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.