Working The Webley MK III

The Webley MK III revolver is among the last revolvers used by any military force as standard issue. Developed as an alternative to the previous Webley .455 caliber revolvers, the MK III is basically of the same pattern and operating on the same principles but incorporates several detail changes. After the development of the MK III prior to World War Two, the British ended up adopting a modifi ed Webley design developed at Enfield Lock.

Although the Enfield revolver has features that differ from the Webley the design is similar enough that Webley was awarded damages in a legal claim. Just the same, during World War Two revolvers were in such a shortage that the Webley MK III .38 caliber revolver was used in great numbers. It was a rare thing to see a Webley MK III .38 in the shop. I have replaced a few extractor springs and performed ad hoc peening of the bolt and little else.

Customers do not like to spend much on a revolver when they were only worth a hundred dollars or so. Today, however, Webley revolvers in unmodified condition are worth much more. The older .455 revolvers are occasionally brought in needing various parts replaced. A common ailment that shortens the life of the .455 is the firing of overpressure ammunition. .455 Webley ammunition was once nearly impossible to come by.

Today, Hornady Custom offers excellent quality ammunition loaded to the original 265 grains at 650 fps specification. The expedient for those who wished to fi re their 38/200 used by British forces in World War II. Webley .455 revolvers was to face off the rear of the cylinder to allow the firing of .45 ACP cartridges with moon clipped rounds. This was OK as far as it goes but there were problems. Many of the revolvers were not properly modifi ed, leading to headspace problems.

The .45 ACP is far more powerful than the .455 Webley and battering is an issue. The Webley line of revolvers use short, low pressure cartridges such as the .455 Webley and the .38 Smith and Wesson by necessity and, like most breaktop revolvers, do not generally have enough leverage for anything longer. I imagine someone may try to hot rod the .38 Smith and Wesson and batter a MK III as well. Not too long ago anew supply of Webley revolvers has entered the country and we may be seeing more in the shop.

Some appear as new and, as is inevitable with past experience as a guide, the rougher revolvers will surface later. The Webley MK III is a break top design, or more properly, a hinged frame revolver with a double action trigger. Unlike the Enfield MK III, which is is a double action only design, the Webley also has a single action option. There are production variations from 1874 forward but in general operation the Webley is very consistent from one version to the other. First things first.

We will break the action open to be certain the revolver is not loaded. First, depress the cylinder latch and open the action. The barrel is pressed downward. The ejector star, if operating properly, should reach the end of its travel. The ejector star will run through the same action as ejecting cartridges even if the revolver is not loaded, springing to full extension and then dropping back into place. The revolver is now unloaded. The first step in disassembly is to remove the cam lever lock screw.

Hot water works just fine. It quite likely has never been fi red. This is easily accomplished with a coin according to popular literature. Don’t believe it! Our cam lever screw was very tight and required considerable effort to remove with a Chapman professional gunsmith screwdriver kit. I think that we had best dispatch with coins and nails and knife blade edges as gunsmithing tools and use the proper tools for the job. Next, rotate the cam lever upward and push the cam lever toward the muzzle.

You will now be able to lift the cylinder off of the axle or spindle. Again, there was considerable effort required in lifting the cylinder off of the spindle, however, our test case is an as-new Webley that appears to be unfired although it was manufactured well over fifty years ago. A neat trick in disassembling the cylinder is to insert two empty cartridge cases in the cylinder.

Place them at opposite directions in the chambers of the revolver cylinder and angle them inwards to keep the ejector star at full extension. To remove the ejector rod, you must insert some type of tool (I used a tempered Allen wrench) into the hole in the extractor nut. You will now be able to remove the extractor and extractor spring. Be careful with the small extractor spring! Simply twist the extractor rod counter clockwise and you will be able to remove the ejector rod and extractor spring.

The cylinder of the Webley is quite short, just long enough to contain a stubby .38 Smith and Wesson cartridge. For normal cleaning and inspection this is fine for disassembly. If you need anew extractor spring replacement may be done at this point. This spring is under a lot of pressure and it stands to reason that it will need replacement from time to time. With the cylinder removed we will move on to the next step by unscrewing the hinge pin screw and push the hinge pin out to the left.

The barrel and extractor lever may now be removed and separated. Un-

screw the two cylinder cam screws and remove the cylinder retaining cam. This is all that is required for most maintenance and parts replacement steps. Next, we will remove the one and only grip screw. Interestingly the Webley was never, to the best of my knowledge, fitted with wooden grips, placing it ahead of its time when adopted in 1874. Modern revolvers such as the MK III .38 illustrated in this article carry this tradition on.

I have been able to obtain a very nice set of reproduction grips from Gun Parts Corporation for the Webley .455, circa 1900. This is just one resource for the Webley and among the better stocked dealers. Once the grips are removed, cock the hammer and loop a paper clip around the mainspring. You may secure the wire paper clip by bending or wrapping it with a pair of pliers. This keeps the mainspring depressed during disassembly. The mainspring is quite strong and this expedient works well.

Carefully place your thumb on the hammer and lower the hammer by pressing the trigger, allowing the hammer to ease down. If you have properly secured the mainspring you may now unhook the upper hammer foot hook or limb (as it is variously called) portion of the mainspring. This part is hooked into the hammer swivel. You may now lift the mainspring out of the frame. The Webley MK III trigger guard is among the few removable types encountered in revolvers.

Simply remove the two retaining screws and the trigger guard pulls away from the frame. It is a robust unit but be careful not to warp it if it sticks a bit. Ours was stuck, possibly due to varnished oil or Cosmoline, but with a bit of gentle rocking it was removed. At this point the mainspring lever may be lifted out from the notches in the frame. You will slide it to the rear out of these notches. The hand and the trigger are removed by unscrewing the trigger screw and pulling the parts downward out of the frame.

Unscrew the hammer screw and lift the hammer out of the frame. Next, compress the barrel catch spring against the recoil shield with those handy-dandy padded pliers we all keep on hand. Unscrew the barrel

It is easily removed once compressed. Note the hammer stud fitting into the mainspring. The design is simple and meant to last a century. The hammer does not fall far enough to crack the primer when the safety is in this position. catch screw. You will now be able to slide the barrel catch and spring to the rear. This spring may occasionally need replacement.

You should note that the rear sights are integral to the cylinder release, which is fine as far as it goes but proper re-alignment may be necessary for an accurate point of impact. The recoil shield is actually fully removable although it is seldom necessary unless some type of repair to the bolt and the spring are required. You must unscrew the recoil shield retaining screw and move the recoil shield by tapping it off of the frame to the left. The bolt and bolt spring will now fall free.

A removable recoil plate or recoil shield is a feature of a revolver with no sideplate. It should be noted that the Webley is a very strong revolver with large robust parts but it is not finely fitted in the manner that the Smith and Wesson revolvers typically are. As a note of interest, I have found in many examples that the Webley cylinder will rotate freely under finger pressure when the hammer is at rest in the safe or rebound position. Ifi nd this quite interesting.

Yet, when you fire a cylinder of ammunition, the Cosmoline is not the chore to remove from a revolver that is may be from a rifle. Hot water works well. 38, top, is less similar to the MK III .455, bottom, than it is to the MK IV .455. Although the designs are separated by fifty years these two revolvers are quite similar in operation. cartridges always rotate as intended and the piece indexes properly. This a peculiarity of the Webley design.

As far as ammunition, the proper cartridge for the Webley is the .38 Smith and Wesson. This cartridge uses a 146 grain bullet at 650 feet per second or so. Winchester still loads this round but it is sometimes difficult to obtain. The British used a

In practice most are too tight and require considerable effort to turn. special load with a 200 grain bullet at about 750 fps. They felt that this heavy bullet would have the same stopping power as the .455 Webley. I have heard stranger theories and there may be something to it. I have loaded the Webley with a special load using the Magnus 196 grain RNL bullet at 700 fps with excellent results. However, atop break hinged frame revolver like this definitely should not be used with anything heavier.

Revolver Safety The Webley illustrated is among a very few revolvers fitted with a safety. On occasion you will see European revolvers fitted with some type of safety lever with various degrees of utility. Much of the Belgian ironmongery produced at the turn of the previous century featured such levers. With the locking lever pressed to the right, the Webley seems to operate normally but the hammer-mounted firing pin is prevented from fully contacting the cartridge primer.

Webley revolvers fitted with this safety also feature a large cut in the hammer unique to the Webley revolvers with the safety fitted. This allows proper function and clearance for the safety lever. When the bolt is pressed fully to the left the revolver will fi re. The safety bolt seems positive enough and unlikely to be inadvertently operated, at least in the as new example illustrated.

A peculiarity of the type is that when the safety is fully to the left in the off position the revolver fi res but the cylinder latch is blocked and the revolver may not be opened. The safety must always be applied when the revolver is open and being loaded. If the safety is taken off while the revolver is open it will not close. As you may imagine, some who regard the Webley as afine combat revolver do not appreciate this complication.

My research indicates that the safety lever was ordered by various police forces, particularly the Singapore police. This brings us to another question. There is always the shooter who wishes the gunsmith to remove a safety device. On the face of it, this seems harmless to remove a gawky safety from a recreational shooter, however, I would never remove a safety from any handgun.

The next owner may not be as familiar with the handgun and, in any case, if the piece is a recreational shooter the safety is a small hindrance. If the revolver is used for personal protection there is all the more reason to leave it original. There is nothing wrong with the Webley MKIII for this purpose, other than its rather anemic caliber. Just my opinion, but I would never remove the safety bolt. It cannot be modifi ed to stay in the off position as the barrel latch cannot be operated.

A Catch 22 of sorts that is best left untouched. Removing Cosmoline Removing Cosmoline from a rifle is a chore, particularly if the material has permeated the stock. The handgun is a different story. All that was needed to degrease the Webley was hot water. Hot boiling water is often recommended but in this case we did not have to boil a pot of water. Tap water allowed to run until good and steaming hot quickly ate the Cosmoline up.

We used a bore brush to clean out the cylinder and bore for certain and for safety, but the hot water did the business. Parts Sources APEX Gun Parts (apexgunparts.com) offers a wide range of hard-to-obtain parts for the Webley MK III revolver, among others. They area good place to start when looking to repair a Webley. Numrich Gun Parts Corporation (gunpartscorp.com) is another good source. It is sometimes catch as catch can but there companies are well stocked.

The Webley MK III is an interesting revolver, and with the newest crop coming into our country we will doubtless be seeing them in the shop in the near future. AG