Wobbley Webley Not!
The sad story of this Webley is that until another main spring can be located, it is officially out of action. Of course, a professional gunsmith told me that this is one of the Webley's that has earned its "Wobbley" nickname and should not be fired again due to cylinder shake. Doesn't bother me too much - I never planned to shoot it anyway. But I'm still gonna get me a main spring and fix it!
Last year, while taking a gun safety course at a local small gunsmith shop, I saw a Webley Mark III that a customer had brought in for an overhaul. The gunsmith said the owner had been firing the pistol and was lucky it did not blow up on them since there was so much play in the cylinder. Fascinated by the Webley, about two months later I picked up a 1917 Webley MkVI in its original .455 caliber for $600 (a bargain!) at a local gunshow. After some study on some gun forums on the web, I found that the design of the Webley is such that the "wobbley" cylinder is actually normal and often confuses gunsmiths who are not familiar with the model. To check that all is indeed okay (at least with the cylinder locking mechanism) do the following:
1. Hold the pistol in you hand and check the play in the cylinder (uncocked), there should be about an 1/8" play.
2. Now **** the hammer back, the slack in the cylinder is significantly less.
3. Holding the hammer back with your thumb, pull on the trigger; there should now be no slack, the cylinder should by locked tight. This is the firing mode of the pistol. If all is well with the mechanism there should be no play in the cylinder.
Of course always have any gun checked out with a gunsmith before firing, but since these guns are very old and rarely seen anymore, some of the knowledge of their quirks have been lost by modern gunsmiths.
I highly recommend picking one of these beauties up if found! A wonderful piece of history. I picked up some 0.455 ammo and it shoots like a dream. Despite many being ground down to shoot .45ACP ammo, I would not recommend it. The pistol was not designed to handle the pressures of modern ammo, the cylinder might explode.
Now if I could only find (and afford) an Webley Automatic Revolver!
Cheers - cd