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

[StephenJH]

Gareth W-B advised me to paste this here for your information.

My first rifle was a Vulcan MKII. It cost £87.50 (18/09/1985) (+ pellets £1.85) and is still going strong, though there are a few mods to make that I've not gotten round to. But it is in .25 calibre I had it converted by Venom circa 1990. For £50 I got a new .25 barrel (BSA?) with a new breech block (threaded so the barrel could be removed) and a lovely venom silencer threaded on the end, not 1/2 UNF some other much tighter thread. In the end of the silencer was a brass plug and there was also a brass 'ring' around the breech of the barrel with a small indentation underneath for the barrel to rest against the breech pin. I still have all the paperwork for this conversion, just not accessible right now.

I was over the moon and considered it a bargain even then. Looking into the new .25 barrel was like looking into the void after shooting .22 for 6 years or more and thumbing home a Rhino (which worked best) almost took me back to army days, it simply seemed HUGE! I never shot long-range, preferring to stalk and get close, so I never noticed any particular drop in trajectory or had an issue like that. Rabbits were somersaulted and squirrels dropped like stones. Years later I got a Combro and realised why

Corrected, it still shot well and put many a meal on the plate. Other modifications included replacing the pin underneath on the cocking lever, as it had worn the cylinder, with tiny rollers. Gerald Cardew did that and they worked well too, but I think they may also be flattened in places now too. Bowkett sold replacement breech seals and I believe one is still in there, they were red and slightly harder than the usual Webley replacements. Cardew also threaded a breech bolt, replacing the original pin completely, and sinking them into the side walls of the breech jaws, having removed some of the steel there. These worked well at first but would eventually work loose. The barrel was held in place by the tiniest of grub screws, allen headed, but I know this has now split and is one of the jobs I need to get around to sorting.

Internally Titan XS springs were the usual replacements, but they were probably way too much for the Vulcan really. Bowkett sold spring washers and I'm sure there are still two in there behind my lopped Titan spring. A simple metal sheet was purchased from some business in an Airgun magazine I can't recall (Tawn?), and this became the piston sleeve. A genuine replacement Webley parachute type washer was installed on the piston - but after this the barrel, when opened would fall far further before engaging the piston to cock than it used to with the original PTFE and neoprene washer fitted. I never looked into why. The original metal spring guide was replaced with a new plastic one when the MKIII came out, but I preferred the polished metal MKII version and went back to using that.

From this BBS I purchased a Stingray (original) stock for about £15 IIRC and fitted that to the Vulcan. The only modification required was to Dremel space for the replacement breech bolt that now jutted out further than the pin that used to 'hold' the jaws. The stock bolts were replaced with Venom allen head bolts and with brass cups for the fore end, but I think these went by the way side and have been replaced with genuine replacements, possibly as a result of changing the stock. Over the years the bolt threads wore away in the cylinder end (slightly) and below the trigger group (a lot). Cardew had a great fix for this and simply welded a nut under the trigger within which the bolt would thread. Problem solved.

The new Stingray stock required a new trigger guard and a straightforward Stingray one piece replacement was fitted (I also have a 'gold plated' version purchased after, but it's never been fitted and I'm not sure why I didn't get around to doing that!). The original Vulcan MKII trigger guard had also been replaced with a Venom created replica in brass which was very nice. As the original stock was dumped it served no purpose and I 'lightened my load' by selling it on the BBS or AG Forum. The original MKII trigger was replaced with a MKIII version which was more comfortable, wider, grooved and looked better. It also meant the trigger was now two-stage - although from memory it's not a true two-stage trigger, but gives the feeling it is, either way it was an improvement.

Those are all the mods from memory. I still have a new Webley adjustable but pad to fit at some point and the whole thing needs a good servicing, but with half my life spent overseas it's finding the time to keep up with everything that's the challenge. Now when I look at the rifle, in my possession since 1985, I have a lot of fond memories of the times we spent together, the bluing is still deep and there are scrapes and scratches here and there, some of which I recall doing, but then if I start to count the original parts left it's only really the cylinder block, cylinder end, cocking lever and piston that are original!

If they were looked after, Vulcan's were simple, effective and more than capable of 'bringing home the bacon'. It was years before I used a pcp, or bought another rifle but I'd never sell the Vulcan - even at the prices I see them sold for now! I also have a Skan R32 in .22 with an extended barrel and an outstanding silencer project for that... the days just aren't long enough!