Revisiting this thread as I have some new observations....

There were three proposed reasons for the missing breech protrusions:

To quote slug-gun, who is a very experienced collector and author of Webley Air Rifles 1925-2005, there are three scenarios:

1. Either both projections were broken off on a pistol which has seen very little use, and then expertly repaired and blued over by its owner to match the existing action?

2. Webley decided at some point, probably fairly late on in the making of the double spring clips, that the projections had a limited function and removed them during manufacture?

3. The pistol was sent back to the factory by the owner because the projections were bending or whatever, and Webley 'fettled' the pistol at that point in time?


Not too long ago, a double spring clip came appeared at Kempton. Looking at the photos it seems that it has the breech protrusions or at least one is intact. It is serial number 1257 which is pretty high. That would seem to preclude option 2. Unless this pistol, and maybe there are others, was old stock that Webley eventually decided to stamp with a serial number and sell. Would Webley have left stamping of the serial number to a late stage in the production cycle though?

More food for thought for sure!