Double action only Webley Mk IV?

[Tatanka]

I recently bought a Webley Mk IV revolver in .38 S&W. It's in great shape with no noticeable wear on the mechanism.

I'm able to cock the hammer, but when I press the trigger, the hammer falls softly and does not hit the primer.
Double-action firing works fine though.
Were these Webleys double action only? Were they modified in service to fire only in double action mode?
Or is there an issue with mine?

Here it is, by the way:

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Or is there an issue with mine?

Your Webley does not have an issue, it has a defect.

As my X-ray eyes do not function at such long range, please check the following:

1) First make sure the revolver is unloaded.
2) In the uncocked state, the hammer should be backed off a little (as it indeed appears to be in your photograph), with the stop (at top of the hammer) clear of the frame.
3) Press the trigger, and the hammer will go fully forwards, but rebound to the initial state as soon as you release the trigger. Since the rebound action adds to the trigger pull, someone may have fiddled with this in a misguided attempt to lighten the pull.
4) Slowly press the trigger to move the hammer back. Just before the double-action releases the hammer, the spur should be about 1/8" or less above the frame.
5) Now cock the hammer for single action. Pulling it back to about 3/4 of the way you will hear a slight click from the mechanism, but this is not yet the cocking position. The rebound is out of action when the trigger is pressed, and the released hammer should fly right forwards to hit the primer. The hammer must go right back until the spur is less than 1/8" above the frame to reach full cock. I strongly suspect that this will not be the case with your revolver.

Whether in SA or DA, the same spring drives the hammer forwards when it is released. That this does not happen with your revolver indicates that the SA cocking position is not far enough back.

Possible cause: the revolver was set up as a DA-only mechanism, and "Bubba" made a mess of (re-) converting it to single action, filing off the wrong amounts in the wrong places. Take a close look at the spur - it does not have the smooth curved contour of the spur on my Webley, and may be a piece that has been welded or hard-soldered onto a DA (spurless) hammer.

From here on, we need good close-ups of the hammer and associated mechanism!

[Tatanka]

I'll take more pictures later, when I get a chance. In the meantime, here are close-ups of the hammer in the uncocked and coked positions I'd already taken:

[Brit plumber]

The firing pin on the hammer doesn't look correct to me, it looks like the firing pin from the flare pistol. I'll go see if I can find a pic of a normal one.



Could this be a part of the problem?

[Patrick Chadwick]

Comparing the hammer from "Brit plumber" with the one from "Tatanka" strengthens my suspicion that the revolver has been Bubba'ed or made an outing to the Khyber Pass. That hammer has a finish that makes a wartime Mosin look like a Swiss watch. The curved profile of a genuine hammer just does not exist. Time to look at the rest of the innards.

Tatanka, I fear you need to start looking for a source of Webley spare parts.

[Tatanka]

I did think that even taking "War Finish" into account, the machining marks were a bit much...
Guess I will look for a new hammer.

[Tatanka]

Well, the postman finally delivered the hammer assembly I'd ordered. The thumbpiece and firing pins are strikingly different:



Now, time to study on the part replacement process . I've got an ebook on the Mk IV and also some tutorials I've found .

[Tatanka]

Well, that didn't work out. If I install the hammer screw with the hammer in the uncocked position, the hammer won't pivot. It seems the firing pin stops the hammer from rotating. If I install the hammer screw with the hammer rotated back, the firing pin won't go through its aperture.

Right now, I've got the "original" hammer reinstalled.

I'll take it apart again on my days off and re-examine the pawl and the trigger .

[Peter Laidler]

First, you need to polish all of the bearing surfaces of revolver hammers including the outer edge frictioning surfaces.

[Tatanka]

Ok, how do I go about doing this? And which are the outer edge frictioning surfaces?