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. I was for a while, their top-of-the-range sporting rifle, the Osprey being the fixed barrel rifle for the target shooter.

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.
Trigger is narrow, something that would be easily improved by a shoe. BSA managed a nice wide blade on the Meteor, and that was even cheaper than the Hawk.


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...