What's what with Webley pistols?

[slug-gun]

Buy a book - namely 'Webley Air Pistols' by Gordon Bruce. Then you'll know.

[harvey_s]

Get your mitts on a slant grip Senior and you'll have the highest quality air pistol ever made in your hands IMHO.
It's the closest air pistols have ever got to firearm quality levels.

[Modski66]

Get your mitts on a slant grip Senior and you'll have the highest quality air pistol ever made in your hands IMHO.
It's the closest air pistols have ever got to firearm quality levels.

I have just taken this advice, and I am not disappointed!

As I don't want a reproduction box with the instructions in the lid, is there anywhere else to get a copy/scan/image of them?

[I. J.]

Then you'll know.

Then when you know - let me know please.

[Troubledshooter]

Then when you know - let me know please.

Come on Ian, you know you love the high quality of Webley pistols.

[45flint]

I started collecting airguns in retirement 3 years ago. My first interests were pistols that looked and shot like firearms. That led me to collect early milled blued Webleys, Haenel 28s, Tell 3, American Hy-score and Targ-Aire pistols. Have experienced all these and there is no doubt in my mind that the Webley is the finest blued milled Pistol that was made. It’s construction is superb and it shoots the best of all of them.

Favorite is the Straight Grip Senior and the early Slant Grip Senior. In 22 cal. 330FPS. In .177 415FPS

[Eagleman]

Thanks folks.

And thank you flint for those lovely pics.

Got a bit of poke too those old seniors!

[Geezer]

Buy a book - namely 'Webley Air Pistols' by Gordon Bruce. Then you'll know.

Very good advice.

Get your mitts on a slant grip Senior and you'll have the highest quality air pistol ever made in your hands IMHO.
It's the closest air pistols have ever got to firearm quality levels.

Equally very good advice.

For about three generations of U.K. airgun shooters (except for the minority enthusiast 10M match guys from the 60s), the Webleys were the pistol you had to own, wanted to own, etc. From the 20s to the late 50s, for most British shooters, the Webley was seen, rightly or wrongly, as the best air pistol in the world.

Nostalgia plays a big part, but in a good way. My post-war Senior is arguably not as good a pistol as my contemporary 1950s wood grip Diana 5. But almost no-one in, say, 1955 Britain, would have held that view.

Damn it, Sir, the Webley is British and I carried a Webley revolver in the Great War!

Even if they aren’t the most accurate things, they are (pre alloy Premier) exceptionally well made, handy, and just nice.

The Tempest is a decent gun. The Senior or early Premier is just better. Similar performance, handier, better build quality.

Finally, I have a Mk1, a Senior, a Tempest and a Hurricane. The one I reach for for a little plink or fondle is always the Senior. Not only is it a bloody good gun, it takes me back to a world before I was born.

[45flint]

Very good advice.



Equally very good advice.

For about three generations of U.K. airgun shooters (except for the minority enthusiast 10M match guys from the 60s), the Webleys were the pistol you had to own, wanted to own, etc. From the 20s to the late 50s, for most British shooters, the Webley was seen, rightly or wrongly, as the best air pistol in the world.

Nostalgia plays a big part, but in a good way. My post-war Senior is arguably not as good a pistol as my contemporary 1950s wood grip Diana 5. But almost no-one in, say, 1955 Britain, would have held that view.

Damn it, Sir, the Webley is British and I carried a Webley revolver in the Great War!

Even if they aren’t the most accurate things, they are (pre alloy Premier) exceptionally well made, handy, and just nice.

The Tempest is a decent gun. The Senior or early Premier is just better. Similar performance, handier, better build quality.

Finally, I have a Mk1, a Senior, a Tempest and a Hurricane. The one I reach for for a little plink or fondle is always the Senior. Not only is it a bloody good gun, it takes me back to a world before I was born.

Yes the Diana 5 may be more accurate but the Webley is so compact and feels and acts much more like a real firearm. I have 5 Webleys and I don’t have one Diana Pistol.