MK 3's needed huge biceps

[Benelli B76]

I have a few nice Webley MK 3 rifles in to check over. On a couple of them it felt like someone had put a really heavy spring in as they were almost impossible to cock. On stripping I found the cocking lever was far too tight a fit in the two lugs under the tap unit and I had to take down their width quite a bit. This seems strange as you would expect old rifles like these to wear in that area, not get tighter. Has anyone found this problem before ?

Baz

[Benelli B76]

Probably the result of over tightening the stock screws, especially if there are no washers. Often with Relums, the stock screws catch on the cocking arm, through going too far into the bracket as the wood in the stock wears with tight screws and no washers.

Definitely not this as you can see by my post.

Baz

[trajectory]

Morning Baz.
Seems a bit odd. Even on a new one the underlever was not that stiff when I bought mine. Many of the components were hand fitted so I suppose someone might have swapped an underlever between rifles for some reason or another but if they did & it was that stiff you'd have thought they would have done something about it. Conversely if they had a very loose underlever I can't really think someone would have tried to close the flanges up......but then if they did I suppose they could have overdone things. But they are pretty solid so if a someone didn't quite understand what they were about I could see it being overdone & possibly marked as well but if there's no marks then it's still not to say someone had a go at closing them up. Opening them up a bit might not have been so easy. Maybe they thought it would "run in" rather than working on the insides of the flanges or the underlever who knows. Can't think Webley would have let them out the gate like that.

But there again is it binding on the flanges or is it the pivot thats tight?

[Benelli B76]

Strange thing is the rifles are in almost mint condition, with no visible signs of being tampered with.
Anyway, fixed now and very smooth like a MK 3 should be.

Baz

[Josie & John]

Hi Baz,

Webley used to fit very strong springs to the Mk 3 - especially the later variants. I initially thought someone had fitted Ox square section springs to several rifles I have owned but original springs were somewhat over powered.

John

[Dutch]

I have noticed the same stiffness, but could not relate that to the tight fitting of the cocking arm. The relatively (compared to airsporters) shorter arm, with squared ribbed griparea combined with a newish/stronger spring, requires a bit of mussle and callus in my experience. Have a couple with softer springs wich are much more comfortable to use. So be cautious with grinding the cocking arm on good/crisp original copies. check te springs first.