Beautiful day; time for a British shoot off of the two iconic rifles in my collection

[45flint]

What’s a better prewar face off than a BSA Sporting and the Webley Service both in .22. The BSA Sporting is probably my favorite air rifle. Can the Webley compete? Well before even shooting it is more compact in design and quite the looker?

[ashf9999]

Nice to see neither gun is predominantly Spanish or Turkish…

I’m sure the Webley will win. It should. It’s more modern by design, and so you must of course use the peep sight fitted to it. Ok, it may potentially have a tiny amount of barrel play at the muzzle end, but the pellet is directly loaded, so that’s got to help.

My 10 dollars are on the Webley…

[45flint]

Both with original springs the FPS with 11.9 grain Hobbys:

Webley: 505 FPS


BSA: 594 FPS

[Josie & John]

I love both but my money's on the BSA.

John

[45flint]

Back from shooting. Impressions:

1. BSA is much harder to cock, at my age a bit of a strain. Sight picture with open sight is as good as it get I think, very fine detail. I see little difference in the triggers. Below I think the BSA is a bit more accurate.




2. Webley is much easier cocking, not an issue doing it all day. Being the shorter rifle it has a little bit better feel, a little lighter. My sight picture with the open sight is not as fine but I have a MK 3 open sight on mine. Aperture sight is better but had similar results, I may need a bit of practice with it to get the most out of it. Below it is accurate but the BSA is just tuff competition on this point. I think the Webley may be a little more hold sensitive, lighter and shorter?

[ashf9999]

Were they wadcutters? The BSA target has nice clean holes, as you’d expect. The Webley one seems very ragged - did the pellets enter straight? (Surely they weren’t tumbling?) though I guess the tearing may be down to a lower mv.

[45flint]

Were they wadcutters? The BSA target has nice clean holes, as you’d expect. The Webley one seems very ragged - did the pellets enter straight? (Surely they weren’t tumbling?) though I guess the tearing may be down to a lower mv.

I found the Webley shot better with SuperDomes, the BSA is with the Hobby Wadcutters. That’s the difference in the holes.

[ashf9999]

I found the Webley shot better with SuperDomes, the BSA is with the Hobby Wadcutters. That’s the difference in the holes.

That explains things

[Josie & John]

Looks like both performed very well Steve.

Both rifles feel completely different in use and as you say, both have their merits.

Overall, I find BSAs more accurate but I shoot them more often than Webleys. I do have one Service (the very first I bought and the scruffiest in the collection) that performs at least as well as my BSAs, so they can certainly shoot.

John

[airRookie]

What’s a better prewar face off than a BSA Sporting and the Webley Service both in .22. The BSA Sporting is probably my favorite air rifle. Can the Webley compete? Well before even shooting it is more compact in design and quite the looker?

What a beautiful pair of rifles!

Nothing can beat old British rifles for me

Britannia is another one I absolutely love the look of

George

[rapidresponse1]

bothe look fantastic thanks for sharing