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

[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]

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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.

[I. J.]

What! No mention of the factories Vulcan gas ram? https://imgur.com/Q0SwjIY Shame on you.

ATB
Ian

[greenwayjames]

The secret behind the first full power Webley lay in the patented piston head used in the Vulcan. This was the work of the then technical director Harold Resuggan who later became MD. This was a composite head using PTFE with a recess and a soft buffer between it and the piston. The idea was that pressure would push the PTFE head towards the piston reducing the volume of the recess. A double whammy. To get the most from anew Vulcan it was best to dry fire the rifle a couple of times to size the PTFE head to the chamber.
Whether it workedor not is open to debate but certainly the Vulcan I bought was way more powerful that my MK3 and the pathetic output of the Hawk which used a composite piston ring.

[I. J.]

I did read, I dont know whether it was advertising bumf or not, that they had to modify the production of the later Mark 1s due to them becoming very close if not exceeeding the U.K. m.e. levels.
I do remember on the rare occasions I put mine (Mk 1 .177) over a chrono (which was at M/c Air Guns - not even all gun shops had a chrono in those days) it was very close to the legal limit.
Great rifles - pity about the trigger and barrel wobble.

ATB
Ian

[landymick]

Its worth mentioning that the lettering on the MK1 that is on top of the cylinder is a larger font than the MK11.

[Gareth W-B]

The secret behind the first full power Webley lay in the patented piston head used in the Vulcan. This was the work of the then technical director Harold Resuggan who later became MD. This was a composite head using PTFE with a recess and a soft buffer between it and the piston. The idea was that pressure would push the PTFE head towards the piston reducing the volume of the recess. A double whammy . To get the most from a new Vulcan it was best to dry fire the rifle a couple of times to size the PTFE head to the chamber.

Whether it worked or not is open to debate but certainly the Vulcan I bought was way more powerful than my MK3 and the pathetic output of the Hawk which used a composite piston ring.

Another mind boggling piece of extra info on the Vulcan to ad to the list. Thank you.

[dayglowfroggy]

How do I get the barrel pivot pin back through at the same time as push the barrel catch pin against the very stiff spring to expose the cut out ?

I was feeling pleased with myself having got the trigger back together ,though not actually tested yet since I cant get the barrel back on .

[Gareth W-B]

What! No mention of the factories Vulcan gas ram? https://imgur.com/Q0SwjIY Shame on you.

ATB
Ian

Show off !!! (thanks for showing us your legendary factory prototype my fine friend: appreciated ) ...