Birmingham Webley Stingray.

[robs5230]

I seem to be developing some sort of affection for pre 2004 Wobbly's and my latest squeeze is a Brummie Stingray.

I'm quite taken with the proportions of this carbine variant, and really surpised with the trigger.
Sort of looks like it shouldn't handle nicely, but one of those odd rifles, where when mounted, the weight isn't noticed. The short barrel likely helps.

Cocking effort on this one is higher than I'd expect in .22, and 11.4 with RS and uncomfortably warm with Superdomes, sort of confirms my suspicion that its a little oversprung.

Looking forward to giving this one a real work over.
My feeling is that I can make this a very nice shooter.

Let the tinkering commence

[ratbuster2240]

My brother bought one around early 2000s when I bought a BSA Lightning. They are very well made and I agree it looks like it would be cumbersome but it fits well. The bluing is very deep and had a nice stock, Walnut?

[look no hands]

I seem to be developing some sort of affection for pre 2004 Wobbly's and my latest squeeze is a Brummie Stingray.

I'm quite taken with the proportions of this carbine variant, and really surpised with the trigger.
Sort of looks like it shouldn't handle nicely, but one of those odd rifles, where when mounted, the weight isn't noticed. The short barrel likely helps.

Cocking effort on this one is higher than I'd expect in .22, and 11.4 with RS and uncomfortably warm with Superdomes, sort of confirms my suspicion that its a little oversprung.

Looking forward to giving this one a real work over.
My feeling is that I can make this a very nice shooter.

Let the tinkering commence

I'll be interested in what you do to the little beauty, I was lucky enough to find a Express model and have to say its superb, it's proportions make it so point able, it twanged like a good an when I first got her so I put some grease in the cocking slot and it's helped but it's still there, so I intend to order a Welsh Willy kit to sort that problem out.

I look forward to your findings.

Pete

[TonyL]

Certainly nice looking and handling little beasties. And with the Venomac influence, great performers too. And that breech bolt as opposed to pin of earlier Wobbly break barrels gives far more reassurance.

Will look forward to reading of your subsequent tinkerings, Rob & Pete.

[robs5230]

I'll be interested in what you do to the little beauty, I was lucky enough to find a Express model and have to say its superb, it's proportions make it so point able, it twanged like a good an when I first got her so I put some grease in the cocking slot and it's helped but it's still there, so I intend to order a Welsh Willy kit to sort that problem out.

I look forward to your findings.

Pete

Mine has been apart before and the previous owner has fitted a replacement guide of some kind, so at present, I really have no idea whats inside.
Mine has more of a buzz than a twang.

It may just be a case of reducing a bit of preload in mine, but if anything's out of kilter, I'll make a new guide set for one of the springs I have here.

The WW kits are supposed to be good, but Will uses Titan's and I've never been too keen on them, mainly as they're difficult to fine tune.

I'll strip mine this weekend and go from there
Keep us updated Pete.

[Mach 1.5]

Must say my lazaglide one shoots rather well. Mach 1.5

[look no hands]

Mine has been apart before and the previous owner has fitted a replacement guide of some kind, so at present, I really have no idea whats inside.
Mine has more of a buzz than a twang.

It may just be a case of reducing a bit of preload in mine, but if anything's out of kilter, I'll make a new guide set for one of the springs I have here.

The WW kits are supposed to be good, but Will uses Titan's and I've never been too keen on them, mainly as they're difficult to fine tune.

I'll strip mine this weekend and go from there
Keep us updated Pete.

I have loads of Wills kits in my rifles and never had a problem with any of them, the thing I like is that if the spring breaks or weakens then a new one is easy to obtain and would just need shortening to the spring already fitted, not sure if short stroking is possible or actually needed, I did have an Express many years ago and had it SFS tuned and then sold it but it was lovely to shoot, I also had a SFS Custom T which was a special limited edition tyroleon (cs600 stock) with the tuned action and was superb but it just lacked the nicer finish, the cylinder was a dark grey colour and the barrel was blued and they had used the standard carbine barrel with the square breech block with a webley plate over the rear site holes, if they had reblued it and put the rounded off breech block on it then it would have been a fine rifle indeed.

Pete

[rapidresponse1]

there great guns

[robs5230]

Had a couple of hours free so had it apart.
Lashings of moly inside and a 3.3 wire spring (thats now in a drawer)
Found a spring that's something of a better fit in the piston ( hw95 I think) and knocked a new guide and top hat up. Top hat's a little too loose so I'll remake that.

Now sitting just under 10 with RS, so I'll get a power / slip washer on the guide tomorrow. Looking for about 600fps with RS.
Lovely shot cycle with absolutley no hint of buzz or twang.
Smooth and easy to cock.

Pleased with it so far.
Hate stripping these triggers though

[madcarlos]

Lovely little gun, Lovely compact size, No recoil on mine, Just a thud, Bought my centenary in 2000 and this stingray I think about a year later,

[Geezer]

Agree with all the above. I have the budget Xocet version, and it’s a very appealing little gun.

[robs5230]

Thought I'd give a little update on this.

I took my 77 down the club range yesterday and thought I'd take this Stingray down to zero as well.
After remembering that I hadn't actually added the spacer that I was going to add, I very nearly left it home, but thought better of it and stuck it in the boot.

Good job I did really as the scope I'd mounted on the 77 wouldn't hold zero. So I spent a bit of time with the Stingray.

To say that I'm blown away, is a bit of an understatement.

zeroed at 25 yards with JSB RS andfitted with an Airmax 2-7x32 on 5x mag, it was effortlessly plopping one on top of another on the freshly painted distance plates.
I ended up plotting this out to 50 yards, and finished with 3 out of 3 hits and resets on the 50 yard knockdown.

I think I'll leave it set just as it is. Its a very soft shooter with minimal recoil.

[TonyL]

Sounds very much like job done very nicely there, Rob.

And yet another example where a sweet firing cycle and easy-to-access accuracy trump high power every time. It's also not the first time that I've heard of (what we guess to be) a 95 spring working nicely in another application.