weihrauch himself took an apprenticeship at his family company, just as his father Hans had before.
A huge payoff from this approach is employee loyalty. At the time of my visit, Weihrauch had 130 employees. The average years of service was 15. Yes, FIFTEEN YEARS. That’s incredible!
A quick calculation tells us that the company workforce brings a total of well over THREE MILLION hours of experience through those factory doors every day. Those three million plus hours of experience are reflected in the quality of every Weihrauch airgun you buy.
Weihrauch Airgun Factory Tour Summary
For me, it was a great privilege to have visited the Mellrichstadt factory. Seeing is believing and I hope that this post will convey something of the background behind the company’s products.
Below. General view from the road and main entrance.
To repeat, the Weihrauch factory was as I had expected, only even better!
This visit made me compare Weihrauch to the kitchen of a gourmet restaurant. There’s that same laser focus on consistent, repeatable quality that’s the product of outstanding people, skilled craftsmanship and great design. Plus top-quality materials and a profound understanding of their origin and provenance.
It’s obvious why Weihrauch airguns deliver exceptional performance and last pretty-well for ever…
Finally, I would like to thank Felix Weihrauch and Thilo Schallenkammer for being my tour guides, together with Hans Weihrauch who joined us for discussion afterwards.
The post Let’s Visit The Weihrauch Airgun Factory appeared first on Hard Air Magazine.
.....AEAC just dropped an excellent video from Weihrauch as well. 
