Barnett spitfire/ webley tracker

[Scorpion 1200]

Hi guys bought the gun not long ago been trying to find a manufacture date 10794 serial no can anyone help

[Geezer]

Hi guys bought the gun not long ago been trying to find a manufacture date 10794 serial no can anyone help

My recollection is that the period when Webley Trackers were marked as Barnett Spitfires and marketed in the US was fairly early in production. Around 1983-85. Trackers were made from 1982-96 or so. They were still advertised until around 2000, but my hunch is that by then they were new old stock. My other hunch is that sales were high for the first few years, but rapidly tailed off once things like the HW77 and Diana 54 arrived on the market.

I have a personal theory that 1980s Webley serial numbers were not done sequentially, and therefore are a poor guide to production date. I’ve seen a few too many guns (including from the factory collection) that had “early” serials with later features (eg the trigger, presence of a safety on the Beeman C1, the later camo stock on a low-number Tracker), or vice-versa.

It’s not even clear which rifles shared the same “serial” blocks - Chris Thrale speculates that the short Tracker and long Viscount did, but isn’t 100% sure. Unfortunately, the relevant Webley paperwork appears to have been thrown in the bin and lost when proper Webley folded.

Trackers are cool (I have a Deluxe ). Spitfires are even cooler, through scarcity, and because they often have that weird rear sight, apparently borrowed from a crossbow. They are actually pretty average shooting machines, but that does not reduce their coolness.

[Scorpion 1200]

My recollection is that the period when Webley Trackers were marked as Barnett Spitfires and marketed in the US was fairly early in production. Around 1983-85. Trackers were made from 1982-96 or so. They were still advertised until around 2000, but my hunch is that by then they were new old stock. My other hunch is that sales were high for the first few years, but rapidly tailed off once things like the HW77 and Diana 54 arrived on the market.

I have a personal theory that 1980s Webley serial numbers were not done sequentially, and therefore are a poor guide to production date. I’ve seen a few too many guns (including from the factory collection) that had “early” serials with later features (eg the trigger, presence of a safety on the Beeman C1, the later camo stock on a low-number Tracker), or vice-versa.

It’s not even clear which rifles shared the same “serial” blocks - Chris Thrale speculates that the short Tracker and long Viscount did, but isn’t 100% sure. Unfortunately, the relevant Webley paperwork appears to have been thrown in the bin and lost when proper Webley folded.

Trackers are cool (I have a Deluxe ). Spitfires are even cooler, through scarcity, and because they often have that weird rear sight, apparently borrowed from a crossbow. They are actually pretty average shooting machines, but that does not reduce their coolness.

Thanks for your reply mate , I bought the spitfire because I had a tracker in my youth , it came with the rear sight on the scope rail , getting a welsh willie tune kit brought over next month , IV also bought a 1987 Diana yesterday

[Scorpion 1200]

Diana 52

[Troubledshooter]

According to the limited records I have, Barnet Spitfire 10794 was one of a batch of 286 .177's produced in 1982. I do not have exact production dates, unlike many Trackers and Viscounts.
All the Spitfire numbers of both calibres appear to have been produced in 1982.

I too am a fan of the Tracker and still have several in my collection, including a very nicely patterned De-luxe stocked version, and a boxed mint Camo version, which in my opinion is probably the least aesthetically pleasing of all Trackers.

[Scorpion 1200]

Thanks mate , greatly appreciated

[elanmac]

Slightly off topic but I went to school with Bernard and Peter Barnett. We used to make gunpowder for our own fireworks. I got my mom to buy saltpetre from the local chemist telling her that I needed it to clean up rabbit skins. Bernards mom bought the sulphur with a similar excuse and we made the charcoal. A couple of years later they sold crossbow drawings for 2/6 .I made one from their drawings and still have it. The prod was made from Noral 75 alloy which I bent into shape using a piece of scaffold pole. The side plates I made from brass plate. I fancied trying my hand at etching using candle wax and nitric acid. No health and safety in those days 1950s/60s. I was given a pint of acid which I poured onto the brass, clouds of green gas drove me from the bathroom. When the gas cleared I was happy with the result but my dad wasn't, I had stained the enamel in the bath. A few years later Bernard and Peter opened a factory in Bilston and then went from strength to strength eventually moving to Florida.
Mac

[Scorpion 1200]

Slightly off topic but I went to school with Bernard and Peter Barnett. We used to make gunpowder for our own fireworks. I got my mom to buy saltpetre from the local chemist telling her that I needed it to clean up rabbit skins. Bernards mom bought the sulphur with a similar excuse and we made the charcoal. A couple of years later they sold crossbow drawings for 2/6 .I made one from their drawings and still have it. The prod was made from Noral 75 alloy which I bent into shape using a piece of scaffold pole. The side plates I made from brass plate. I fancied trying my hand at etching using candle wax and nitric acid. No health and safety in those days 1950s/60s. I was given a pint of acid which I poured onto the brass, clouds of green gas drove me from the bathroom. When the gas cleared I was happy with the result but my dad wasn't, I had stained the enamel in the bath. A few years later Bernard and Peter opened a factory in Bilston and then went from strength to strength eventually moving to Florida.
Mac

Cool story , I remember Barnett cross bows as a kid in England