Anyone here a Webley MK IV "expert"?

by Hobie , Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, Sunday, March 16, 2014, 12:37 (3911 days ago)
edited by Hobie, Sunday, March 16, 2014, 12:49

I bought this Webley MK IV (a Singapore Police issue) because I was certain I could convert it back to SA/DA from DA only. I was pretty certain that this would only require a new hammer with the sear notch. I think it is safe to say that I assumed too much.

I ordered a replacement hammer from Apex Gun Parts and it came right away. Got gun and hammer the same day. Got time to mess with it today. This is not a particularly difficult gun to work on. However...

The Apex part does not have a firing pin so I had to move the pin from the original hammer to the "new" hammer. No difficulties there Hammer 1 is never fail to function albeit DA only. Guess what, hammer 2 is never fail to function... SA only. It will not function DA EXCEPT for the first time you try it after installation. And that part of it is really peculiar to me. It will correctly function the first trigger pull but thereafter it only advances the cylinder correctly and will not trigger cock the hammer. Is that odd or what? I haven't beat this but that wasn't the only surprise.

This gun has a hammer safety lever and two related parts (including the hammer safety lever) almost like the Enfield MK II revolver. The hammer was modified to function with the hammer safety lever but if you take it out, i.e. omit only the safety lever, then either hammer function just fine.

If anybody has any suggestions to get hammer 2 to work SA AND DA, I'd like to hear it. I'm going to go down and see if a couple of other things might work (there ain't a whole lot you can do in there). If not, I'm going to find a proper SA/DA gun and write this one off to a learning experience after returning to the condition in which it was received.

FWIW, the trigger pulls DA or SA with appropriate hammer aren't bad at all.

Oh, yes, I do have 500 pieces of .38 S&W brass headed here from Starline...

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Sincerely,

Hobie