Webley Osprey questions please.

[Geoff555]

Good morning all I have a rather rough Osprey it has been badly stored in the damp previous to me owning it and is rusty all down one side, so I have decided to strip and sort, it is difficult to see what the finish should be, where it isn't rusty it is a mottled brown and a small patch of either a very very dark blue or black, what should the finish be please?
The rear skirt of the piston is quite worn but the front piston ring area seems OK, which brings me to the piston rings which are a white flexible plastic (?) with no spring in them and they lie flush with the grooves and have no sideways play in the grooves, I may be wrong but I cant see that they can seal very well, if at all. Over the chrono it was doing about 6.2 ft-lbs.
And lastly, although I have probably forgotten something, should the barrel have a crown this one does not but it does have a raised lip round the edge of the barrel. for protection I guess.

Considering the wear in the piston, what are the chances of getting one, in case it makes a difference it's a .22 .
Thank you very much.
Cheers.
Geoff.

[ggggr]

Good morning all I have a rather rough Osprey it has been badly stored in the damp previous to me owning it and is rusty all down one side, so I have decided to strip and sort, it is difficult to see what the finish should be, where it isn't rusty it is a mottled brown and a small patch of either a very very dark blue or black, what should the finish be please?
The rear skirt of the piston is quite worn but the front piston ring area seems OK, which brings me to the piston rings which are a white flexible plastic (?) with no spring in them and they lie flush with the grooves and have no sideways play in the grooves, I may be wrong but I cant see that they can seal very well, if at all. Over the chrono it was doing about 6.2 ft-lbs.
And lastly, although I have probably forgotten something, should the barrel have a crown this one does not but it does have a raised lip round the edge of the barrel. for protection I guess.

Considering the wear in the piston, what are the chances of getting one, in case it makes a difference it's a .22 .
Thank you very much.
Cheers.
Geoff.

It should be blued----------but I have gone over rough stuff with Plum Brown in the past. I have never seen white piston rings, they are usually impregnated ptfe. Replace the front one with an O ring and keep the rear one just for lube. Pistons are the same for .177 and .22 and do come up on the bay. A Tracker or a viscount one will fit but have a piston washer instead or the rings. A mainspring out of a BSA Meteor Mk1 to Mk5 fits better than a Webley one and even better if you can sort a guide. They shoot nicely around the 8.5 ft lb mark but you can get around 10.5 out of them.

[deejayuu]

Depends on spec. and serial no. I think but some are black "paint" finish.

[Jenny Dipple]

You are thinking of BSA Meteors!!!! A senior moment maybe?

[Hsing-ee]

If you want it refinished in proper black blue then send it to RichardH, his work is first class.

[rovercoupe]

Just finished a very very rough one and they take a cold blue really well, its on the list to try hot blue at some point, the steel is very tough so takes a fair bit of work to remove any pitting and smooth off.

[rovercoupe]

Some bad pics, need to get some better ones taken, not done the side lever yet but its not in too bad nick.

[Geoff555]

Many thanks to you all. Blimey Rovercoupe mine is brand new compared to yours, best wishes for that one. Have cleaned off as much rust and things as I can. Cold blue arrived this morning so will have a go at that. Will be satisfied to save it for the future, I don't know how popular they were but I really hate to see things scrapped.
Thanks again it will take some time but I will let you know how it goes.

[Jenny Dipple]

You have to reblue the side lever or it will look odd, polishing is the important part using finer grades of wet and dry to p1200 or p1400; good degrease with meths latex gloves will prevent finger marks and stop your fingers going orange!

[deejayuu]

You are thinking of BSA Meteors!!!! A senior moment maybe?

Ah! The side-lever Meteor!


Don't do "moments" more like "fortnights" nowadays.

[rovercoupe]

You have to reblue the side lever or it will look odd, polishing is the important part using finer grades of wet and dry to p1200 or p1400; good degrease with meths latex gloves will prevent finger marks and stop your fingers going orange!

Its on the list to do the sidelever but it depends hot my experiments in hot bluing go, if it goes well then I will do the whole gun again.

I did the cold blue a bit different this time where i applied the blue and then kept it wet with water for 5 mins at a time to let it really go and it gave it a nice deep finish somewhere between the blue and black finish.

The weld fix was comedy though and had to be sorted without warping the cylinder.

[bill57]

The rear piston skirt always gets quite scored in the Osprey, it might be from travelling over the anti-beartrap slot. I've never found it to matter, if it bothers you just wet and dry it and polish it back to shiny.
In my experience, PTFE washers don't work well in the Osprey, probably because of the large transfer port. No significant increase in power, but piston slam and dieselling become the norm. If you're going to machine the front of the piston, which you would have to do when fitting a PTFE adapter, then fit a leather washer. This will transform it into a sweet shooter that will do nine foot pounds all day long on a standard spring. Forget uprated springs - they will make it shoot horribly. and the back block crosspin holes will be oval before you know it.

[Geoff555]

Hello that is useful to know about the piston rear skirt, it is heavily scored but also worn, so much so that the raised portion of the skirt is no longer raised and going into the piston! I do have some leather piston seals from Gem and BSA underlevers, will have a think about that.
Thank you.
Cheers.
Geoff.

[evert]

As mentioned earlier, the Osprey has a rather large transfer port for the seal type. Seems like Webley learned something with the Osprey, the Trackers have a smaller port.

If you dont go the suggested route of conversion to leather seal, it is probably a good idea to sleeve the port.

My "tinkering" Osprey has its transfer port sleeved down, and the piston converted to take a 25mm HW seal. This made the firing more pleasant, and increased energy/velocity.

[johnbaz]

Here's my Osprey and Ospracker (Barrel snapped so I replaced with a Tracker barrel!!), Both are a bit 'slammy' to shoot, Converting to a leather piston seal sounds like the way to go!!



Some sidelever bits, The cammo Tracker has gone back to it's original owner (He had it from new!)..




And the snapped off barrel stub after using an easy out to remove it!!






John