Weird Webley - or is it me...

[laverdabru]

Last year I bought a boxed late Tempest .177 from the small ads at the back of one of the airgun mags. Couldn't believe my luck, not a mark, original paperwork, I'd phoned about 6 weeks after the mag had come out, still available, mine for £65.
Then I tried shooting it. At 6 yards, holding it 2 handed, it was about 4" to the right of the bull, even with the rear sight moved to the full extent of it's travel.
Fitted a set of the excellent walnut grips - as I do to all my Wobbleys - available from a gent on here. No difference.
Put it back into the box.
Due to a degenerative right shoulder condition, haven't done much pistol shooting this year. Today, thought I'd break out the Tempest & give it another go. No change, still 4" out at 6 yards. Tried all the tricks, checking my breath control, same grip, follow through, various types of pellet - no difference.
Then, (due to pain in my shoulder) I held the gun in my right hand, resting it (& I suppose taking the weight) on my extended left wrist. Hit where I was aiming for. As did the next 10 shots 'cloverleafing' apart from a couple slightly off.
At a guess, my arms being slightly bent in this position might have absorbed some of the recoil. Webley pistols are a law unto themselves!

Bru

[Muskett]

Must get mine out. Both my Tempests, one in each calibre, shoot well off the the right. I think its the spring twist in the hand. The smoother they are the less they go to the right. At plinking ranges they are accurate.
I think you will find that whatever you are doing is putting a correction that equalises the twist when free hand shooting.

[pjbingham]

I have found the same,.22 Tempest with less than 50 shots through it is way off to the right,.177 with thousands through it shoots to the right but to less of a degree. Up until now I just put it down to my rubbish shooting.

[Shed tuner]

try fitting a softer/weaker spring...

[laverdabru]

Good, so it's not just me! Thanks for the thoughts.
I've got Hurricanes in .22 & .177, & some older Webleys, but none have such a bias to the right as my .177 Tempest.
Thinking about it, when I'm using the gun held in my right hand, & rested on my left wrist, the right fore end of the pistol is against the l/hand side of my watch - possibly stopping a 'twitch' to the right on firing?
Hmm.

[gingernut]

Webley air pistols prefer to be shot one handed.
In my experience.
Doesnt make them accurate ,just more accurate.

[Dan944]

I also have found my .22 tempest the hardest of all my air weapons to shoot, and I have some real nice custom mango wood target grips made for it and still feels very jumpy although smooth if that makes sense.

It is one pistol that I find fascinating to try and shoot accurately becuase its so difficult, and its one that I always love to pick up and try again every now and then.

Jon what spring would you suggest I could buy?

I'm still yet to have a little fettle with this in polishing the trigger sears Ect which I think would help accuracy as the triggers are not the lightest even though the trigger shoe I've fitted helps quite a lot.

Atb
Daniel

[Abasmajor]

Last year I bought a boxed late Tempest .177 from the small ads at the back of one of the airgun mags. Couldn't believe my luck, not a mark, original paperwork, I'd phoned about 6 weeks after the mag had come out, still available, mine for £65.
Then I tried shooting it. At 6 yards, holding it 2 handed, it was about 4" to the right of the bull, even with the rear sight moved to the full extent of it's travel.
Fitted a set of the excellent walnut grips - as I do to all my Wobbleys - available from a gent on here. No difference.
Put it back into the box.
Due to a degenerative right shoulder condition, haven't done much pistol shooting this year. Today, thought I'd break out the Tempest & give it another go. No change, still 4" out at 6 yards. Tried all the tricks, checking my breath control, same grip, follow through, various types of pellet - no difference.
Then, (due to pain in my shoulder) I held the gun in my right hand, resting it (& I suppose taking the weight) on my extended left wrist. Hit where I was aiming for. As did the next 10 shots 'cloverleafing' apart from a couple slightly off.
At a guess, my arms being slightly bent in this position might have absorbed some of the recoil. Webley pistols are a law unto themselves!

Bru

Hello Bru,

I can't say I have heard of this as a particular trait of the Tempest and given the numbers produced, I would be surprised that I hadn't if it were widespread.

It's probably more down to technique rather than a problem with the gun itself. I bought a couple of mint, boxed Tempests in both calibres a couple of years ago and both shoot to point of aim with the rear sight more or less centralised.

I use H&N Match pellets in my .177 pistol and Hobby in the .22 and can usually hold the black aiming area on an NSRA 10 metre precision target. The .177 is the more accurate and can be consistently grouped into 40mm while the .22 is nearer 50mm.

Being spring powered pistols, mistakes in technique especially, grip, trigger release and follow through are severely punished. Well worth persevering though as it's always that bit more satisfying when things do come together.

As has already been said, accuracy and general handling seem to improve as the spring weakens slightly and the pistol becomes a bit more generally 'run in'.

Regards

Brian

[laverdabru]

Thanks for the further thoughts.
Due to the right shoulder problem, can't really shoot one (right) handed at present - altho' I will have a try left handed.

I have several other Webley pistols, from the Senior on, but none have shown this trait. Interestingly, all except the Tempest are in .22.
I've tried various pellets, but without any great difference - I will give H&N Match a try.

Thanks again

Bru

[wildy]

Hi Bru
Check the barrel is seating properly on the breach seal as I have had a a few that were not and it shifts the point of impact due to the play in the barrel set up.
Great pistols though, got both .177 and .22, the .22 seems more accurate but cant fault either. Built like a tank, perfect grip angle and just "look right".
Stick with it.
I use two hand hold "push pull" grip (push away with right and pull back with left) and found them fairly accurate. Great can bashers.
Wildy