Quote Originally Posted by Hsing-ee View Post
Just aquired one of these in .22 calibre.

I have never liked Webley airguns, although I have owned a couple of Tempests, a Vulcan Mk 1, an Eclipse and even a Webley Service Mk II. I have also shot a Webley Vulcan Mk 2 and Vulcan Mk 3, a Webley Mk 3 underlever as well as a Webley 'Firebolt' which isn't a Webley at all.

I just don't like them. One of the 'worst' Webleys is supposed to be the Webley Hawk Mk 3, which I am now the owner of.

First impressions:

Positives

Surprisingly good quality blueing.
A barrel which seems to be cleanly rifled and well-crowned.
A fore-sight block, which while it is lacking an interchangeable element, has an attractive angular design.
The rear-sight is chunky and easy to use, but made of fragile plastic (chipped and glued by previous owner)
Stock sits nicely in the hands and is spot-on for the open sights. Full, strong pistol grip feels good in the hand and places the pad of the index finger in the right place on the trigger.
End-cap design gives an attractive curve to the rear of the action, like that on an Airsporter or Mercury, and the overall impression is quite elegant and 'porpoise/dolphin' like.
Breech lock-up seems very solid.
Trigger welds seem solid enough for the moment.

Negatives

Cocking lever secured by a roll-pin to the breech block. Is this an original fasterner, because it looks like a scrimping bodge.
Stock retaining screws are nasty cheap Phillips headed jobs, similar to that used on modern-day Chinese cheapies.
One side of the back-block retaining pin hole is slightly out of round, a common problem on Hawks.
Safety is a cheap stamping, although possibly no worse than the Feinwerkbau Sport of the period.
Creaking is evident on cocking as the spring has no guide (what WERE they thinking of?).
Lateral movement of the barrel is evident if it is rocked from side to side (classic 'wobbly Webley' issue) although without an accuracy test I cannot tell if this actually causes a problem.


I have not actually test fired it yet either through a chronograph or for accuracy, but I am looking forward to it. I am hoping to work through the rifle and address all the issues and see what it is capable of with all of them 'fixed'.

Having heard the rifle slagged (apart from BTDT) over the years I am surprised at how appealing it is, lightweight, quite good looking and very pointable. It is also much more similar to the first Vulcan rifle than I realised.

As I recently acquired an HW50 of the same vintage, which is a direct competitor to the Hawk III, it will be interesting to see how much difference in performance and 'useability' there really is between the 'down to a price Hawk' and the classic German engineering 50. I've got a feeling that after a bit of fettling they won't be that different...
I think that the Vulcan was just a Hawk Mk3 with a 2mm bigger diameter cylinder? Anyhow, Mick tuned his hawk, machining up the piston head etc, but got an increase in power just by sleeving the transfer port. Other than that, I'd go for a BSA Meteor Mk1- Mk5 mainspring, as they fit the piston better than the Webley springs, sort out a guide and get rid of the safety slide and sear spring and just use a Victor sear spring instead. I like to use an O ring in the front piston groove and retain one of the ptfe rings in the rear groove (after I tried 2 O rings and found one was pressurising the other and they got hot and the gun would lose power). A very slagged off gun but I don't think they are bad for what they are.
You may come across a later metal rearsight on the bay if you wanted to fit one.