Milbro / Diana production records.

[ggggr]

And nobody owns up to having worked there or knowing anybody who worked there?
I think if you look at the numbers of guns produced from Bsa/Webley/Milbro, they are actually very small on a global scale. The Meteor has sold over a million in 54 years, but that is less than 20,000 a year as an average for a popular gun.
I think that only 4,200 Webley Typhoons were made?
Bsa Reflex sights? 9,000

The late 50's and all the 60's guns do seem to have a date stamp on them but I don't think many of the 70,s ones do.

Both myself and Mr Ogilkes, have described the 70's guns as being "British Leylandy" and that may be true.
I had the pleasure of doing a couple of G79/80's a few years ago, (one that Oglikes very kindly sent me) and I sent them on to Gamocfx.
They do have faults but are accurate guns. Another pin to stop the "rocking trigger" would have helped as would a piston that wasn,t made out of crap metal that wears.
I am currently playing about with a couple of Milbro cougars (must bump the thread for spares) and it is almost like they had the basis of a decent "Scottish Scorpion" but then they handed it over to a bloke who had been sacked from British Leyland for being a half wit
They have a die cast Trigger housing that weighs about the same as a Webley pistol and grips made out of the most brittle plastic known to man.
I am trying to "roll it in glitter", because it is reckoned that you can't polish a turd. Hopefully with the help of a couple of the bbsers, I will get a working pistol that will be better than the standard one, but hardly any different, in the respect that the factory could have done it themselves with very little effort.

[flatrajectory]

My early 1950's model 27 does not have any date stamps anywhere,not even on the stock. It would seem to be very well made and assembled, more Germanic than the later Milbro developed models.
I love the term ... BritishLeylandy, very apt. As an RAC patrol during the 70's to 00's I have worked on many of Longbridges finest and they were utter crap. Tolerances could be measured with a callender, nevermind a micrometer........l.o.l.

Pete.

[ogilkes]

Milbros were slightly better than Longbirdge, although that damn plastic trigger unit for the later G70/G80 which wobbled all over the shop was very much of that ilk. Its a shame, they made what could have been decent youth rifles, it just needed a bit more commitment. I suppose that was the problem. The whole operation was set up on the cheap with filched equipment and no one really bothered.

[Gamocfx]

The G80s are very much appreciated and regularily used, The .177 is very accurate and the rifles have a very decent stock....I cannot fathom how they managed to go under with such a good start? Records must exist somewhere...maybe one day they will turn up, where was the factory? Some employee will know what happened.

[Garvin]

I agree it's a shame more isn't known about Milbro's manufacturing history. I'm curious to know how the company came to make the G55, which appears to be a copy of the post-War Diana mod 50. Did they license the design from Diana or what? I can't see Diana wanting to do that as it would have eaten into sales of the Diana-made Originals.

I also wonder what Diana made of Milbro, which apparently had little of the German company's drive to be the best that it could be, despite the British company having something of a head start in the 1950s. Then again, perhaps having to start from scratch with new machinery helped Diana quickly overtake Milbro, with its old-tech pre-War machinery and designs! It's hard to imagine Milbro having come up with the technological wizardry that made the recoilless Diana 60 such a magnificent piece of machinery, for example!

I have a soft spot for Milbro despite not having a very high opinion of its post-War output, because I spent many, many happy hours plinking with a Milbro-made "Diana" tinplate in my youth. It saddens me to think that Scottish youngsters won't be able to enjoy this harmless pleasure in the future if the SNP licensing scheme banning plinking in private homes and gardens goes through.

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