Founder & ex secretary of Rivington Riflemen.
www.rivington-riflemen.uk
must be like getting hit with an old navy colt, i had several webleys back in the 60s
the swap shops in sheffield were full of them sold for about 50 bob
the last ones i had were in the 80s i sold the pair for 80 quid one
was a mk1 premier near mint in the box ended up selling a lot guns
to pay bills happy days
les
I. J. hi I am intrigued by your purchase of the Webley 250, was it a recent purchase? as I thought W & S had long since sold off their "project" guns. You are right in thinking that Webley and indeed the other UK gunmakers bought in German guns to look for ideas as they were so far behind the German makers. I was at Park Lane in the 70's and there was a cabinet in the drawing office that had loads of guns in from all sorts of makers. As I was just beginning to repair target guns that was where my main interest went and I know there was FWB 300; Ans 250; Or 60 and Haenel 310; also they bought in a FWB 65 pistol to look to update their range and after stripping it couldn't put it together; they wouldn't let me "mess" but asked me to get them another one to help with the first one!!! guess what - - - ditto. As was Webleys "thing" they would periodically sort out the odds and sods cabinet and as my manager new I was an avid collector he would often offer me first dibs on guns for sale; so I bought the two 65 pistols; a mint boxed Cadet Major all for £10; the rest of the guns if unsold would go to Weller & Dufty for auction and I sometimes bought from there as well. As all this was back in the 70's that is why I am asking about the '250'
I bought my Anschutz 250 from Target Sports of Bolton in approx 2008. I was under the impression they bought this and several other prototype Webleys from the Wallis & Wallis auction of 14th June 2006. It remained in their rifle cabinet for a long time and eventually, after much haggling I got the, as new, action for £70. It took a while to find a suitable stock.
HTH
Ian
Founder & ex secretary of Rivington Riflemen.
www.rivington-riflemen.uk
Ok it seems W & S kept some of their project guns for longer than I thought, but we are still talking a fair few years ago and I suppose not that much later than when I got my last lot in 1980. Nice to know these guns are still in use, I try to use my collection on a rotation basis, just to keep them ticking over, I find that if used they keep on going much better than if just stored in a cabinet.
ATVB abellringer [Ray]