Webley and Scott Hawk Mk ll, part2

So here is part two, but not as soon as i would have liked. 

Sorry, but there is loads of stuff to do before Xmas.

Having already made a good piston head seal with two Rubber Orings There are a few things to fix still before she is any where near her former glory, also i would like to see if using one rubber O ring gives better compression through less friction. But for now lets do two O rings and different main springs and breech seals if needs be.

Two under sized O rings are stretched to make the perfect seal.

The main spring is pretty well worn but luckily it is the same one that is used in all the Relum models, and i have three of those sitting around so one would make a better replacement till i can afford a new one. There is no spring guide in the Mk ll's and lll's, and that is why the spring was so warped down by the end cap. The metal tab on the safety slide has snapped off, so the safety doesn't work, spot welding a new piece on and grinding to shape would work, but i'll maybe leave it as is for now.

Zoom in on this one to see the broken bit of metal that was the safety tab.

The stock is most definatly off a Mk lll because when i compared the Chamber's diagrams of all three Mk's, i could see the end cap was the shorter Mk ll, and the stock has the cut out for the longer Mk lll curved end cap with the safety to the side. 

Stone me, the stock has got the safety cut out for a Mk lll. ie. There fore i think, i'm bodged.

Some one had chiseled out the space for the safety tab at the rear of the Mk ll end cap, also the front sight is not a Mk lll and for all i know the barrel and front sight could even be off a Mk l.

Okay, it's not the rear sight. But is the front sight not a solid bit of kit. 70's Britain for you. And it also is a dead give away to the fact that it's a Mk II.

 Most annoying though is the fact that the rear sight doesn't adjust for windage, but with a bit of research i'm sure i'll get that sorted eventually.

The Hawk was sitting in the corner of the kitchen, so i had better get it together sooner than later

So it's time to get the Relum main springs out, shim the breech seal if necessary, and see what this little pup can do. Second hand spares should be pretty plentiful i reckon, because if you where a kid in the 70's you either had a Hawk or a Meteor. Unless your mum paid weekly for a Relum from a Kay's catalog, and there are bloody no end of Relums Knocking about.


I knocked up a small top hat out of delrin to give the old spring a little boost, i would have liked to have made a short spring guide but i was now out of delrin.

Oooh look, bendy spring. But it's got a top hat.

 I then took out all sharp edges in the compression tube with a small grinding bit in my Draper mini drill, then gave it another good clean out. 

Seriously now, if you don't want to damage your seals, just grind the hell out off every inside edge.

Smearing some Abbey SM50 between the two O ring seals the piston slipped into the chamber a lot easier now, and just before the piston finally went in i applied a decent swab of Abbey LT2 grease around the end. The piston moved down the tube with the slightest bit of assistance now, and stop dead when i put my finger over the transfer port. Now that is the sort of seal i want in a springer, one that seals air tight but creates as little friction as possible.

Abbey LT2 grease liberally smeared over the top hat and old spring and in that went, followed by the end cap which went on with a small amount of pressure by hand allowing the pin to slip in.

Preload with original spring and top hat.

The trigger safety, sear, and tension spring were put in the housing and with the aid of a small screw driver were aligned so the pins went in, followed by the trigger and it's tension spring which just left the circlips. Greasing the breech, breech detent, and spring i pushed the breech into the forks and lined up the pivot pin holes, 

Breech, Breech detent, Spring, and forks.

I put the geased pivot pin in one side of the forks and pushed down on the compression tube and barrel till the pivot pin holes aligned so the pivot pin pushed all the way through.

Lots of pushing, shoving, jigging, and tapping and it's all back together. Someone said, 'measure twice, cut once'. I say, 'just tap gently'.

 Sweet, the rifle's back together and all i needed to do was put the stock on.

I really don't know what this picture is doing here but it looks the part.

I took her out to the shed and put her over the chronoscope, using H&N field trophies which sat deep in the barrel i got an average of 6 ft/lb. This was good, with a decent spring and a new or shimmed breech seal i hope to get 10.5 ft/lb which was what they did from factory.

Highest power i could get with the original spring and two new rubber O ring seals.

Life moves on and several days later i take the spring out and replace it with the spring from my old stockless Relum Telly, i had to take out the trigger and safty catch in order to take the spring out.

There you go, Relum without a mainspring and a hawk with a beefier mainspring. This was done while i cooked dinner for my wife.

 With the longer stiffer spring out of the Relum the Hawk is a lot firmer to cock, this is an addition of six coils taking it from 31 too 37 and two inches of preload. I used the repaired spring compressor with the thread directly on the bottom flat half of the end cap, i could of built a wooden block to support it but it was easy enough just supporting it with my hand. I forgot to get a picture of this as i was cooking dinner at the same time, so i hope i explained it well enough.

Well slap me with a kipper, the stronger spring boosted the muzzle velocity to 9 ft/lb with 7 grain wadcutters and 8ft/lb with H&N trophies, you can't say that is not a result.

Well you have heard my crap enough for now, lets just look at some pictures of a freshly semi tuned rifle barrel and a chronoscope.

Premier's never let you down, i should really get some magnum's as they are not so heavy as these mother's

Two ft/lb if not more of an improvement.

For some reason i can alway's  depend upon these bugger's  for never taking me over the legal limit. But if you put them in a PCP, watch out.

7 grain, just like hobbies and always the one to test by.

Not too bad for a heavy pellet out of a springer, but Crosman's will come up trumps every time.

Oh, the variation, oh the different pellets. Oh lets just put a new spring in her and see what that does, at 9 ft/lb she is shooting well sweet for a .177 with an old Relum spring.

Here you go, 10 FPS faster than the lower out put with thes wadcutters and neigh on 9 ft/lb.

Well now, here's a number if you can read it, one of many with Webley.

Lots of numbers make your air rifle one of a kind.

 All i know about air rifle serial numbers is that with my Air Arms PCP Shamal,  the first 65 were prototypes, making mine the 6th production model.

I just thought i had to mention that as it is one of the prime movers in my air rifle collection, and she is running as sweet as the day she first fired a shot in the hands of her new owner. I really hope i can get the Hawk Mk II back to it's former glory, along with the extra barrel, original stock, and it's original power output (If not more).

Oh Goat's Testicals, I've already said goodbye.

TTFN.

Best wishes, Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe.