Hammerli Force B1
Straight-pull Rifle Review

The Hammerli Force B1 .22 Straight Pull Rifle is the arithmetic mean between utility gun and art. Made in Germany to exacting specifications, the Force B1 is a straight pull, manually operated repeater easily convertible between .22LR and .22 Win Mag. The gun feeds from a 10-round rotary magazine and features a lovely ergonomic stock with rubber inlays readily adjustable for length of pull and comb height.

The manual straight-pull action means you are moving the gun’s action yourself. Dead rounds, dirty conditions or the phase of the moon, you just drive the Force B1 right through the storm. The right-sided action lever locks solidly in place. Running this nifty rig is a fresh new experience, even for a seasoned gun nerd like me.

Mechanical Philosophy

When I was a newly minted Army aviator, we needed a new car. We actually needed a minivan or a four-door sedan, something sensible getting decent gas mileage and would hold us in good stead should God bless us with little ones. Screw that. What I got was a brand new 5.0-liter Mustang GT.

That thing got ghastly mileage and was actually faster than some of the combat aircraft I flew at the time. It didn’t have a great deal of cargo space and the back seat was designed for legless amputees. However, it was loud, and it was fast. That souped-up Mustang was the ultimate Army Aviation lieutenant-mobile.

In addition to the obligatory power seats and tricked-out interior, I needed to choose a transmission. While automotive technology had long since advanced to the point where an automatic transmission could be considered perfected, I nonetheless coveted a manual stick. This would make the car tougher to manage at a stoplight on an incline, but it offered a more visceral connection to the machine. The argument could be made all proper sports cars deserve a stick shift. When it comes to sexy, high-performance vehicles, it’s really the only way to drive.

On a certain primal level, the Hammerli Force B1 .22 Straight Pull Rifle resonates similarly. Ruger will sell you a simply spanking Ruger 10/22 that is the end result of half a century’s worth of mechanical refinement. The 10/22 is sleek, lightweight and fun. However, as the mechanical objective requires taking a certain amount of recoil energy and using it to cycle the action, there will always be a potential for failure. By contrast, the Hammerli Force B1 .22 Straight Pull Rifle is pure 100% human muscle.

Details

The Force B1 actually esoterically resembles a 10/22. It accepts standard Ruger 10-round magazines fitted with a curious adaptor on the back end. The rifle comes with one complete Ruger factory magazine assembly as well as two more adaptors should you wish to move some of your other Ruger mags over.

The barrel is readily removeable via the most fascinating mechanism. Imagine the bayonet fitting on an air compressor. Retract the bolt, pull the knurled collar back to release pressure on a series of ball bearings and the barrel slides right out. The end result is fast, easy and convenient.

Thanks to this quick-change barrel system, it is a simple chore to swap tubes out between .22LR and .22 Win Mag. This is why the magazine well is oversized. Without an adaptor, the well accepts standard Ruger Win Mag magazines. The muzzle is threaded standard 1/2×28 to accept a sound suppressor. The trigger assembly is also interchangeable with that of the little Ruger plinker if optimized aftermarket fire control groups are your bag.

There is a pushbutton crossbolt safety that works just as you might imagine. The bilateral magazine release is a pivoting lever just ahead of the trigger guard. The top of the receiver sports the obligatory Picatinny rail for optics, while the bottom of the forearm includes M-LOK slots for a bipod.

The buttstock is just neat. The rubber cheek rest is soft and comfortable, while there are also areas of checkering cut strategically into the pistol grip and forearm for solid purchase. The six-position stock slides out to adjust for length with the push of a button. However, when fully extended, this thing is scaled to fit the Philistine giant Goliath. The rifle fit me fine with the stock collapsed. Reversing the cheek riser adjusts the comb height. What’s really exotic, however, is the generous right-sided action lever.

Manual Mechanicals

I was a mechanical engineer my first of five careers. I really like physics. The Hammerli Force B1 .22 Straight Pull Rifle is just dirty with it.

The bolt does what all firearm bolts do, stripping a round out of the magazine and pushing it up into the chamber. However, in place of a recoil spring and charging handle, there is this mechanical toggle linkage connected to an ample T-shaped handle. This handle drives a two-part mechanism designed to amplify mechanical advantage and make for a smooth, painless operating cycle.

Once you manually cycle the action over a live round, you press the operating handle forward to drop it into battery. There’s a red dot visible if the action is not fully locked. You can readily feel the linkage assembly snap positively in place.

There is no mechanical disconnector in the firing mechanism. This means the gun could theoretically fire with the bolt unlocked. However, pay even minimal attention to what you are doing and you’ll be fine.

This is a .22 rifle and it doesn’t take a great deal of effort to operate the action. The test rifle was a bit stiff at the beginning but soon found its tempo, loosening up nicely in the first 50 rounds. While the Force B1 is still slightly more work-intensive than an autoloader like a 10/22, there are some very real benefits as well.

Ruminations

Swapping out between .22LR and .22 Win Mag involves nothing more than exchanging the barrel and the magazine. If you need a bit more reach and some enhanced downrange thump, this should do it. The Force B1 would make a superb top-end starter rifle for the young shooter in your stable. The stock can grow as needed through the years, and the manual action encourages precision over profligate ammo expenditure. Additionally, the gun’s innate accuracy potential makes it a superb learning rifle as well as a fine utility tool.

I have been doing this since 1991. If I had a dime for every whiz-bang rifle that knocked my socks off yet cost more than my first car, I’d have a lot of dimes. By contrast, the MSRP for the Force B1 is $649. While I was typing these very words, I got an email blast from a major distributor offering the gun at $531 cash. Considering the level of quality and engineering going into this puppy, that seems pretty reasonable. Fun, quirky, accurate, quiet and cool, the Walther Arms Hammerli Force B1 .22 straight pull rifle is a different sort of utility gun.

HammerliArms.com

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