My mk1 webley pistol

A place to discuss all things Webley. As this is probably the most collected airgun maker we felt it deserved a section of its own.
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Eightball
Posts:18
Joined:Tue Aug 06, 2013 6:41 pm
My mk1 webley pistol

Post by Eightball » Mon Aug 12, 2013 11:46 pm

Just a quick one re my mk1 webley-to any who is interested ,pics will be up ASAP ,not home till later in the week. Job has run over. Just a thought ,could mine be a transitional model between the spring clips and the sliding catch as mine has a sliding catch but no patent no,s stamped on it and no trigger adjustment screw of which I can't find any models pics or otherwise online or is this normal for an early (1924) model as certus has so brilliantly pointed out with his very knowledgable post on pre war straight grip webleys.

Certus
Sharpshooter
Sharpshooter
Posts:430
Joined:Sun May 12, 2013 9:34 am

Re: My mk1 webley pistol

Post by Certus » Tue Aug 13, 2013 1:07 pm

Eightball wrote:Just a quick one re my mk1 webley-to any who is interested ,pics will be up ASAP ,not home till later in the week. Job has run over. Just a thought ,could mine be a transitional model between the spring clips and the sliding catch as mine has a sliding catch but no patent no,s stamped on it and no trigger adjustment screw of which I can't find any models pics or otherwise online or is this normal for an early (1924) model as certus has so brilliantly pointed out with his very knowledgable post on pre war straight grip webleys.
Hello,

The first hundred of so Webley Mk1s had the single spring barrel retention arrangement before a second spring was added for pistols up to around Ser No 700 when the more elegant sliding latch mechanism was introduced.

Webley had a policy to fully mark their pistols both in respect to the item and it's source of manufacture. Each pistol was marked at the front left hand side of the air cylinder with WEBLEY AIR PISTOL MK1 followed by the factory address WEBLEY & SCOTT LTD. BIRMINGHAM & LONDON extending to the rear of the cylinder. The LONDON bit was removed following closure of the London office in 1929. At least 2000 examples were made with an additional marking PATENTS APPLIED FOR stamped on the left hand side of the breech unit as in your example. Before the completion of 3000 pistols this particular marking was replaced with BRITISH PATENT NO 219872 FOREIGN PATENTS PENDING which was also stamped on the left hand side of the breech unit. Your pistol would obviously have been produced before the original British patent was granted in August 1924 and is consequently a very early example.

The first 10,000 or so Mk1s were also made without the trigger adjusting screw before a .9" screw was introduced forward of the of the pistol body and just above the trigger guard to regulate the trigger release point. A small locking screw was added to the side of the frame from around See No 18,000 to secure the adjuster screw once the desired setting had been achieved.

Looking forward to seeing some photos of your Mk1 which is one of my favourite Webley pistols and a model I still shoot quite well with on a regular basis.

Have a safe trip home

Brian

Eightball
Posts:18
Joined:Tue Aug 06, 2013 6:41 pm

Re: My mk1 webley pistol

Post by Eightball » Tue Aug 13, 2013 8:43 pm

Thanks Brian that is just awesome to know, love finding the history out of anything , air pistol or not. As ever your knowledge is comprehensive ,having read a lot of your earlier posts,the word hobby doesn't do it justice, a passion would be better. Would love to know exactly how my dad got hold of it as it was made 6 years before he was born and I know even you wouldn't know the answer to that! Thanks again,pics soon. Ian

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