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

  1. #61
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    Red face

    Quote Originally Posted by thisisdonald View Post
    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
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  2. #62
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    Quote Originally Posted by dayglowfroggy View Post
    Can anyone tell me how much difference the better trigger would make to my mk2 Vulcan .
    I am really enjoying shooting it since v the rebuild and its challenging to get a good group but is possible.
    I have herd about fitting a different trigger spring and will give that ago as it's free .
    I am shooting it alongside my recently tuned up and restored hw35 and that is, easier to get good groups with but not quite as good as all my other HW rifles .
    I am worried as, soon as I get the, better stuff out I will need the trigger better on the Vulcan though the challenge is good at the moment and the gun shots, so well its a real pussy cat ,I got lucky and found a spring that's a perfect fit to the inside of the piston when compressed also the spring guides I had made up were slightly too large so I sanded them down to an exact fit .
    The aftermarket trigger is actually a Stingray trigger. Stingray triggers are very good. Not as fine tunable as the uk Longbow/Tomahawk or Record but light and crisp.
    Ive had my Vulcan SE tuned and had it fitted with the aftermarket trigger too. Im awaiting its return.
    ATB,
    yana

  3. #63
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    I have used the stingray trigger unit on Vulcans c1 carbines and also on trackers and Ospreys
    My current Osprey hasn't got one because I hardly use it

  4. #64
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    I had a Vulcan Mk2 which i traded for a Mercury S after the article on the Mercury S by Rod Lynton....
    but i dont know.....that Vulcan may have been better...
    There was a lot of fuss regarding the heavy trigger at the time but i had modded mine quite easily with polishing, greasing and Beeman trigger shoe...
    That Mercury S was a good gun though....its weird i havent heard of Vulcans for years before the arrival of this thread..
    I thought i was the only one who liked em....and too embarassed to mention them on the board lol.
    Seems lots of others liked them too.
    I particularly liked the neat snub finish at the receiver and handy safety.

  5. #65
    Gareth W-B's Avatar
    Gareth W-B is offline Retired Mod & Airgun Anorak Extraordinaire
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    Hi clarky, better out the closet than in (lol ) ... Vulcan lovers of the world unite.
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    Done my bit for the BBS: http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....-being-a-mod-… now I’m a game-keeper turned poacher.

  6. #66
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gareth W-B View Post
    ?
    Hi clarky, better out the closet than in (lol ) ... Vulcan lovers of the world unite.
    lol..ok
    It is odd that no one ever mentions them .....

  7. #67
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    Bit more Vulcan love from me .
    Tonight I got a real grip on the trigger started doing one hole groups at 12 yards .
    That's the, standard trigger no mods just me working out the feel for it .
    I had been snapping it as a way to get better groups but I found it does have a predictable let off tonight it just takes a lot of pressure to get there before you let it break.
    So its currently shooting more accurate than my hw35 though its not as good as the rest of my HW springers I used my 99 for the first tine in a while and that's just PCP easy after shooting more challenging springers for a while.
    I used to shoot a .22 then follow up with a .177 and the challenge was to not make the holes bigger .

  8. #68
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    Gareth W-B is offline Retired Mod & Airgun Anorak Extraordinaire
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    Quote Originally Posted by dayglowfroggy View Post

    Tonight I got a real grip on the trigger started doing one hole groups at 12 yards .
    That's the, standard trigger no mods just me working out the feel for it.
    I had been snapping it as a way to get better groups but I found it does have a predictable let off tonight it just takes a lot of pressure to get there before you let it break.
    Perfect outcome. Yep, trial and error is how I came to grips with my remaining Vulcan's standard trigger (have a one of 110 Vulcan SE in .22 which I don't want to divorce from standard in any quarter), too. Am no where near as good a shot as you, however, as on open sights at ten yards (not tried 12), I am content to achieve touching hole clover leaf groups.

    Quote Originally Posted by dayglowftoggy View Post

    I used to shoot a .22 then follow up with a .177 and the challenge was to not make the holes bigger .
    That sounds like real fun, and I'll give that a go sometime, but for me, and so as to get the one hole thing started, I'd need to maybe start at eight yards and move out with progress (and to make it even more interesting, make the follow up open sight rifle my AIRGUNAID SP5 .20 Hunter ). Atb: G.
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  9. #69
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    Seems like a good place to talk about my mk1 Vulcan.
    I've just put it back together after converting it to .20
    I had the gun given when a family friend asked me to have a look at it because it didn't shoot straight.
    Turns out he bought it new in 1980ish. And still had half the original tin of pellets given gratis when he bought it.
    At some point he had lent the gun to a friend who must have had a mishap of the letting go of the barrel during cocking type.
    The skinny barrel had a definite upward bend.
    I explained the situation to him at which point he told me to keep it.
    So I did...
    I got the barrel straight again with brute force and it shot ok.
    I stripped the gun found the internals pretty good as would be expected from the amount of use its had.
    So I turned a delrin Spring guide, relubed the gun and it shoots sweet but accuracy was always average.
    I recently bit the bullet and ordered a HW barrel in .20 from silco.
    MAN the original was stuck in the breech block good.....
    Stuffed the blank in my little Chinese lathe and made it fit the Vulcan breech block.
    I got the barrel and breech block back from being blued on Saturday and built back up Sunday.
    I have to say it feels good with abit more weight up front due to the 16mm barrel and accuracy is pretty good.
    So I'm now the proud owner of the possibly the only mk1 .20 Vulcan???
    Unless someone knows different.
    I'm thinking about fitting shims like HW do around the breech block because since polishing for bluing I'm feeling some slight play.
    Cheers fellas
    Good deals with:
    Dunn220, Leon, Bullcelt, stink£r, u.k.neil, supersharpshoot, william and airgun god, GEORGEY, telgun, Simon P and stubbs4612, Wellhouse0, harpo

  10. #70
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    Gareth W-B is offline Retired Mod & Airgun Anorak Extraordinaire
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    Superb and fascinating account there, Daveo, a .20 Vulcan, eh? Fantastic and thanks for sharing your endeavours with us: much appreciated.
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    Done my bit for the BBS: http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....-being-a-mod-… now I’m a game-keeper turned poacher.

  11. #71
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    Superb... I love it. I hope it is the only. 20 out there!!
    I would etch the details of the calibre change somewhere on the action like Mr potterfield dies at midway... that way in 100 years the story won't be lost!

    Here's a picture of mine. I got given this by my grampa 25 years ago and I treasure it... shot thousands of pellets through it! Just put a prosystem silencer on it thanks to me hsing-eee from Dundee, and am in the process of sorting out the power from it's new gas ram.
    Donald

  12. #72
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    Quote Originally Posted by thisisdonald View Post
    Superb... I love it. I hope it is the only. 20 out there!!
    I would etch the details of the calibre change somewhere on the action like Mr potterfield dies at midway... that way in 100 years the story won't be lost!
    I did stamp the cal on the barrel just like Webley had done all those years before......
    Wonky!
    The woodwork on mine is much plainer than yours,
    You've got posh white spacers....
    I love these guns because they are so easy to work on and cheap to buy.
    Good deals with:
    Dunn220, Leon, Bullcelt, stink£r, u.k.neil, supersharpshoot, william and airgun god, GEORGEY, telgun, Simon P and stubbs4612, Wellhouse0, harpo

  13. #73
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    http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....ght=Vulawkocet

    I assembled one from bits I found.
    A fella I work with still shoots it.
    Like I said great to work on.
    Good deals with:
    Dunn220, Leon, Bullcelt, stink£r, u.k.neil, supersharpshoot, william and airgun god, GEORGEY, telgun, Simon P and stubbs4612, Wellhouse0, harpo

  14. #74
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    Gareth W-B is offline Retired Mod & Airgun Anorak Extraordinaire
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    Bump back TTT for the attention of BBS member StephenJH. Atb: G.
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    Done my bit for the BBS: http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....-being-a-mod-… now I’m a game-keeper turned poacher.

  15. #75
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    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!
    Last edited by StephenJH; 19-11-2017 at 10:46 PM. Reason: trigger / guard replacement details added

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