Slightly unusual Mk 1 pistol
Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2014 10:54 pm
Hi All
Just received a post war B4 MK 1 pistol in .177 with some slightly unusual features which make me suspect it is quite early for the type. The pistol is in very nice condition and appears to have had practically no use. Almost full blue overall including the butt straps. Grip plates are very sharp and shiny. The mainspring is very strong and the trigger pull is very light and crisp.
It has all the normal post war features except the breech screw has the pre war legend ‘NOT TO BE REMOVED’ rather than the post war ‘DO NOT REMOVE’. There is no red paint infill and the lettering is very small, as on pre war pistols, and so deeply struck that it has caused slight closure of the slot cut for the brace bit. The breech screw is of the post war flat style, not the pre war domed type, and is pinned in the usual manner. The finish of the breech screw is a perfect highly polished deep blue matching the rest of the pistol, and there is absolutely no sign of it having been tampered with.
Unusual feature number two is the batch number on the front of the spring guide (3 digits). This is struck in much smaller figures positioned closer together than the usual quite large widely spaced figures.
Unusual feature number three is the barrel. This has quite a long extension in front of the pivot lug (about 5mm). Nothing like the pre war straight grip of course but still noticeably longer than normal, and protrudes well in front of the face of the spring guide plug. That having been said I have noticed that the slant grip Mk 1 generally tends to have a longer front extension of the barrel than the Senior - my post 1958 example of the latter has less than 2mm.
Bruce notes that immediate post war pistols had no warning on the breech screw, followed by the usual red filled warning. Perhaps when the warning was re-instated Webley used the pre war warning at first, and then changed it for the usual one. Or perhaps they used the pre war warning at first then no warning for a while until the later legend was introduced. The other unusual features, especially the batch number, make me incline towards the latter.
I’d be very glad of any comments from our experts who will have seen far more of these pistols than I have out here in sunny Spain. If anyone is interested I will post relevant pics once I have taken them and find out how to post them.
ATB Chris S.
Just received a post war B4 MK 1 pistol in .177 with some slightly unusual features which make me suspect it is quite early for the type. The pistol is in very nice condition and appears to have had practically no use. Almost full blue overall including the butt straps. Grip plates are very sharp and shiny. The mainspring is very strong and the trigger pull is very light and crisp.
It has all the normal post war features except the breech screw has the pre war legend ‘NOT TO BE REMOVED’ rather than the post war ‘DO NOT REMOVE’. There is no red paint infill and the lettering is very small, as on pre war pistols, and so deeply struck that it has caused slight closure of the slot cut for the brace bit. The breech screw is of the post war flat style, not the pre war domed type, and is pinned in the usual manner. The finish of the breech screw is a perfect highly polished deep blue matching the rest of the pistol, and there is absolutely no sign of it having been tampered with.
Unusual feature number two is the batch number on the front of the spring guide (3 digits). This is struck in much smaller figures positioned closer together than the usual quite large widely spaced figures.
Unusual feature number three is the barrel. This has quite a long extension in front of the pivot lug (about 5mm). Nothing like the pre war straight grip of course but still noticeably longer than normal, and protrudes well in front of the face of the spring guide plug. That having been said I have noticed that the slant grip Mk 1 generally tends to have a longer front extension of the barrel than the Senior - my post 1958 example of the latter has less than 2mm.
Bruce notes that immediate post war pistols had no warning on the breech screw, followed by the usual red filled warning. Perhaps when the warning was re-instated Webley used the pre war warning at first, and then changed it for the usual one. Or perhaps they used the pre war warning at first then no warning for a while until the later legend was introduced. The other unusual features, especially the batch number, make me incline towards the latter.
I’d be very glad of any comments from our experts who will have seen far more of these pistols than I have out here in sunny Spain. If anyone is interested I will post relevant pics once I have taken them and find out how to post them.
ATB Chris S.