The Webley & Scott Vulcan Air Rifle -- A Vox-Pop History

[Blackrider]

Great thread Gareth !
I've had two Mk. III K's in .22 Cal. And I really rated them. I used the first for general pest control in farms,
factories and industrial premises to good effect.
My Mate used a BSA Lightning at the time and as we shot together, we would "compete" for the best shot.
Fond and happy memories for a smashing British spring air rifle ! An illustrious member on here and good friend (Johnbaz) now owns my second Vulcan .22 k these days and he may show you a picture ?

[Gareth W-B]

Great thread Gareth.

Thank you good Sir.

[Roundshot]

Happy recollections indeed of the early Vulcan, particularly Paul SE's nice photos which remind me of the .177" I bought as a teenager in 1980, shot my first rabbit lamping on open sights in North Yorkshire.....then got rid in favour of Weihrauch.

The varnish wore off the stock fore end revealing blonde beechwood, the barrel wobbled side to side in the breech jaws, the trigger was quite awful.

As I recall it was skillfully marketed and certainly appealed to a patriotic boy like me who wanted a British gun. Cheaper than the HW35 and Original 45 as well.

But as a workhorse gun, an inferior offering I've always thought.

[Mach 1.5]

Nice thread Sir. Richard North used to use a Vulcan back in the day when we used to had speed shots at good old fashioned FT shoots. Yep showing my age. Mach 1.5

[hwtyger]

I still very much doubt the max total of 110 produced for the Vulcan SE.
You see them far too often for that. They were listed for sale from 1980 upto 1984. Thats way too long for 110 pieces.
It might be that the late Series 1 SE's were limited to 110 but I dont think the Series 2 were limited to 110.
Pitty its nowhere to trace exactly, as the webley bible isnt very clear about it either, the 110 sentence only speaks of the Series 1

[thisisdonald]

I've had loads of Vulcan of every variant.. Probably my most favourite all time gun... I now only have a mk3 left.
I would like to add that I think the 'open breech' design is superior to the closed design of most break barrels. It makes it easier to load, and easier to identify and replace damaged breech seals. The trigger on all Vulcan and Victor can easily be improved by using a weaker spring in the trigger - with a little searching, a simple click pen spring does the job. This improves the trigger no end. Also a note to anyone wanting to spruce up a Vulcan variant - get yourself an Aussie red parachute seal! These are a great improvement over the PTFE ring and give a much softer shot cycle.

[MDriskill]

A significant difference in the Victor action was the flat faced rear breech plug, instead of the rounded Vulcan type, also it originally retained the 14mm barrel and short front sight of the Vulcan I.

A notable change in the Vulcan III was the cast trigger blade, which had a wider ribbed face.

The C1 was a straight Victor action with the barrel further shortened, but later versions acquired a safety, 16mm barrel, and ribbed trigger (which IMHO greatly improved the handling of the cute but wrist-wrecking straight grip stock).

[Gareth W-B]

A significant difference in the Victor action was the flat faced rear breech plug, instead of the rounded Vulcan type, also it originally retained the 14mm barrel and short front sight of the Vulcan I.

A notable change in the Vulcan III was the cast trigger blade, which had a wider ribbed face.

The C1 was a straight Victor action with the barrel further shortened, but later versions acquired a safety, 16mm barrel, and ribbed trigger (which IMHO greatly improved the handling of the cute but wrist-wrecking straight grip stock).

Some great extra info for this on-going thread, there, so many thanks. Atb: G.

[Gareth W-B]

I still very much doubt the max total of 110 produced for the Vulcan SE.
You see them far too often for that. They were listed for sale from 1980 upto 1984. Thats way too long for 110 pieces.
It might be that the late Series 1 SE's were limited to 110 but I dont think the Series 2 were limited to 110.
Pitty its nowhere to trace exactly, as the webley bible isnt very clear about it either, the 110 sentence only speaks of the Series 1

Hi. Yes, the 'Special Edition' (SE) variants were limited to what we now know as the series one Vulcan, but sorry, to say there may have been more than 110 is quite quite wrong. Here is why. As stated, each version of the Vulcan (I, II, and III) came with a walnut stocked Deluxe version. They also all came as a Custom version, too ...

From the Series II Vulcan onwards, the aforementioned Custom Versions were also called the 'Special Export' model. This got abbreviated by the trade to SE.

This is where the confusion comes in, as the ORIGINAL Vulcan SE was the Special Edition model, and as stated in the opening post, ALL Special Edition examples have their own specific serial number range starting with a nine (9) and there were only ever 110 of these manufactured.

All the Vulcan Special Export variants have serial numbers which slot straight in to the running sequence of serial numbers, and run into their thousands. Hope this clarifies and helps: G.

.

[Gareth W-B]

^^^^^^^ ref the post as above ^^^^^^^

In view of the motivation behind me starting this thread (amalgamating many months of random post info from yours truly on the Vulcan, into one coherent post/thread opener) for ease of referencing and continued clarity, am going to copy the salient parts of the post immediately above to the relevant section of the opening post on this thread, so if you are reading this thread after the event, you haven't gone mad, your not experiencing de ja vu, and this isn't Groundhog Day. You are all okay.

[Gareth W-B]

.
For more info etc on the Special Edition Vulcan, please see page # 125 of Chris Thrale's most wonderful book Webley Air Rifles 1925 - 2005.

[johnbaz]

Great thread Gareth !
I've had two Mk. III K's in .22 Cal. And I really rated them. I used the first for general pest control in farms,
factories and industrial premises to good effect.
My Mate used a BSA Lightning at the time and as we shot together, we would "compete" for the best shot.
Fond and happy memories for a smashing British spring air rifle ! An illustrious member on here and good friend (Johnbaz) now owns my second Vulcan .22 k these days and he may show you a picture ?

I somehow missed this thread!!

My Vulcan KS from B'rider, 'Tis a lovely little thing!

It has a stubby little moderator fitted in this pic..



John

[thisisdonald]

That's a cracker John... Is that one of those smk scopes that came out then seemed to disappear? I heard they were excellent

[johnbaz]

That's a cracker John... Is that one of those smk scopes that came out then seemed to disappear? I heard they were excellent

Hi Donald

I think it's an AGS scope although I can't remember for sure, Not had the rifle out in ages

I had an SMK scope on a rifle and was shooting it down the garden, After turning the elevation knob to lower the poi, Nothing happened!! I tapped the scope on top and it dropped then!!



John