Senior won't cock.

[0liver]

Hello,

I have recently become fascinated by old Webley pistols and wish to start collecting them.
I always seem to just miss the guns advertised on here, so today, I went to a gun auction and bought a Senior . . . I had never seen one in the flesh before, just countless photographs, it's lovely.

I was overjoyed until I got home and tried it . . . as the title says; it won't cock.
It just makes a little click at the point at which it should.
The outside condition of the gun seems very good, though.

I will read the idiots guide to stripping, but before I do does anyone have any advice ?

Thank you

[Mr. Gen]

Hello,

I have recently become fascinated by old Webley pistols and wish to start collecting them.
I always seem to just miss the guns advertised on here, so today, I went to a gun auction and bought a Senior . . . I had never seen one in the flesh before, just countless photographs, it's lovely.

I was overjoyed until I got home and tried it . . . as the title says; it won't cock.
It just makes a little click at the point at which it should.
The outside condition of the gun seems very good, though.

I will read the idiots guide to stripping, but before I do does anyone have any advice ?

Thank you

Fulcrum point at the front of the chamber may be worn away to the point where the sear won't engage........

[Big Seth]

The cocking linkage can stretch a little. I once swapped the whole barrel and linkage from a donor gun when mine no longer cocked after countless pellets through it, worked perfectly afterwards.

[ggggr]

Hello,

I have recently become fascinated by old Webley pistols and wish to start collecting them.
I always seem to just miss the guns advertised on here, so today, I went to a gun auction and bought a Senior . . . I had never seen one in the flesh before, just countless photographs, it's lovely.

I was overjoyed until I got home and tried it . . . as the title says; it won't cock.
It just makes a little click at the point at which it should.
The outside condition of the gun seems very good, though.

I will read the idiots guide to stripping, but before I do does anyone have any advice ?

Thank you

Best way of checking it is to part strip it and take the barrel and linkage off as well as the mainspring out. Then use a screw driver or similar to move the piston back to see if the trigger will engage properly and hold if you push the piston. If it doesn't then it is a worn sear (unlikely think),broken trigger spring (again unlikely as they are a pretty well made thing) or the ring on the piston that the sear engages on is worn. I had the later on a Mk1 pistol and someone cleaned up the ring on a lathe. If it does cook like this then replace the linkage and barrel but not the mainspring and try cocking it now. If it does not engage properly now then it is likely to be a worn linkage. This could be the small link worn (most likely) or pin holes have stretched on the linkages. If the small link looks worn on the side that cocks the piston, you can try to remove and reverse the link, which should be a cure for now.If it doen,t, look at the fulcrum point. If it is none of the above then maybe the mainspring is too long and getting coil bound? I hope that helps.

[Josie & John]

Excellent advice from ggggr. One more thing to check is whether the sear has been fitted the correct way round. If the wrong way, it won't cock.

Good luck, the Senior is a nice pistol.

John

[0liver]

Success . . . but I don't know how.
Thank you everybody for your sage words.

I checked what Big Seth and Mr.Gen suggested but it looked fine.

It was so easy to strip.
I went through the steps that gggr suggested and it seemed ok at all of the stages but was very dry and scritchy though and also I found out that the Barrel joint stop screw is missing; (is that why there is a little play in the barrel joint ? )

Anyhoo, after oiling and re-assembling it works.

I've only fired it once due to the missing screw. ( I'm assuming that I could damage it without the screw in place.)

I've looked online for parts and a place called Chambers has none in stock.

If anyone knows another source or has a spare one please let me know.

Thanks.

0liver


PS
I can't stop picking it up; it's so delightfully heavy.

[Troubledshooter]

If it hadn't been used in a while, old dried out lubricant could have prevented the sear from moving freely, and by stripping it you may have cured the problem.
A few drops of oil will keep it functioning.
The missing barrel joint keeper screw won't affect it's usability, as long as you ensure the keeper screw is tightened.
Some months ago I sold a few pivot screws and keepers, but I don't have any spare keeper screws, only pivots.

[0liver]

Dear Troubledshooter,

That would explain it.
Also your advice about the keeper screw has set my mind at rest; tomorrow I can have fun firing the Senior.

Thank you.

[0liver]

Hello again,

I tried it this morning and it fired once and then it would not cock again.

I stripped it again and by now my tiny brain has grasped the workings of the action.

It is so near cocking that if I pull the trigger as the piston ring goes over the sear it will stay cocked.

I changed the small link around; no joy.

Yesterday when I followed grrr's instruction, I somehow missed the step of reassembling without the mainspring and trying to cock it; it does cock this way.

So according to him, and this post that I have just found, it seems as if it is the mainspring.
http://webleyoc.8forum.info/t483-web...ior-won-t-cock

, which works out a lot less expensive than replacing the linkage parts.

Hooray! and, again, thank you everyone for all the information.

[ashf9999]

Well done for getting it working. You'll get many years of pleasure from it