Hammerli Forge H1 22 5"
- Graham Baates
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
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A 31oz, steel-framed, Swiss-branded, German-made, American 1911 chambered in .22lr for about $200. If that intrigued you as much as it did me this is a pistol you'll want to take a look at. When I first saw that description I wondered who Hammerli was, and immediately got curious about a 30oz 5" 22lr. For the price I couldn't resist and so decided to take a chance and ordered one.
What is it? The description above covers most of it, but the listing I saw called it Walther-Hammerli and that gave me both hopes this could be a precise and fun little gun, but also concerns that it might be an Umarex product. Umarex owns Walther and Hammerli and while Walther-made guns are fantastic, there is a notable difference in feel in the guns manufactured not at Walther's facilities, but at Umarex's. Umarex is a big maker of air guns from leisure to serious-grade, but I've always felt a difference in Umarex-made Walthers. Hammerli is a Swiss company dating back to 1863 that now finds itself under the Umarex family of brands. What does any of that have to do with a 1911 or a .22lr? I don't know, but was willing to chance it.
Who's it for? The Hammerli Forge H1's steel frame and full size makes it either an adult pistol, or one for training youth with something that handles like a standard firearm. The inclusion of a railed dust cover permits for accessorizing, but lack of optics cut leans more towards traditionalists. The trigger is a bit of a miss of what a 1911 could be; erring on the heavy side likely in the name of safety. This mismatch reminds me a bit of the Springfield Prodigy which seems to have tired to pick up an attribute from each of directions a gun could go and ended up not excelling at any of them.
Take a look at the Hammerli Forge H1 in the tabletop video below to see more mixed feelings. Rumble Link
Specifications
Caliber: .22 LR
Action: Recoil Operated (direct blowback)
Trigger: Single Action
Magazine Capacity: 12
Magazines Included: 2
Length: 8.7"
Height: 5.39"
Width: 1.34"
Barrel Length: 5"
Weight w/o magazine: 31.1oz
Safeties: Manual Safety, Beavertail Safety, Loaded Chamber Indicator
MSRP: ?
Prices Around the web as of 10NOV25
click links for current pricing
Curious to know if I had snatched up a fun plinker at a great price, or been snatched by a sale I hit the range for the standard GBGuns range protocol. With .22 LR semi-autos What's For Dinner was potentially going to be extra interesting. I've also learned my old Remington bucket of Golden Bullets was a gamble so I picked up some CCI Mini Mags as a basic range load.
Cold Shots: Truly my first shots through the gun.
Full Magazine +1: Suprisingly some modern guns still struggle with this. It's a test of how much play is in the magazine as well as how the slide cycles with pressure. This is also when I do my best to learn the trigger. With aged magazines there is no promise.
What's For Dinner™: A test to see what ammunition the gun will eat. Does the gun feed the round from slide lock, will it cycle and feed another round of the same type, does the slide lock to the rear on empty, and is there any notable point of impact change with different loads.
For this gun the following ammunition was used:
Priced and linked where found at the time this article was written
36gr Remington Viper $5.58 / 50 at Classic Firearms
33gr Remington Yellow Jacket $5.96 /50 at Classic Firearms
40gr CCI Mini Mag CPRN $9.99 / 100 at GrabaGun
40gr CCI Mini Mag SHP $10.44 / 100 at Classic Firearms
40gr Federal Game Shock $4.66 / 50 at Classic Firearms
40gr Aguila Super Extra LRN Off market?
38gr Aguila Interceptor $7.83 / 50 at Global Ordnance
40gr Aguila Super Extra CPRN $32.75 / 500 at Classic Firearms
??gr SK Rifle Off market?
40gr SK Match $91.99 / 500 at Target Sports USA
20gr Aguila Super Calibri $6.43 / 50 at Target Sports USA
60gr Aguila Super Subsonic Off market?
Range Ammo was 40gr CCI Mini Mag RN and 36gr Remington Golden Bullet Bucket of Bullets $99.62 / 1400 at Global Ordnance
Sights & Trigger Control: The usual spinner was not going to budge for a .22 LR pistol so I brought along a tired old pendulum target.
Practical Accuracy: Five shots from a distance of seven yards at a one inch target. This isn't so much about printing a tight group as it is a culmination of the shooting experience and time for to collect thoughts prior to making a conclusion.
After Shots: Final impressions and reflections from the range session.
Watch the process in the Shooting Impressions video below. Rumble Link in case YouTube deletes the below.
On the Range I couldn't help but smile a few times. Aside from slide mass, it feels like a regular 1911 in hand. The trigger's a bit heavier than I'd like, but then "pop" a little .22 LR goes off. Not only is it fun to shoot, but quite accurate with a couple of the loads stacking nicely for me in the WFD segment.
My fun continued as I found the Hammerli Forge H1 had no trouble eating my troubled Remington Bucket of Bullets (produce by Remingtron before the bankruptcy and rebranding, not current production) that few guns seem to like. This is a fun little pistol and someday when I've got the time I may dig deeper into it and see if I can do something about that trigger weight. Even just shaving 2lbs off of it would make this more fun, but as seen in the video by the end I didn't care too much about the trigger.
Nearing age 70, with never-tiring lifelong joy of plinking .22LR more than half century, (still own 1st High Standard Supermatic Trophy on 1911 steel frame), favorite .22LR semi auto pistol is FN 502 released a few years ago. Fewer feeding/ejecting problems than any previous owned .22LR pistol. Believe it's manufactured by Umarex under contract from FN. More reliable than Walther-brand Umarex .22LR pistols. SAO trigger & RD ready. Better reliability than Ruger Mk IV alloy frame.
I have this gun. I put a SilencerCo Sparrow on it and went to the range. I was nailing 25 and 33 yard steel all day. The CCI Clean 22 Quiet ran flawlessly. This is my official plinker.