Founder & ex secretary of Rivington Riflemen.
www.rivington-riflemen.uk
Nowhere to go ........in no hurry to get there; www.rivington-riflemen.uk----- well I suppose it is somewhere to go.... founded by I.J. - let down by the tainted blood scandal
Founder & ex secretary of Rivington Riflemen.
www.rivington-riflemen.uk
TARGET TEMPEST update. I've gone through this thread and deleted some of the posts in an effort not to confuse people so much with wrong information/failed experiments.
As a recap, the TARGET TEMPEST is actually a dog rough .22 Hurricane with a Premier/Tempest barrel on it. The trigger pin holes are pretty well butchered
and the grips are buggered.
I wanted to see what could be done with a Tempest/Hurricane with relatively little work and cost. (failing on the last part).
After trying my nieces .177 Tempest with a cut down mainspring and finding it nice, I wanted to try a short stroked pistol to see how it would shoot/feel in regards to accuracy,trigger and recoil.
had a few problems along the way, with a head of the wrong material but the info here should be good enough to get a pretty good pistol for plinking/informal match shooting.
Ok here are the details/spec.
A rough old .22 Hurricane with butchered trigger pin holes and broken grips.
The safety catch has been removed.
The mainspring has been cut down so it will hardly stick out of the end of the cylinder with the endcap/guide off.
The piston has had the boss that the standard piston seal goes on machined off.
The piston head has been drilled and tapped to 2BA
A PTFE piston seal 12mm long is secured to the piston with a 2BA cheese headed screw (obviously the head seal is recessed for this)
The trigger has been worked on but retains the standard narrow trigger blade.
update later once I've had a bit more of a plink, but I've managed about 17 or 18 shots dodging the rain/hail/sleet and lightning
The gun has obviously lost power and even for punching paper feels a little down in .22, but sure that with a.177 barrel, it would be good enough that the mainspring could even have a bit more taken off it.
The grouping was pretty good considering I'm a crap shot,the weather and the speed I got the shots off. After the first 2 shots ( I didn't fire the pistol without a pellet to bed the seal in), 10 of the next 12 would be covered by a 10p piece and the other 2 were only just above, which was down to me. 3 bottle caps were then hit. This was at 7 1/2 yards.
The trigger is nice and light and there is hardly any noticeable recoil. I was even shooting this without grips on.
now waiting for a set of Airgunner .177 wooden grips.
So there you have it---as simple as a machine the piston boss off,tap a thread in the piston head and fit a 12mm long PTFE seal. Cut the mainspring sown and do a bit of work on the trigger.
I hope people find this of some use
Ps---With an early Premier or with a Mk1, this should be even easier to do as they have screws to hold the piston washers. I've fitted an 11mm long one to a Webley Junior today and it seemed ok but the light was very poor. With the Junior, the cut down mainspring stands about 1/4 inch proud of the cylinder, with the piston fitted. UPDATE---seems only a little down on power, is accurate and very easy to cock.
And a .177 barrel for the Hurricane/Tempest would be nice if anybody has one spare?
Last edited by ggggr; 20-10-2014 at 05:23 PM. Reason: Update about the Junior
Cooler than Mace Windu with a FRO, walking into Members Only and saying "Bitches, be cool"
Glad to see that your efforts on behalf of those of us admiring the brilliantly engineered pistol that is the classic "Wobbly" has borne fruit Guy. All we need to do now is find a good pistol shot who is able to kick the arses of the German PCP lovers with a gun so modified. Strangely, I can think of a couple of such volunteers (Hippo & Fat Stig.) I can just imagine the face of a certain "pink pistol" shooter as he looks in disbelief at the score cards. Definitely worthy of an official challenge I reckon.
Andy
Member, the Feinwerkbau Sport appreciation Society (over 50's chapter)
http://www.rivington-riflemen.eu/ Andy, from the North !
I'm sure they would be happy to volunteer Andy; and I'll happily referee, (sorry adjudicate ) and score any cards. Let's hope you catch him on a day when the Hammerli is off colour and the LP10 needs it's @rse (sorry barrel) cleaning. ( Are Austria and Switzerland part of Germany now? )
ATB
Mike
Nowhere to go ........in no hurry to get there; www.rivington-riflemen.uk----- well I suppose it is somewhere to go.... founded by I.J. - let down by the tainted blood scandal
Mike thanks for the kind offer to referee and score :-)
But I feel you may be a little German, Swiss, Austrian biased by your lack of Wobbly ownership;-)
I seem to remember that an Austrian tried to unite the German speaking peoples at one point:-(
I can only hope the fact that Walther (Lp300 ring any bells:-) have marched over and snatched Hammerli (S.a.m scaffolding tubes, more bells Mike:-) is not a precursor to further 39 nonsense ;-)
Therefore I would suggest asking 'Bulldog Andy' to be the (very) unbiased referee:-) :-)
Wobbly Hippo
Founder & ex secretary of Rivington Riflemen.
www.rivington-riflemen.uk
I still luv yer Mike. I think your current lack of Wobbly ownership is clouding fellow members judgement.
Member, the Feinwerkbau Sport appreciation Society (over 50's chapter)
http://www.rivington-riflemen.eu/ Andy, from the North !
I didn't think I needed to own a Wobbly to be accepted as an adjudicator. I thought my lack of bias would be welcomed
Nowhere to go ........in no hurry to get there; www.rivington-riflemen.uk----- well I suppose it is somewhere to go.... founded by I.J. - let down by the tainted blood scandal
A bit of an update on the "Target Tempest". A set and a half of Airgunner .177 grips arrived the other day. They are an unfinished Ambi set and a spare left with a thumb shelf for a right hander. I'll get round to doing a few finger grooves and then get the tru oil out.
I nicked the .177 barrel off my nieces Tempest to try on the pistol. Obviously the sights needed adjusting both for elevation and windage. ( I think the Webley forsights are not the best finished of items).
Once I'd adjusted the sights, I was getting some decent groups at 7 1/2 yards. The light was poor and I was shooting at a few circles drawn on an envelope. I think maybe the Hurricane rearsight blade is a fraction too narrow and does not give a great sight picture, especially in poor light. I'm not tempted to open it up a bit with a file.
The trigger feels good and very little recoil with the pistol. I think that maybe, the piston head could be made a mm or so longer and you will still have enough power in .177 for paper punching. I've noticed this gun is harder to cock than my nieces Tempest that just has a cut down Typhoon spring. That is more punchy and has a faster firing cycle and is more fun to plink with. I think the Tempest rearsight blade, which is a bit wide, actually gives a better sight picture than the Hurricane sight in most circumstances, but a slightly narrower cut out might be better.
So really it is down to taste and feel for sorting out one of these more seriously than I have done.
I think in .177, a 12 or maybe even 13mm long head might be the thing. I'm also thinking that a cut down Typhoon spring makes the gun easier to cock and just seems to feel better. Maybe a bit of work on a rearsight and some sort of adapter to screw into the end of the barrel ( using a Hurricane barrel) could give better sight pictures.
When the .22 barrel was replaced and the sights adjusted, the pistol shot very well.
For fun, I prefer the .22 standard stroke Tempest fitted with the Typhoon spring. I'm rather taken with the firing cycle of the .177 that has the standard stroke and cut down mainspring.
Anyway, that is about as much info as I can provide so it it up to the Wobbly boys to sort out one of their guns to the sort of specs that suits them best.
Cooler than Mace Windu with a FRO, walking into Members Only and saying "Bitches, be cool"