The Webley Tempest

 

By Todd Cooper

 

 

The Webley Tempest is a compact and durable spring-piston air pistol with roots which go all the way back to the 1920s. The Tempest has an over-lever cocking stroke and a power output of around 3.6 fpe in .177 caliber. Accuracy is rated at .75” in .177 caliber, and .85” in .22 caliber (3 shots at 10m).

 

The Webley Hurricane is a pistol with similar design to the Tempest. The Hurricane has a longer rear frame, synthetic click stop rear sight, removable front sight hood, and a slightly extended barrel cover. The two pistols share the same piston, mainspring, spring guide, seals, trigger parts, and grip. Apparently, both pistols start life with the longer frame but the Tempests are shortened before finishing.

 

The potential power of this compact pistol is limited by the short piston stroke. The firing cycle is quick and the chamber volume is quite small. In the past I have tried different lubes and shimming of the mainspring but not much was gained. The Tempest seems to be in top velocity form as it comes from the factory.

 

 

 

VELOCITY DATA

 

Since 1989 I have owned 2 Tempests and a Hurricane. Many other Tempests have passed through my hands and seen the chronograph.

 

Below are some average velocity numbers for a couple of my Webley pistols.

 

 

 

I once had the opportunity to test a new (unfired) Tempest that was on a dealer’s shelf. The dealer wanted to know the pistol’s true velocity so the testing was done in the back room of his sporting goods store.

 

After a couple of dieseling shots the new Tempest gave the following readings.

 

 

A friend of mine has a modified Tempest that was altered by a local gunsmith. The solid metal spring guide was turned down and a second spring was inserted inside the factory mainspring. After initial velocity tests, I did a disassembly and found the factory mainspring measured 6.625" long and approximately 0.55"OD. Spring coils were flat style. The smaller spring was 5.14" long and .306"OD. The wire thickness was .058" on the smaller spring.

 

Before I disassembled this Tempest it shot the following:

 

 

When this Tempest was disassembled it contained a large amount of an unknown black smelly lube (gunsmith applied). This lube was completely removed and known lubricants were added. Beeman’s M2M moly was applied to: the spring guide, outside of small spring, inside of large spring, spring ends, piston interior, piston bands, piston seal perimeter, cocking linkages and foot, barrel pivot, barrel fulcrum, and moly was also polished into the compression chamber. Macarri tar was applied to the exterior of the larger mainspring.

 

Although this Tempest gained almost no velocity from the "lube tune", it was now much smoother to cock and shoot.

 

After shooting several pellets the dieseling stopped and it shot the following:

 

 

The gun was definitely more difficult to cock with the extra power spring but not much was gained for velocity. The first part of the cocking stroke required about the same effort as an unaltered Tempest but part way through, when the smaller spring began compressing, it was much more difficult to continue and finish the stroke. This leads me to my conclusion about the Tempest. It seems to peak in factory form and major modifications are needed to improve this performance (ie. piston chopping).

 

The newest version of the Webley Tempest has a wider trigger blade. All other parts of the pistol seem to be unchanged. In 2003 a local shooter asked me to do a lube tune on his new Tempest. Velocity results as follows.

 

 

Velocity Summary

The above velocity information shows four different Tempest pistols with an average velocity difference of only 12 fps with Crosman Premier Light pellets (444fps, 450fps, 452fps, 456fps).

 

The Tempest generates very reasonable velocity, considering it’s compact size and self-contained power system.

 

 

 

ACCURACY DATA

 

I found shooting the Tempest from a benchrest to be an exercise in frustration. Since this pistol only had iron sights, I decided to test the pistol’s shootability with 10 shot offhand groups from 10 metres. The Tempest is definitely more difficult to shoot than my HW45 but lots of fun can still be had from this compact pistol.

 

 

The first two groups from the Tempest had a different average POI than the last two groups. The average of the group center dropped by a little over 1". It is possible my gripping pressure increased a slight bit for the last two groups and that may account for this POI change. The Tempest is known to be a hold sensitive pistol. My grip was consistent as possible throughout shooting all 10 pellets within each group.

 

In the past I have shot countless 5 shot groups with the Tempest from 10 metres. Groups typically run around 1.4”-1.7” with my shooting ability. Flyers are often encountered when paper shooting this pistol.

 

Accuracy Summary

The Webley Tempest is definitely not the best suited pistol for an 18 yard silhouette competition. The short sight radius, hold sensitivity, light weight, and utility sights make top accuracy a challenge to achieve. The Tempest would be better suited to smacking tin cans or stuffing in a packsack during a hiking trip.

 

People who enjoy puncturing paper targets with the Tempest are those who enjoy the challenge.

 

 

 

HOLSTER INFORMATION

 

Many times I have seen Tempest owners asking about holster options on the various airgun forums. There is more than one holster that fits the Webley pistols but the one that I am familiar with is the Uncle Mike’s Sidekick Size 5.  This model fits the Tempest and Hurricane.

 

When using the Sidekick #5 the trigger guard will be exposed from the trigger rearwards. The holster’s top strap will fit around the web of the grip and secure the gun from movement.

 

 

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Copyright 2004