Webley Omega, Almost A Great Gun.

[thursodog 353]

Hi guys.

Met a lad during the week who is airgun daft but with not much money to spend on anything good.

I was at his work servicing oil burners.

We got chatting and it turns out he shoots an old Webley Omega and a Hatstand.

We have permission to shoot on his work premises which is a local grain drying depot full of pigeons and crows so at a lunch time we had a plink at a target with both rifles and i was pleasantly surprised to find the Omega is very consistent on accuracy.

It was rather twangy and the trigger wasn't nice so i told the lad i was going to try and tune it to the best i could depending on what i found for the price of a couple of tins of pellets.

On stripping it i was impressed and disappointed at the same time, there is some great engineering/machining on this gun but with rather poor quality steel apart from the barrel which is as accurate as i've seen on anything German/ i know AA are great but I've yet to buy one (some day soon i hope!)

So sad really as it was almost a superb gun and i just wish they had gone a little farther on the trigger parts quality and it would have been there.

Anyways i cleaned and polished her and regreased with my trusty Bisley gun grease.

No twang and very little muzzle flip unfortunately the trigger sears are on the soft side and rather worn so i cannot achieve a good 2 stage setup but its alot better than it was and i hope the lad has some fun with it.

His obvious enthusiasm for springers has hit somit in me and i'm going to help him out with a Weihrauch when i find an old one in need of some TLC.

I'll let him know that if he buys and old one i'll do the work for him as long as he promises to oil it before putting it away and he'll have a gun to pass on in the future.

Dam that Omega was almost there.

 

Chris.

 

P.S. I'm just back from Seatrout fishing with my 7 year old lad Robbie. I cast out into the inky black of the river Don and he retrieves the fly and for the first half hour he pretended he was getting bites to wind me up, then all of a sudden the rod jolts violently and he is in complete shock as a 4 pound wild Brownie takes of with his fly like a freight train.

5 minutes later my boy returns the fish with his shaking hands and we just sit there smiling at what just happened, am a lucky Dad.

Edited June 29, 2013 by thursodog

[blackdug 90]

Good wee story mate ..I had an omega back in the day and I could put a pellet anywhere with it...

[pianoman 3,589]

Hi Chris. Great read this pal.

 

I had an Omega .22 with several other Webley air rifles I've had back in the 1980s to the 1990s. Webleys' were a joy back then with the most beautiful deep blueing and nicely-handling stocks with white spacers and grip caps on a lot of their guns. Outwardly, they looked really superb, well made air rifles.

 

I thought it was a very accurate rifle, as air rifles went at that time. What it was like inside, well, my dad was not so much a tuner by modern standards, certainly not to yours or Andy's standards of tuning but, he was a great tweak and twiddle man with triggers on all our guns.

 

He was never satisfied with what the factories turned out. He re-made sears, trigger-blades and even springs for triggers that were better than standard fit. After he finished putting the trigger on mine back together it shot very consistently with a lightened let-off and it was a huge accuracy improvement. Omegas were known and respected for their accuracy which was superb. This was a time when air rifles were getting better than ever before and Weihrauch and Feinwerkbau were the real deal at the top of the tree. But Webley and BSA were not exactly lagging behind.

 

That was when Eley Wasps were a darn good slug too and the Omega I had shot these superbly, even if they were a bit tight in the breech.

 

I've often reflected how well one could be made to perform with the amount of comprehensive tuning and fettling know-how going on today, with a brand new Omega as we knew from back then? We were more accepting generally, of what we bought than we do nowadays, when tuning has become almost a norm!

 

The trigger was a bit of a lottery with Webleys. Some were just right. Others were a bit stiff or loose after cocking; and tended to pull the rifle off to whichever hand you shot from. But that was usually down to some being a bit rough-finished or in need of a bit more careful lube.

 

You are absolutely right, it was, by modern standards, almost there. My Dad used to say the same thing about the quality of the steels used too. His usual remark was; 'Aww they've used monkey metal here!

 

You can see why the Germans had us beat on quality; and why they thrived while our makers, in true British fashion, struggled and failed. The first HW80 rifles were hailed as the most powerful you could buy. In truth, that was because they were the more accurate rifle you could buy.

 

If you get a chance of trying a Webley Patriot on FAC have a good test shoot with it. A great rifle on ticket that!

 

Great read again here mate.

 

Simon

[thursodog 353]

Thanks Blackdug, and many thanks Simon for the compliments and a very interesting bit of history there Sir.

Great hearing about how your Dad fettled and tuned these guns and after looking at the trigger on this one he must be a very good engineer to be making these sears and other parts.

You got me thinking about the trigger and I've restripped it and took a closer look at just how it all works and have made a few adjustments with a small hone which has brought it back to a proper 2 stage trigger instead of the rather heavy pull with no disernable second stage.

Nice and light now but still not in the Rekord class, but its much better and the lad should be happy with it.

 

'Aww they've used monkey metal here!

 

Classic line there mate!

 

I'd love to have a crack at tuning a brand spanker, some nice close tolerance engineering in there.

Yeah i know what you mean about the Germans being in a different class but what gets me is the amount of work thats gone into this gun but with MONKEY METAL

 

Great read from you as ever Simon and i'll keep an eye out for the Patriot.

 

All the very best

 

Chris.