Value of a pre war webly senior

[RichardLH]

A few years back when doing a loft tidy I found an old Webly Senior that belongs to the missus. On looking up the serial numbe it looks ot match around 1935 or so (it was her grandfathers) The condition isn't too bad, bit of browning, original grips and a nice clean barrel. What has been done though is removal of the barrel linkage to cock the piston. I've been toying with the idea of either getting it working or just leaving it as a deactivated pistol. Given its going to need the whole linkage setup and probably new spring & seals, what sort of value would I be thinking of for a working one? Certainly I would not want to sell it but conversely I woundn't want to be blowing £60 on parts to find it's worth £50

[harry mac]

Pictures are what's needed here. Is it a straight grip Senior, or a slant grip? The linkage parts shouldn't be hard to get hold of either from one of the spare parts suppliers such as Chambers, or even off e-bay. If the rest of the pistol is in reasonable order it will be well worth buying the parts. It could well be that rather than having a non working pistol worth a maximum of £40, you end up with a pistol worth £90-£110+ for the sake of a few quid on parts.
BUT....Pics are a must.

[RichardLH]

Thanks. I'll get some pics done. Just replaced my phone so hopefully they won't look like a log in a snowstorm like the previous camera.

[RichardLH]

Ok slight problem I'm getting the img tag option as disabled so I guess images are out the question but to be honest the £100 ball park gives me an idea that is fine. it's a .22 so for indoor target it's not suitable which is what I mainly do, but for a bit of outdoor plinking it's not throwing good money after bad to get it firing again. Cheers.

[harry mac]

Richard, you need to upload the pics to Photobucket, or a similar site, and then post links on here.

[RichardLH]

I'm having fun n games with my iPad logging me out so I'll try and link in here.

http://i1382.photobucket.com/albums/...ps05ce2025.jpg

And

http://i1382.photobucket.com/albums/ah274/RichardLH1/imagejpg1_zpsfa7798b4.jpg

It's a slant grip I would say. The finish looks a lot worse in a photo than I first though sadly and I'm really wondering if restoring it may spoil it somewhat.

[Josie & John]

Hi Richard,

It may cost more than the pistol's value to replace missing parts and restore it unless you are handy and want a winter project. You are unlikely to obtain original pre war linkage - post war Senior linkage will fit but probably look out of place. The pistol itself should clean up but replacement parts could make a restoration expensive.


John

[micky]

Keep an eye on the bay as you might pick the parts up on there, or put an add in the wants on here, l think it's worth doing up.

[scrapman]

You do see the occasional Wobbly being broken on fleabay, but they tend to be mostly later alloy pistols. You could wait an awfully long time though - unless someone on this forum has the goods. Chambers have the parts, but I think you'd be looking at about £60 with postage, as suggested, even assuming nothing else needs doing (https://www.gunspares.co.uk/products...istol-1935-64/). IMO it would be a shame to break it though, as its an old one and nearly complete. As the gun was free, 60 quid for a working pre-war Senior wouldn't be at all bad (it might fetch £90+ here, more on the open market?), and your wife might be pleased if you 'rescue' her grandfather's toy. It may be worth another rummage in the loft though, to look for an old and rusty pellet tin that rattles in an encouraging way when shaken!

[RichardLH]

Thanks for the great advice. Sadly I found the gun after we moved in, so I guess it was just packed up when we moved, but you never know. I suspect the linkage was removed to deactivate it. It's certainly something I wouldn't want to sell on, but would try to get it back to original. After seeing some rather nice ones on here, I'm tempted just to get it cosmetically up to scratch as I don't really think if that as being a big job for me.

[scrapman]

.... I'm tempted just to get it cosmetically up to scratch as I don't really think if that as being a big job for me.

It would be nice though to see another old Webley returned to working order. I have quite a number of various air pistols, but its usually my tatty but functional old Senior that I choose to take out to the garden for a bit of plinking. The work should be a doddle if you can find an original linkage - just a question of lining up the parts and knocking the pin home with a pin hammer. Maybe just a bit fiddly to assemble the bits if you need to get the parts from Chambers, but still easy (I get my wife to do that kind of fine work - my fingers are too large and I'm long sighted!).

It's possible that the pin at the barrel lug just fell out and the linkage was put somewhere 'safe' as it could very easily fall off completely without the pin. It's obviously a weak point as about a half of the Webley pistols I've bought over the years have had various split pins, small nails and bits of wire where the pin should be (btw, short sections cut from the shafts of 1/8 aluminium pop rivets can often be used to replace the 'official' pin - they are high carbon steel and usually an interference fit to the barrel lug).