A couple of interesting home-made air pistols

[Powderfinger]

AJP = A.J. Parker ?

[ccdjg]

AJP = A.J. Parker ?

Nice thought, but I would have thought the man himself was six foot under at the time of the Premier. I suppose AJP could be the initials of the company, which was still going at the time, and the modification was done in their workshops, but the professionalism of the workmanship doesn't seem to quite live up to that.

Guy, good point about the risk of the barrel fouling the trigger guard in extended barrel Seniors (and Premiers). Denis Hiller shows a long barrel D series Premier in his book, and the barrel seems to be short enough to get over this problem. He doesn't say anything about this gun, but I assume it is an amateur customisation as I have never heard of any long-barreled Premiers being advertised.

I am not sure how they solved this problem in the commercially produced long-barrel Seniors as I have never seen one on the flesh. Pictures of the Senior are hard to come by and this is the only one I have. That is something for you to do when you get fed up with your table goodies- get out your ruler and compasses and work out the trajectory of the barrel when it is cocked.





Does anyone own one of these rare Seniors? Apparently they contained a few other modifications and it would be nice to get some more pics and feedback on performance.

[ggggr]

Guy, good point about the risk of the barrel fouling the trigger guard in extended barrel Seniors (and Premiers). Denis Hiller shows a long barrel D series Premier in his book, and the barrel seems to be short enough to get over this problem. He doesn't say anything about this gun, but I assume it is an amateur customisation as I have never heard of any long-barreled Premiers being advertised.

I am not sure how they solved this problem in the commercially produced long-barrel Seniors as I have never seen one on the flesh. Pictures of the Senior are hard to come by and this is the only one I have. That is something for you to do when you get fed up with your table goodies- get out your ruler and compasses and work out the trajectory of the barrel when it is cocked.





Does anyone own one of these rare Seniors? Apparently they contained a few other modifications and it would be nice to get some more pics and feedback on performance.

Ruler and compasses? My maths are a bit rusty for all the angles and stuff as well ---------------However, looking at your pic, it looks like the barrel band is a little further back than a normal Senior, BUT the back of the long link comes to the same place. That would suggest to me that Webley would have fitted a Mk1 long link (which is shorter than a Senior one) to the Senior intermediate link. I guess that this would have kept the long link flatter until the Fulcrum kicked in and cocked the gun. This would have been done to allow a barrel longer than 9 1/4 inches, without fouling the trigger guard. I think (off the top of my head) Mk ones dimensions could have been used but that would have made the gun hard to cock.
I cannot see Webley making a different long link for a long barreled version as that would have confused the spares situation even more.

Maybe someone can put up that Premier article from AGW? I think it was called "how to turn a pig into your favourite pistol" --or something similar.

[1066]

I have a similar one - It's a Premier bought new in about the middle 60's for £9.19/6. I machined and fitted the longer barrel and made new grips in the middle 70's. I recently re-discovered this, along with a BSA Merlin underlever rifle, when I cleaned out my dads shed, they have been laying there for 40 years and unfortunately now in poor condition.


I can't really remember what the barrel started life as but at about the time I bought a job lot of Baikal junior break barrel rifles and fitted them with aperture sights for a scout troop, so could well be one of those, they were really very accurate for a cheap rifle.

[ccdjg]

A neater job than mine as you have kept the barrel bands. Your second pic certainly shows the problem Guy highlighted about barrel length and restricted cocking. I am still not clear how the commercial ones coped with an 11 inch barrel.

[ggggr]

A neater job than mine as you have kept the barrel bands. Your second pic certainly shows the problem Guy highlighted about barrel length and restricted cocking. I am still not clear how the commercial ones coped with an 11 inch barrel.

After our chat today John and re reading an old AGW article about a Premier with a long barrel (thanks to troubledshooter for emailling it to me )
I had a think about it. The AGW article had a modded Premier than Gerald Cardew had made the barrel for from a BSA Cadet. The barrel was 12 inches and fouled the trigger guard and he mentions that is why everyone else went for 10 inch barrels. He faffed about and put a spacer under the piston washer, therefore shortening the stroke a little. Too much and the cocking shoe would hit the holding flange of the piston when closing the barrel

I was thinking about it and the only simple way of fitting a barrel long than 9 3/4 --10 inches would be to use Mk1 barrel band spacing on the barrel and Mk1 linkages--------------Which would mean it would cock like a Mk1 one and the fulcrum would not come into play.
As these barrels were a none Webley aftermarket part (according to the pm you sent me) then it would have to be a straight swap with the Senior barrel otherwise they would have to mess with the piston and probably the linkages too.
Is there a chance that picture is a mock up/ non working example? maybe with the cocking shoe left out? A Senior linkage would look better and be a better seller than someone seeing a Mk 1 linkage and thinking "Sod that!"

OR Is that barrel pivot offset?

[ccdjg]

The original article appeared in Guns Review, March 1979 and was written by Dr Joe Gilbart , a much respected collector of air pistols and writer of the late 1900’s. The pistol under discussion belonged to another collector and Joe was describing it first hand. His photograph (below) was originally black and white and I colorized purely it out of interest.




His write up went as follows:

“The Webley pistol has a most unusual appearance and when I first saw it my reaction was “Good Heavens, a Webley Buntline! ……………………………………..I am sure you will see what I mean when you look at the illustration of this Webley “Senior” (Fig. 5). These very long barrels were not made by Webley & Scott, but by an independent firm who advertised in periodicals of the mid 1950’s as replacement barrels for the Webley Senior air pistol, reputedly to improve the accuracy and velocity. The barrel is very well made of steel , with a foresight brazed on the muzzle end. The hinge piece and the standard Webley cocking linkage are also brazed to the barrel. The fit and finish, including the blueing, are truly excellent. However, when we look inside the barrel, we find a surprising thing. The rifling is 13 groove, which is a true departure from the contemporary standard Webley seven groove rifling. The calibre is .22 and the barrel length is 11 and a quarter inches. ……………………………………………….. .”

He the goes on to say that the owner has made further modifications to the pistol by fitting thick walnut grips and adding a trigger adjusting screw.


Evidently these barrels were sold complete with cocking linkage and were interchangeable with the standard Webley Senior barrel without the requirement for any further modification of the pistol.