Bionic .25 cal Webley Patriot/Beeman Kodiak

[Ziabeam]

Bought a Beeman Kodiak springer from my aunt after my uncle passed. By all indications it had not been shot much. Once I shot it, it was clear why (uncle Joe only frequented his accurate guns, and usually traded any lemons). It shot AWFUL !!!
Could NOT honestly keep any pellet I tried under 3" at 25 yds, and I tried many.... believe me.

That was 6 years ago.

Spent many years assessing its deficiencies during the COMPLETE tear-down and disassembly to the component level. Suffice it to say if a man TRIED to do everything wrong he succeeded handsomely. Poor fitment in at LEAST a half-dozen critical areas, most of which were in the area of the barrel, and barrel block, seal interfaces, etc... condemned this sample of an otherwise fine (by repute) English airgun to mediocrity.

I'm up to my neck on a long promised rebuild/ overhaul, my late father (uncle Joe's bro.... dad's "bro-Joe") and I discussed at length. Dad passed away September 27th, 2018. This project is my catharsis.

The makeover will entail the following upgrades, many of which are well under way;

• Rekord trigger
• 13" Lothar Walther barrel
• Custom barrel block
• Integrated (permanent) Picatinny rail
• Barrel shroud/ extension for sound moderation
• Fashioning/fitting uninletted Boyd's thumbhole laminated stock
• Hand turned pivot screw with ten positions (like the Diana 65 had... vs 6 positions)
• Parkerized under Cerakote finish
• 75 kg Gas ram, with a smidge over 120mm of travel
• Titanium end-cap
• Re-Settable safety
• Two piece cocking rod (for shorter cocking slot cut into stock) utilizing Beeman RX-2 cocking glide
• Custom stock mount which doubles as the guide "force" for the two-piece cocking arm.... must be removable since the compression tube was NOT designed for a cocking shoe.
• Four Torlon buttons at aft end of piston
• Vortek 30mm Vac seal conversion
• Custom trigger guard
• Rowan brass straight "set-back" trigger

Got most of this figured, and MUCH of it well under way....

Have a question though ... the stock transfer post is .158" in diameter... (4mm)... will finish it and shoot as is. If it shoots "harsh" I might ask for recommendations regarding a starting point for a suitable diameter.

 

[Coldair]

Had one a while ago way back when and it shot great straight out of the box until I had a gas ram installed then I couldn't get it to hold a reasonable group and got so frustrated that I simply gave up and sold it for very cheap as-is after that. Pellets mine liked the best were the Kodiak/Barracuda and FTTs with the Crow Magnums being next in line believe it or not but JSBs weren't available then so I didn't get the chance to test those FYI...

I hope and pray you have better luck than I did. IMHO powerplant-wise, I would just try to keep it as stock as possible based on my end results.

In my case, I learned the hard way and just couldn't leave well enough alone but that is only my experience.

Good luck let us know how it goes...

CA

 

[Coldair]

FYI I did notice that Webley UK barrels in general were slightly oversized so I would suggest trying pellets with larger head diameter sizes or perhaps extra heavy weights or even slugs if you decide on giving the factory barrel another try before going through all the trouble to change it.

CA

 

[Ziabeam]

I wanted the original barrel to work, but it had an ugly bore, with deep reamer marks on the lands, and a tight spot above where the pivot screw was. When they bored the block and barrel for that hole there was a scant .027" (.7mm) remaining wall thickness between that pivot hole and the barrel bore, and I suspect the pre-reaming pilot drill was too large, dull or both based on the deformed bore above that cross hole. The breech end of the barrel where the seal sits was turned to .375" dia, yet the oem seal's id's vary from .410" to .421" out of the box, which meant the seals would literally fall out of the gun, and air would escape around the seal (even new ones). Also the breech block's barrel fitment id was somehow factory reamed with a taper from .566" to .571" (bigger towards muzzle), yet he barrel tenon was turned to .559", and you could actually see the barrel wobble inside the decaying factory loctite. It was very disappointing. The conical pivot shim was digging into the compression tube fork, which was worsened by any attempt to snug the pivot screw in order to diminish side play at lock-up. The pivot hole in the compression tube fork was .252" diameter id, but the pivot screw was .249" So based on the cumulative net effect of all the above issues I felt it was time to gut it and go for broke.

As for the gas ram, I'm hoping it will work out. I suspect the transfer port size might play a functional role in tweaking any bad manners or accuracy issues... knock on wood.

 

[ranedouglas]

i'm curious as to how a rekord trigger packet might work with that '1 and a half stage' noble patriot trigger....?? rekord latches onto the rod coming down the center of the piston - like a diana , no ? i like the uk longbow triggers best of all airgun triggers - and they latch to the outside of piston bottom....but they are impossible to find anymore...how does a rekord trigger work on that webley magnum ? can you share about that ? 

 

[Ziabeam]

It will hook on the lower piston surface same place the factory trigger does. The gas rams' rod will pass over the trigger. There is room for it to all fit and work as designed, and still fit up high enough to look perfectly normal with the stock I have in mind, which is a bit deeper than the factory stock. It actually surprised me how the geometries fell into place.

Am taking pictures along the way. This is my second Rekord transplant. The other one can be seen HERE;

 

[Ziabeam]

Getting a lot done. Much will need to wait until after the holidays though. Here's a few few posts and pics of some of the progress I've made since starting the thread;

Prepping the new ram for its new home;

Did away with the washers, and trued the other end for a press fit nylon top-hat to keep the ram centered in the piston.

 

[Ziabeam]

Sanded the burs away (deep inside at the front end of the inside of the piston) where the nylon top hat will rest. The new Vortek Vac seal piston has since been fitted, along with 4 Torlon buttons at the rear, and modified slots to allow for the estimated 120mm of travel;

 

[Ziabeam]

Started shaping the titanium end-cap thingy that will replace the aluminum one. It's the piece where everything loads into the rear of the compression tube.

Much of the material you see here is extra on the backside (in the chuck), and the new Rekord safety hole and cavity aren't milled yet.

 

[Ziabeam]

The dovetail was arched, so it got recut, and a matching cut on the underside of a piece of steel picatinny rail for permanent mounting. The new rail will also be pinned and loctited in place. Here you see the taped off compression tube and underside of the rail sandblasted for a good etch that the loctite can grip.

 

[Ziabeam]

Cutting a piece of steel for the new barrel block;

 

[Ziabeam]

Prepping 12-3/4" long LW .25 cal barrel, with chromoly shroud to fit new block.

Notice a portion of the shroud will be knurled and fit inside the lengthened barrel block. I feel like that will lessen the strain in the area of the barrel that is largely unsupported by the original barrel block.

Turning portion that goes into block (below);

Scuffed and ready to be loctited inside the shroud tube (below);

Fitted to shroud and knurled/scuffed for block (below)

Hex drive shroud cap. The tubular inner extension imo helps delay the escaping air long enough to further dampen the report.

Loctited in block (below)

 

[Ziabeam]

The block is now being fit to the compression tube forks. Notice the gaudy looking extra material remaining where the shroud is inside the barrel block. Have decided to nick-name this gun "Hammerhead" as a result.

Also note the enlarged shim slots. Going to use fitted 1" diameter leaded tin bronze washers for increased stability. Have already lapped the forks for parallelism. The washers are now big enough to capture a dowel pin to replace the roll-pin that use to retain the lock plunger.

 

[Ziabeam]

DIY lead slugs for lead lapping the bore. Drilled and tapped (8-32) .30 cal pellets and placed them on an an improvised mandrel that also fits a cleaning rod after 2-stage forming is completed in a smooth swage, followed by forming rifling in the unused portion of the barrel to match the rifling being lapped on the gun.

drilled...(below)

tapped... (below)

ready to swage... (below)

Swaged and ready to impress rifling (below)

Made nylon bore guide that fits where breech seal goes... (below)

tapped (notice collet squeeze)... then swaged (not shown) then rifled slug for lapping... (below)

The pellet skirt holds lapping compound pretty well. I like it !!

Swaged pellet before the rifling stage. I swage them to a smidge over .257"

Dirty work...

 

[Ziabeam]

Found an uninletted Boyd's stock that seems to be a great all around candidate for this project, to include the added depth to accommodate the Rekord trigger

 

[Ziabeam]

Speaking of the trigger...

...once the cutting began, no looking back...

Have to take more pictures, but NONE of the original housing remains.

 

[Ziabeam]

The original cocking arm was fixtured, cut in half, and fashioned into a two-piece arrangement identical to how the Beeman RX2 is set up;

A two piece cocking arm allows for a much shorter cut in the underside of the stock, but requires a guide to keep it from inverting at the beginning of the cocking stroke. Some airguns rely on the bare wood, of a screw against the rear segment of the cocking arm. Others, like the RX2 have a weldament that keeps everything headed the right direction. I decided to make a removable cocking arm guide, using the original stock screw holes as a mounting point, and adding supplemental holes to mount the stock.

Here's a few pics of the arrangement as it was taking shape ;

 

[Ziabeam]

Discarded bits;

 

[MMCM13]

I would be interested in some of your discarded parts. Sights, that barrel end silencer plug, maybe the stock.

 

[Windmill01]

The word ‘impressive ‘ just doesn’t seem enough for this project of yours Ed. I think the only original parts that remain is the compression chamber, piston and maybe the altered cocking arm. I think you should inscribe ‘ Hammerhead Ziabeam .25 cal ‘ on the barrel block you made.

You are going with a 75 kilo gas ram for this project, is that sufficient to hurl those 25 cal pellets downstream whilst maintaining some shooting comfort. The reason I ask is that I recently replaced the factory gas ram in my 177 Trail for a 50 kilo version. I wanted to destune it a bit due to its harshness and scope killing ways. Needless to say all I got was a ppfffft sound and the pellet still in the breach. The cocking effort was vastly improved but I’ll need to put some more pressure in the ram, maybe 60 kilo, I’ll visit the shop next time I’m up in Harvey Bay. I once put an 80 kilo ram in my 22 Trail but that experiment nearly shook the rifle apart.

Thankyou very much for sharing this project with us, I for one am really looking forward to the end result.

Gary