Webley pistol barrel sizes ?

[El Garro]

Hi, a friend of mine has a few old pistols and tells me his mk1 will not take a 5.6mm pellet. He's got old Wasps and Marksman but they will not push in. He's tried the muzzle end too in case the breech end was flattened or oval.
5.5 pellets fit and shoot nicely too so he did a bit of digging and says that there were differences in the barrels , some older ones appear to have been 5.5 and others, even later models were 5.6.
Any ideas as to why they would've done that ?
I thought some may have been for export or for target shooting and they may have used different bores ?
I'm baffled all the same. Does anyone have any info please ?

[laverdabru]

Hmmm...Can't say I've ever heard of Mk 1's, or even my late Hurricanes, having a 5.5mm bore.

[El Garro]

I think the info came from Gordon Bruce's book on the pistols.
I believe the webley barrels were rifled with buttons and presume the measurement was taken with the true bore of the lands and not the grooves ?
Either way, the 5.6 pellets he's tried are too tight, the barrel appears to be original and not modified with another tube so it's a bit of a mystery.
I've never struggled to get old pellets into 5.5mm barrels in rifles so it's puzzling me.

[ggggr]

I think the info came from Gordon Bruce's book on the pistols.
I believe the webley barrels were rifled with buttons and presume the measurement was taken with the true bore of the lands and not the grooves ?
Either way, the 5.6 pellets he's tried are too tight, the barrel appears to be original and not modified with another tube so it's a bit of a mystery.
I've never struggled to get old pellets into 5.5mm barrels in rifles so it's puzzling me.

Somebody sent me some Marksmen 5.6mm pellets and while they did go in the pistol barrels they shot like c-ap. The 5.5mm ones were fine. This was even with the Hurricane /Tempest which have "5.6mm" on the barrel forging.

[Mr. Gen]

I have never come across this and I have a fair few webley pistols.

It is entirely possible both ends of the barrel have been damaged - the barrel closing under spring pressure will oval the breech, especially in .22 and dropping the pistol onto a hard surface can damage the muzzle restricting it.

[lodmoor]

I have had some 'modern' pellets that need a little umph to go into a Webley barrel but then .22 translates to 5.588mm, nearer 5.6 than 5.5?????

[El Garro]

Thanks for the replies everyone.
I did wonder if somebody had changed the barrel for a modern tube, it's possible and we know there's no limits to what people can or will do to airguns but it looks original. Maybe it's damaged at both ends as suggested above, or the pellets he's tried are not consistent in size and he's picked out the biggest by chance.
I'll turn some alloy to 5.5 and 5.6 and check the fit when I get chance to see the pistol and see what happens.
Probably worth him trying some Hobbies and seeing how it groups with those.
Cheers,
Nick.