Hammerli Force B1 - Finally a cheap, but nice, 22 PRS gun?

[MarinePMI]

Oh my...

M-Lock foreend, uses 10/22 mags with an adapter plate. Toggle bolt design with easily swappable barrels (clever compression bearing barrel nut design). And an MSRP of $650. Jeez. I think these are going to sell like hotcakes.

 

[MarinePMI]

It's be nice if KRG could modify their 10/22 designed Bravo chassis to fit this...

I have to admit, I had an impulse buy. Just ordered one from Brownells. We'll see how it actually performs in a few weeks.

 

[Fja225]

I’ve got one. Heavy trigger.changed it to Kidd 2 stage ( dropped in just fine). Arken epl4 6x24x50 scope. Can’t get the gun to Shoot under 1 inch at 50 yards ( 5 shoot group ).about 300 rounds down the barrel. Cleaned the barrel ( bore scoped ). Retorqued the scope and action screws. Tried cci standard velocity, sk pistol match, sk rifle match, lapua center x, and Eley match ( black box). Rear bag and sinclare front rest. Anyone having better luck?

 

[MajorD]

Read the American Rifleman review didn’t sound very impressive at all. To me the easy switch barrel screams limited accuracy ( I stand to be corrected if wrong)
while i admit for the most part accuracy costs money, if you look at middle of the road affordable rifles (CZ or Tikka) they do a pretty good job for the money. The next big jump to rifles a bit more expensive like Bergara shows a small increment of performance improvement ( maybe?) then you get to rim X and vudoo which while they undoubtedly perform better, the question becomes are the small incremental improvements worth the money? For some they are others not so much. I started my PRS /NRL22 journey with a humble savage mark II which no one would ever mistake for a refined much better performing rifle ( which I of course now have) but for what it is, I can take the gun, dial my 300 yard dope on it, and still hit 8/10 at a 300 yard 12” steel. Could I go 10/10 with a higher class rifle? Possibly, but technique errors and wind calls and ammo variation could play in my case a bigger part. I guess what I am saying is you do not need a fancy expensive rifle to enjoy this kind of shooting, and sometimes inexpensive is ok at times.

 

[Fja225]

Here I thought Hammerli was a decent gun. I have a 215 and a x-esse pistol by them. Great shooting guns. Fantastic triggers out of the box and hold a 10 ring if you do your part. What got me was the tougle action. Kinda like a iszmash biathalon ( I have one). The hammerli action is about 3/4 inch to far forward to work correctly. Easy to fix. The part that holds the barrel in place is kinda like a airquip hose fitting. About the same setup as a anschutz fortner ( biathalon action ). I thought if it locks up the bolt it should lock up the barrel. I have 2 anschutz rifles. A 1600 series ( x barrel ) and a 20 series in an aluminum stock. Both position guns. I have a tikka t1x 22lr also. A 9$ spring for the trigger and it shoots in the 3’s at 50 yards with Eley match ( black box ) maybe I guest got lucky with that one. Maybe someone will make a better barrel for it In the future. I was hoping someone else here would have a range report to share.

 

[vaguru]

After reading the review in the American Rifleman, I would never shoot one. Stating that the rifle can fire out of battery is dangerous. Rifle should never be able to do that. I understand the operator has to make sure the bolt is fully forward, but...... I also don't like the "air hose connector" barrel attachment, just my opinion. Shame a quality company puts their name on something like this.

 

[littlesister]

After reading the review in the American Rifleman, I would never shoot one. Stating that the rifle can fire out of battery is dangerous. Rifle should never be able to do that. I understand the operator has to make sure the bolt is fully forward, but...... I also don't like the "air hose connector" barrel attachment, just my opinion. Shame a quality company puts their name on something like this.

You can also add that rotary magazine to the negatives. I don.t see much to like about this gun.

 

[MajorD]

I don’t have much confidence in the idea you need an adapter plate on your mags to make them work either

 

[Cody S]

I think my rifle was like 550 from midway, B22 precision. it shoots fantastic. about 2moa with sk rifle match for 10 shots at 50 yards. got some fancy ammo coming to test this weekend to see if eley tenex or lapua long range works out better.
the bolt throw feels kinda trashy, but the little aluminum chassis is sweet.
ETA also I've had switch barrel desert tech and Accuracy international AX, both of those had excellent return to zero and fantastic precision at 100 yards and beyond... so it can be done.
also both quite expensive...
why would you want a switch barrel 22lr?...

 

[Topstrap]

Handled one a buddy bought. Cycling the action reminded me of opening the rear doors of a semi trailer. No smoothness whatsoever compared to an Izhmash 7-2. Multiple shooters tried shooting it with deplorable accuracy. It went down the road quickly.

Hammerli should be ashamed, it'll fool a lot of people into buying one but anything more than it being a fun pinker with a neat action save your money and find an Izhmash.

Topstrap