Webley longbow question

[charley]

Just bought a very nice longbow but mine has a white line spacer with vented buttpad on a beech stock is this standard as most pics seem to just have the black spacer

[Gareth W-B]

Just bought a very nice longbow but mine has a white line spacer with vented buttpad on a beech stock is this standard as most pics seem to just have the black spacer

That may denote that it's not a proper Brum-built Webley & Scott Longbow (pre 2006 when the factory went into receivership), but rather an also-ran made in an overseas factory (Turkey, Eastern Europe and/or Asia) for the marketing company who bought the name Webley from the liquidator, who in turn just slap the name Webley on whatever they have made to import?

Have a look to see if your gun has the word 'Birmingham' embossed on it anywhere. If it does, then it's the real deal and a previous owner has just fitted an after market white spacer (hope this proves to be the case as the non British built Longbows tend to be left wanting in the quality, credibility, and collecting department). Atb: G.

[ken69]

My Brum built Longbow has a black spacer about 3mm thick, with a redish brown vented butt pad. No pistol grip cap. The Omega, Vulcan and Eclipse have an unvented butt pad with a white line spacer on both the butt and pistol grip cap

[charley]

definitely webley blueing deep and dark also says Birmingham England and the spacer looks factory fitted to me maybe wrong did not know the turks made the standard beech stocked longbow ??

[charley]

just been looking at pics mine has a fine line spacer the Turkish ones seem to have a fat spacer and different shape vented pad

[Gareth W-B]

definitely webley blueing deep and dark also says Birmingham England and the spacer looks factory fitted to me maybe wrong did not know the turks made the standard beech stocked longbow ??

Then worry not, yours is Kosher kit with an after market modded recoil pad area (very easy to make and fit white spacers and make them look factory fettle, as have done it twice, most successfully, from scratch, myself ). Good skittles.

[charley]

yes closer inspection have just removed the spacer and it does look home made once off so all is well but might put it back quite like the look with it in

[Geezer]

definitely webley blueing deep and dark also says Birmingham England and the spacer looks factory fitted to me maybe wrong did not know the turks made the standard beech stocked longbow ??

Then worry not, yours is Kosher kit with an after market modded recoil pad area (very easy to make and fit white spacers and make them look factory fettle, as have done it twice, most successfully, from scratch, myself ). Good skittles.

At the risk of adding confusion and uncertainty, I think there were three basic iterations of the Longbow.

1. Proper ones made in Birmingham, sold before Webley (proper) folded in 2005 and everything that could be sold was, to the Turks, and everything that couldn't (much of the factory records ) was thrown away.

2. Turkish assembled guns using (at first) Brum-made parts, progressively augmented by Turkish bits. For example, I have seen pics of a gun in the US that is clearly a Longbow, but is marked as an Omega. Presumably Mustapha's job lot of unassembled Webley parts included a pre-94 cylinder marked for an Omega, and he built it up into a "new" rifle with Longbow bits. I am pretty sure some of the early Turk guns used parts made in, finished in, and marked as, Birmingham.

3. Guns made entirely in Turkey. Like the Longbow SE.

So it is possible you have a transitional Brum/Turk hybrid as described above.

Anyway, sod all that, do you like it and does it shoot well? That's what really matters.

[charley]

yes love it and it shoot spot on got the original silencer fitted which I did not think the turks did anyway my mate has just told me he has a Turkish one but it is early and has a beech stock but most Turkish were the se with thumbhole stock

[charley]

oh forgot does anyone have one of the original muzzle protectors they would sell me so I can take the fat silencer off please

[Gareth W-B]

oh forgot does anyone have one of the original muzzle protectors they would sell me so I can take the fat silencer off please

The British Brum-built silencers that Webley & Scott marketed for the Longbow were the sleek slimtech style as designed by Ivan Hancock of Venom fame -- notwithstanding the earlier BBMF mods which Webley also made (predominantly for their PCP range), the big ugly fat mods were/are Turkish, so maybe yours is a post real Webley Turkish/Brum built hybrid as highlighted by Geezer, after all?

For further ref, the genuine Brum Longbows were not sold with a mod, just a fluted tapered muzzle break (infinitely superior to the pepper pot the Tomahawk sported), as the slimtech mods were sold as an official after-market extra. Hope this helps?

[andrewM]

I have checked mine. It has a vented reddish brown rubber butt pad and a black spacer within. I dare say it would be easy to replace the black spacer albeit a bit of a nuisance to do so. The silencer you have could have been added at any time, presumably, so might or might not be original.

I was fortunate enough to find a virtually mint Birmingham Longbow, two months ago and, given what I had read here, bought it. It is pellet fussy. It likes the old H&N Pointed (as does my Omega, also bought this year, thanks to helpful comments here) - very tight groups but with reduced velocity. S.domes are not bad. I have just discovered from H&N themselves that the old Pointed are now H&N Spike but marketed under their 'Excite' label, ie Excite Spike, weighing in at 15.74g for .22.

I have discovered that the velocity is quite variable, depending upon the pellet. I have bought some more varieties of pellet to try out. Air Arms are not bad on the ft/lbs measure but this is a heavy pellet.

I should be interested to discover what you (and others) find works in terms of accuracy and velocity.

Rgds
A

[Gareth W-B]

.
My pre 2005 British Brum-built walnut stocked Sandwell Field Sports ((SFS) tuned Webley & Scott Longbow is in .177 and simply loves Air Arms 4.52 pellets.

[les allam]

I have checked mine. It has a vented reddish brown rubber butt pad and a black spacer within. I dare say it would be easy to replace the black spacer albeit a bit of a nuisance to do so. The silencer you have could have been added at any time, presumably, so might or might not be original.

I was fortunate enough to find a virtually mint Birmingham Longbow, two months ago and, given what I had read here, bought it. It is pellet fussy. It likes the old H&N Pointed (as does my Omega, also bought this year, thanks to helpful comments here) - very tight groups but with reduced velocity. S.domes are not bad. I have just discovered from H&N themselves that the old Pointed are now H&N Spike but marketed under their 'Excite' label, ie Excite Spike, weighing in at 15.74g for .22.

I have discovered that the velocity is quite variable, depending upon the pellet. I have bought some more varieties of pellet to try out. Air Arms are not bad on the ft/lbs measure but this is a heavy pellet.

I should be interested to discover what you (and others) find works in terms of accuracy and velocity.

Rgds
A

Feed it some Falcon accuracy plus pellets, my longbow loves them.
Les.