In praise of Webley air pistols

[harry mac]

I agree with I.J. Just been given a hardly used 1950's Webley Senior .177 and compared to my Diana Model Six its a load of crap. Heavy trigger, bog basic sights. The only fun I get from it is putting it back in the case.
Dave

Just to back up my earlier defence, I've put in a link to a pic of two targets. Both shot at 20, yes 20 yards. One with a late 1940's Webley Mk1, and one with a bona fide 10m match pistol, in this case a Fwb Mod 80. Both pistols were shot "officers at revolver practice" style, one handed, with the other on the hip. The scores on the doors are Webley 80/0 ex 100, Feinwerkbau, 91/1 ex 100. I'd say the Webley didn't doo too bad.
On both targets there are 2 shots outside the main group. With the Fwb this is definately down to me. If the same is true of the Webley card you could increase the score by at least 4 points.
I will admit that I took two strings of ten to sort out a point of aim with the Webley as originally it was putting it's shots low, but once that was sorted I managed to surprise myself with how well it shot.
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/j...psbb21a439.jpg

[Abasmajor]

Just to back up my earlier defence, I've put in a link to a pic of two targets. Both shot at 20, yes 20 yards. One with a late 1940's Webley Mk1, and one with a bona fide 10m match pistol, in this case a Fwb Mod 80. Both pistols were shot "officers at revolver practice" style, one handed, with the other on the hip. The scores on the doors are Webley 80/0 ex 100, Feinwerkbau, 91/1 ex 100. I'd say the Webley didn't doo too bad.
On both targets there are 2 shots outside the main group. With the Fwb this is definately down to me. If the same is true of the Webley card you could increase the score by at least 4 points.
I will admit that I took two strings of ten to sort out a point of aim with the Webley as originally it was putting it's shots low, but once that was sorted I managed to surprise myself with how well it shot.
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/j...psbb21a439.jpg

Hello Harry,

The attached link is to a typical group I can usually fairly easily achieve with my .22 calibre B Series Premier on the standard NSRA 10 metre target using a single handed unsupported stance. I have shot the pistol at 20 yds but found the groups open up too much to be acceptable at that distance.

http://i1362.photobucket.com/albums/...psc7b82c7c.jpg


Regards

Brian

[harry mac]

That's excellent shooting Brian, especially for a Webley at 10m. On a 10m target I do well to keep all my shots within th 8 ring these days, even with the Fwb 80. Your target shows a good 9 ring sized group. I'm impressed.

[Abasmajor]

That's excellent shooting Brian, especially for a Webley at 10m. On a 10m target I do well to keep all my shots within th 8 ring these days, even with the Fwb 80. Your target shows a good 9 ring sized group. I'm impressed.

Hello Harry,

I can usually compete fairly well against the PCPs at 10 metres but as I say when it comes to anything much further it becomes a lot more difficult. Having said that these pistols were never meant to shoot much beyond 10 yds with Webley themselves claiming 1" groups for all but the Junior at that range. Although the other precision techniques are obviously very important, I have found the single most vital contribution to accuracy with these pistols is "follow through" which strangely enough is probably the easiest to master.

Regards

Brian

[ggggr]

I sent the Tempest I bought recently to one of our (anonymous for now) esteemed members to try out. It was the one fitted with the Typhoon spring and a lighter trigger spring + polished trigger.
The pistol was returned today with a couple of cards showing results with hollowpoints and hobbies plus some pellets to try.
I shoot 2 handed because of knackered arms.
I found the hollowpoints to "string" a bit and also got 2 bad fliers with pellets with damaged skirts.
The hobbies shot well and at 7 1/2 yards I shot a quick 10 shot group that a 2p piece would cover.
I then tried the Milbro Caledonians and managed to shoot a 5 shot group in a 3 pellet hole. I got a few more accurate shots before my knackered arms meant I started to pull the shots to the right

Still this is not bad for a £50 plinking pistol. I cannot understand people going out and buying some of the cheaper foreign pistols, when these can still be had at fair prices?

[Abasmajor]

I sent the Tempest I bought recently to one of our (anonymous for now) esteemed members to try out. It was the one fitted with the Typhoon spring and a lighter trigger spring + polished trigger.
The pistol was returned today with a couple of cards showing results with hollowpoints and hobbies plus some pellets to try.
I shoot 2 handed because of knackered arms.
I found the hollowpoints to "string" a bit and also got 2 bad fliers with pellets with damaged skirts.
The hobbies shot well and at 7 1/2 yards I shot a quick 10 shot group that a 2p piece would cover.
I then tried the Milbro Caledonians and managed to shoot a 5 shot group in a 3 pellet hole. I got a few more accurate shots before my knackered arms meant I started to pull the shots to the right

Still this is not bad for a £50 plinking pistol. I cannot understand people going out and buying some of the cheaper foreign pistols, when these can still be had at fair prices?

Hi ggggr,

It definitely can be done.

I have also found the RWS Hobby to be a good alternative to the more expensive H&N Match pellets which I normally use in older spring air pistols.

Regards

Brian

[Amac]

Same here with the Hobbies!
Andy