Webley and Scott Hawk Mk II

A blast from my early teens

After removing the rust from the Webley Hawk and taking a closer look at the name engraved in the top of the action, memories started to trickle in to my mind of using this air rifle as a teenager. Did my uncle have one he use to let me shoot up Lickey Hills?, or was it the one me and Paul Pedley used when we skived off school and take down Langly Mill to blast cans with? But there's no mistaking it, i have had dealings with this air rifle in my youth. So when this dawned on me it was a no brainer, this is the one to fix up first.

For now i just want to clean her up and reseal the piston and breech as the rifle was only putting out two ft/lb, if things look promising i might then invest in a new main spring, remove the paint and blue it, sand the stock, treat with oil and possibly varnish.

First i removed the stock which is held on with a philips head bolt at the front of the trigger guard and two longer philips head screw bolts that run 45 degrees upwards on the fore stock.

Webley Hawk Mk ll, the best Christmas present a big kid could get in the70's.

Using 0000 wire wool and gun oil i removed all the rust from the action and barrel, this left about 50% of the original enamaling that had not come off with rust and general wear. 

Looks almost respectable once the rust had been removed.

There was a long crack in the stock running from the end of the cocking slot to the side of the trigger guard, i eased the crack apart and let Locktite run into as much of it as i could then pressed together for ten minutes. This works amazingly well from past experience, and any excess gets sanded of when treating the stock.

 The trigger housing is welded onto the end of the compression tube, there are three pins that hold the trigger, sear, and the safety slide which are secured with circlips.

Removing the circlips then drifting the pins out allows the trigger and its tension spring to be removed then the sear, safety, and sear tension spring can slide out, i thought it best to take a photo so it would be easier to remember how to put it back together,

The tab that bends 90 degrees to hold the trigger in place on the safety slide had snapped off

The breech was loose in the forks so i drifted the pivot pin out and applied pressure to the forks in a vice in small stages,  using rubber inner tube to protect the metal.

The amount of old British air rifles from the 70's i have to do this to is unbeleivable

Now it fits nice and snug with no play what so ever.

No play in those forks any more

I don't know what it is about British air rifles not using Screw bolts for the breech pivot, it's one of the things that do let these excellent air rifles down.

A new breech catch spring might be in order, but the old one will do for now.

I was very careful to catch the breech catch pin and spring, but luckily it was not under to much tension.

I also noticed the .177 barrel was moving in the breech block slightly, this just needed a hex head grub screw on top of the breech block tightening to hold it firmly.

A hex grub screw holds the .177 barrel in place, two small hex bolts hold the rear sight on as well.

The Webley Hawk Mk11 came with two barrels originally you could interchange, but alas i only have the .177 with this one.

The end cap came of really easily as i was able to push the retaining pin out with no pressure on the end, the spring was in pretty bad shape at one end with zero preload overall.

Nice solid end cap, but a spring guide would help here for sure.

The piston is quite weighty so doesn't need a spring with loads of preload as a rule, and at first glance all lubrication had dried up.

One grubby piston with the knackered main spring next to it.

The whole of the inside of the compression tube was generally grubby along with all of its components.

The hand tells how dried and grubby it all was.

There are two piston rings made of PTFE or something similar, these had become very worn over the years and quite brittle. I broke one when i removed it but the other came out in one piece, they cost about £ 20 for spares so i think i will try rubber O rings. whether it's two O rings or one O ring and the undamaged PTFE ring, it all depends on which combination gives the least friction.

PTFE  piston rings beyond repair, 19 mm ID and 2.5mm thick. However a 17 mm ID x 2.5 mm rubber O ring makes a good replacement as the 19 mm ID was to big in rubber.

Now it was time to give the compression tube a clean with white spirits and OOOO wire wool, and definately scrub the piston down more importantly. Then white spirits on a cloth to remove any wire wool bits left behind, this was done with the aid of a rod and tape to secure the wool and cloth on.

White spirits and wire wool shift all grime, but does tend to struggle with disintegrated buffer washers on BSA's.

Now it was all nice and clean i spent the next hour polishing the compression chamber and piston with Autosol metal polish, it was well worth it as they were gleaming at the end of it.

Smooth and shiny inside and out, and a bloody aching arm.

I slipped two O rings onto the piston and tried to see if there was much resistance, though this was after i filed all the sharp edges off before i had cleaned and polished the rifle admittedly. The piston moved down the chamber with about two pounds of pressure, and moved a tiny bit and stopped still when i tried with my finger over the transfer port.
The transfer port was looking okay but i decided to rejuvenate it with some silicone grease, I also applied a smear to the piston O rings as well.

Logun silicone grease protects and rejuvenates rubber seals, ideally used on PCP's but it's always done my breech seals the world of good.

For now i'm going to make some slip washers and a delrin top hat and use the old spring, if it all looks good then i might invest in a new spring and treat the stock and metal work. So that's it for part one for now, part two will be real soon as all the rifle parts are sitting in a box on the kitchen table and getting in the way.

TTFN

Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe 

Making a Custom Stock for the SMK B45-3

This is my first attempt at making a custom stock for an air rifle, but it would show me how easy or hard the process is. With this in mind i decided not to use a whole blank of quality wood, and use instead a plank of beech which could be made in two halves then glued together.

Lots of loud Ian Dury to work along to

Instead of a CAD design drawing that i don't have the first idea about, i sketched some designs in a note pad that i liked then using the existing stock drew an outline on a piece of brown heavy duty packing paper. I used a mix of Air Arms and Daystate PCP air rifles stock designs i quite liked as my insperation, doodling into a sketch book along with other projects till i was happy with it.  Now i could intergrate and extend the pump arm and move the barrel and compression tube support band forward, by bringing a length of wood out from the main stock that the pump arm would fit around.

God alone only knows what bit i was cutting here.

Once the design was down on wood it was time to cut the shapes out with a jigsaw, as i was having a high comb i needed to add some wood to the bottom of the butt stock.

Bits of wood stuck on to make the stock.

The stock was glued together and secured with 6 mm dowel for extra strength, the pump arm stayed in two halves as it had to be built around the rest and fitted neatly to the pump lever connecting pins.

All glued before the holes were drilled for the support dowel.

With the glued together blank in a vice supported with wood either side, i marked out and using a chisel slowly removed the wood for the action and trigger to fit into.

Very carefully chiseling out for the action to fit in.

 The wood at each side is to stop the stock from splitting when using the chisel, at first i didn't support the stock and lost a splinter of wood which had to be glued back on again.

Where the wood chipped off and glued back on.

I was pretty sloppy with my measurements and most of it was done by eye, but it seemed to work fine and i could always use filler to secure any loose fittings around the action. I tried many methods to remove excess wood, such as using a milling bit in a drill but it didn't prove effective enough.

The milling bit wasn't a great success.

However 40 grade sand disks just ripped through the wood with a lot more control for what i was looking for, then sanding by hand removed any ripples or flat surfaces.

This did the trick, and you can see where the white dowel was glued in as well.

I buy a lot of battery powered drills with the battery missing from carboot sales, then i just wire them up to one or two 12volt batteries depending on their voltage.

At a Quid a shot you can't go wrong.

After about four disks, some chiseling, and some rasping, i ended up with a shape i was happy with and a bucket full of sawdust, not to mention what ended up in my lungs and on my clothes.

Just some of the sawdust and chippings.

The next step was to chisel out the wood on the two halves of the pump arm, to fit around the compression tube and the bar from the stock.

Carefully removing wood so the pump arm will fit nice and snug to the bar that comes forward from the stock.

They need to be separate until i can line then up with the pin holes in the pump arm lever, and also so i could get them as flush as possible with the stock.

Yep, that fits nicely.

 Fits flush enough for a first attempt.

 This also involved a bit of sanding with the power drill, just so both sides fit snugly.

Evening off the other half.

The other little chiseling jobs was to fit the trigger guard off the old stock, this had to be done carefully as it had to line up to screw into the action at just the right place.

Removing wood for trigger guard.

But alas i think a little metal putty filler might be needed to sit the action in and for the trigger guard stock screw, or better still now i know where i went wrong maybe a brass collar would do the trick. I found a good use for some of the the saw dust, and that was too mixed it with glue and i could make a filler for any nicks or gaps in the wood.

Saw dust and wood glue filling small hole.

or where the wood didn't quite join and left a tiny gap.

Just see the once wide gap at the top of the picture.

But the odd tiny mishap aside i am quite chuffed with how it has come along so far, the fitting of the pins in the pump arm lever is some thing you got to get right first time if you want it to look good.

Looking good so far.

This is why i kept the pump arm in two parts so i could line up the holes in the lever on each half, and have the arm resting against the stock while the action was connected.

Two halves of pump arm ready to go

 The action was connected through the front screw in the trigger guard and the extension bar that holds the compression tube and barrel support, i used metal putty to sit the action in tight to the stock and hold the trigger return spring in the correct place (mostly).

Action fitting snugly despite the odd minor cock up.

I gouged out the rubber around the pin holes to release the pins on the pump arm which turned out to be a bit short,

The old tacky looking pump arm.

with the rubber pump arm removed i could carve the pump arm halves to fit.

More carving.

Old pins are a bit short

 It was at this point i decided to drill a third hole in the lever and holding one half of a arm against the lever i drilled where the pins would fit,

Another pin hole for a bit of extra strength.

Making sure pump arm fits the stock evenly.

 i repeated the proccess with the other half and made some new pins about three times as long to hold them in place.

Much longer pins than the originals.

With the pins in one half of the arm and through the lever i added metal putty around the lever and glued the other half of the arm once the pins had slipped into place,

Try to cover the holes for the pins.

i then clamped it till it set then secured it further with some six inch dowel and some super glue to set it solid.

Hole for the dowel.

Dowel glued in place before sawing and power sanding.

By using 60 grit paper on the disk sander i got the lines on the stock and pump arm to flow and line up, then it worked down through finer grades of sand paper till it felt smooth and was looking rather splendid.

Lots of sanding, Christ on a stick! there was lots of sanding.

I wanted a rubber butt plate so i decided to remove an inch from the rear of the stock, it would do fine for now until i found some rubber that looked the part. Also it is a doddle to pump up with the pump arm extended, and it now feels natural to hold it by the back of the pistol grip while doing this.

An inch needs to come of the butt.

With the stock sanded smooth as a babies bum i decided to apply some danish oil, in fact i must have applied about ten coats of the stuff because its looking just amazing and feels well silky to the touch.The wood looks a lot darker with a satin finish and you can really see some lovely grain.

Inch of wood removed and Danish oil applied.

This being my first ever attempt i must say i have surprised myself with how well it has turned out, i'll think i shall leave it as it is and not bother with any crosshatching or stippling. 

Lots more Danish oil applied.

I think i got an old Relum Telly i could try that with, i could even have a go at doing a target stock with that one.

Some easy leverage there.

Though all said and done i have learned a lot on this little excercise, next time using a complete blank would be a good start and actually measuring correctly instead of sizing things by eye. But i got to say it looks good and feels good as well, i'm going to enjoy using this not so little multi pump.

Not too bad, if i say so myself.

TTFN  

Fondest regards, Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe.