What's what with Webley pistols?

[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.

[harvey_s]

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.

You're spot on about the steel bodied ones being compact - they are really quite pokey for their size and a vintage revelation if you're used to HW45's as your previous point of reference as to what makes a quality pistol.
See one and feel it and you'll want one

[cinedux]

Leastways,the slant grip models do. They have a look of their own. Out here,in New Zealand,they never sold particularly well. I'd mooch around sport/gun shops and note that the likes of Webley 'Premiers' at around $NZ46 would sit on shelves from one end of a year to the next!Looking at old NZ catalogues ......1966,the 'Premier' is thirteen guineas(we had not decimalised at that time) whilst a Crosman 38T was sixteen pounds and five shillings. The Crosman guns well and truly outsold the Webleys. The Walther LP53 at nineteen pounds was considered decorative and I bought one because it was,well,WALTHER. A 1970 catalogue puts the 'Premier' and Crosman SA6 level at $32NZ(we were decimalised) whilst an LP53 was a whopping fifty dollars. A Crosman Model 157,probably the 'best buy' in the late 60s, cost eleven pounds. This particular pistol made locals toss aside the likes of Acvokes and Webleys-the 150 series was beautiful to behold and a cracker to shoot!Low lifers like myself spent their ill-gotten savings on Crosman SA6s.Just the idea of spraying .22 pellets around appealed Eleven pounds was the asking price. A 'Senior' at the same store was ten pounds eighteen and sixpence-in either calibre(advice,buy the .177,the .22 barrel was liable to bend....)Thirty bob bought a nice Diana 2.The Webley MkIII was a bargain at nineteen quid in either calibre.Ten pounds more than a Cadet Major or Falke 70.

[mrto]

The 'best' full size over lever Webley,I agree is the slant grip Senior,(with a good trigger),but for plinking I prefer the plum framed early post war Junior!