Are Webley Spring Powered Air Pistols Badly Made?

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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zooma
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Are Webley Spring Powered Air Pistols Badly Made?

Post by zooma » Mon Oct 21, 2013 10:26 am

One of the most often made comments about Webley air pistols is that they are badly made - this comment is often made in jest by the anti-wobbly brigade along with other such heresy such as they have crap triggers and that they are inaccurate and difficult to shoot.

My reason for starting this thread is that it is likely to be well read and that it will also give the opportunity for both sides of this popular debate to be expressed and contested.

To start the ball rolling I would suggest that the Webley quality has always been good for the price charged at the time it was in production, and this has to be considered when comparing them with any other air pistol. It is also pointless to compare them with more expensive pistols or those made at different time periods as this just makes "flexible goal posts" and few meaningful comparisons can be made.

As far as accuracy goes, when we can see scores from hippo and example targets from certus shot at 10 meters that are as good as most of us can achieve with a PCP we can hardly claim that Webley air pistols are inaccurate.

The final comments regarding the trigger I find a little harder to defend as they do not have the finest match triggers ever made - but the point is they are not sold as match air pistols and never have been. The first Webley are pistols were firearms substitutes for training and for youths to use in comparative safety and as such the triggers are more like a firearms trigger and work well enough.

Again when we can see such good 10 meter scores from Webley owners and users it is obviously a trigger that does give enough control to achieve these excellent results.

Are they difficult to shoot?..............well they do work a little differently from most other air pistols and so they require a slightly different technique to get the most out of them but I would say that they are not difficult to shoot - just different!


This takes us back to the comment for debate: -

"Webley spring powered air pistols are well engineered for the price and the time period in which they were made, they are accurate and have a good firearms standard trigger".
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Re: Are Webley Spring Powered Air Pistols Badly Made?

Post by gingernut » Mon Oct 21, 2013 11:27 am

Webley pistols are similar to VW Beetles.
If they have had one careful owner since new they are ok.

Unfortunately most have had many hopeless owners who turn them into piles of irredeemable rubbish.

Does that help at all?

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Re: Are Webley Spring Powered Air Pistols Badly Made?

Post by Certus » Mon Oct 21, 2013 12:32 pm

zooma wrote:One of the most often made comments about Webley air pistols is that they are badly made - this comment is often made in jest by the anti-wobbly brigade along with other such heresy such as they have crap triggers and that they are inaccurate and difficult to shoot.

My reason for starting this thread is that it is likely to be well read and that it will also give the opportunity for both sides of this popular debate to be expressed and contested.

To start the ball rolling I would suggest that the Webley quality has always been good for the price charged at the time it was in production, and this has to be considered when comparing them with any other air pistol. It is also pointless to compare them with more expensive pistols or those made at different time periods as this just makes "flexible goal posts" and few meaningful comparisons can be made.

As far as accuracy goes, when we can see scores from hippo and example targets from certus shot at 10 meters that are as good as most of us can achieve with a PCP we can hardly claim that Webley air pistols are inaccurate.

The final comments regarding the trigger I find a little harder to defend as they do not have the finest match triggers ever made - but the point is they are not sold as match air pistols and never have been. The first Webley are pistols were firearms substitutes for training and for youths to use in comparative safety and as such the triggers are more like a firearms trigger and work well enough.

Again when we can see such good 10 meter scores from Webley owners and users it is obviously a trigger that does give enough control to achieve these excellent results.

Are they difficult to shoot?..............well they do work a little differently from most other air pistols and so they require a slightly different technique to get the most out of them but I would say that they are not difficult to shoot - just different!


This takes us back to the comment for debate: -

"Webley spring powered air pistols are well engineered for the price and the time period in which they were made, they are accurate and have a good firearms standard trigger".



Hi,

I believe the above quote accurately sums up the status of the Webley pistol compared with its competitors. I
am fortunate to own and shoot examples of most spring powered air pistols that tried to compete with the Webley (Warrior, Abas Major, Titan, Acvoke etc) and none in my opinion come close to the Webley package.

The Webley offered and still offers firearms quality, compactness, reliability, ease of maintenance and acceptable accuracy at the reasonable ranges intended.

Admittedly some triggers mainly on the Senior may need a bit of tuning, but most of my pistols have reasonable trigger pulls without modification. The additional cocking link introduced with the pre-war Senior certainly helped with reducing the cocking effort needed for the Mk1.

I have a FAS 604 with which I shoot competition cards and often find that without the pressure of placing stickers on cards and with a bit more care I can often shoot similar groups with my Webleys. I have also found the element that has single biggest effect on accuracy when shooting any spring powered air gun is "Follow Through" which ironically is probably the easiest bit to master.

Regards

Brian

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Re: Are Webley Spring Powered Air Pistols Badly Made?

Post by zooma » Sat Oct 26, 2013 8:28 pm

Nothing like as much interest in this subject on CAPA as it generated on the BBS - big surprise as this is the Classic Air Pistol Association - and Webley spring powered air pistols are most definitely a classic British air pistol :think:

I would have expected the CAPA members to blow this highly debatable subject clean through the roof :ugeek:
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Re: Are Webley Spring Powered Air Pistols Badly Made?

Post by Certus » Sun Oct 27, 2013 11:04 am

Hi zooma,

Lower response probably due to greater exposure on BBS. Also, preference here is probably slightly more biased towards classic target pistols rather than more general purpose classic pistols such as the Webley.

Regards

Brian

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Re: Are Webley Spring Powered Air Pistols Badly Made?

Post by pmh » Sun Oct 27, 2013 11:19 am

My first introduction to the Webley air pistol was on the front cover of the 1978 Airgun world Summer Special:-

Image

I remember being interested due to the scope, but other than that it didn't stand out as a desirable; my eye being drawn to the Original Model 10 and the Hammerli Master.

I do also recall thinking of them as being quirky looking, so never really got my hands on any examples until relatively recently.

Good on Webley for keeping a very workable design for all these years. However, there is no doubt that quality has tapered off from the earlier models.

That said, I do blame the consumer for the quality of today's goods. We demand cheapness over quality and, in real terms, we probably end up buying two of everything rather than paying a bit extra for quality in the first place.

Kind regards,



Phil
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Re: Are Webley Spring Powered Air Pistols Badly Made?

Post by zunmik » Sat Nov 02, 2013 6:23 pm

zooma wrote:Nothing like as much interest in this subject on CAPA as it generated on the BBS - big surprise as this is the Classic Air Pistol Association - and Webley spring powered air pistols are most definitely a classic British air pistol :think:

I would have expected the CAPA members to blow this highly debatable subject clean through the roof :ugeek:
YES they are very badly made should be banned from Classic pistols cos they are not classic. Bung them all into the Chinese melting pot & turn them into cat food tins then we can shoot @ them with proper pistols. Aah that feels better, M. ;) :laughing-rolling: :lol:
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Re: Are Webley Spring Powered Air Pistols Badly Made?

Post by zooma » Sat Nov 02, 2013 7:47 pm

zunmik wrote:
zooma wrote:Nothing like as much interest in this subject on CAPA as it generated on the BBS - big surprise as this is the Classic Air Pistol Association - and Webley spring powered air pistols are most definitely a classic British air pistol :think:

I would have expected the CAPA members to blow this highly debatable subject clean through the roof :ugeek:
YES they are very badly made should be banned from Classic pistols cos they are not classic. Bung them all into the Chinese melting pot & turn them into cat food tins then we can shoot @ them with proper pistols. Aah that feels better, M. ;) :laughing-rolling: :lol:

It looks like IJ has left one of his top anti-Webley protagonists in charge of the offensive while he is away basking himself in Guinness for a few days in Ireland. :o

I think it is just a simple case of not understanding the fine engineering aspects of the superior Webley air pistol design (far too clever for IJ and his clan) or appreciating that many of the most excellent Webley pistols have been around longer than he has - and they were put together better as well :clap:
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Re: Are Webley Spring Powered Air Pistols Badly Made?

Post by zunmik » Sat Nov 02, 2013 8:13 pm

zooma wrote:
zunmik wrote:
zooma wrote:Nothing like as much interest in this subject on CAPA as it generated on the BBS - big surprise as this is the Classic Air Pistol Association - and Webley spring powered air pistols are most definitely a classic British air pistol :think:

I would have expected the CAPA members to blow this highly debatable subject clean through the roof :ugeek:
YES they are very badly made should be banned from Classic pistols cos they are not classic. Bung them all into the Chinese melting pot & turn them into cat food tins then we can shoot @ them with proper pistols. Aah that feels better, M. ;) :laughing-rolling: :lol:

It looks like IJ has left one of his top anti-Webley protagonists in charge of the offensive while he is away basking himself in Guinness for a few days in Ireland. :o

I think it is just a simple case of not understanding the fine engineering aspects of the superior Webley air pistol design (far too clever for IJ and his clan) or appreciating that many of the most excellent Webley pistols have been around longer than he has - and they were put together better as well
Well I suppose if you rate a couple of tatty old bits of bike tube crudely cobbled together as fine engineering :roll: , what can one say :shock:
M, No 1 anti wobbly protagonist, :lol:
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Re: Are Webley Spring Powered Air Pistols Badly Made?

Post by zooma » Sun Nov 03, 2013 4:15 pm

We seem to be "a bit thin on the ground" as far as Webley supporters are concerned on this forum.

Maybe they just represent the silent MAJORITY :dance:
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Re: Are Webley Spring Powered Air Pistols Badly Made?

Post by Certus » Sun Nov 03, 2013 7:54 pm

zooma wrote:We seem to be "a bit thin on the ground" as far as Webley supporters are concerned on this forum.

Maybe they just represent the silent MAJORITY :dance:
Hello Bob,

I can't imagine how anybody can fail to appreciate what was and still is in my opinion anyway,the best all round spring air pistol on the planet. Admittedly there are one or two more accurate specific 'Target' spring air pistols out there, but none match the compactness, build quality and plain pleasure obtainable from a Webley air pistol.

Regards

Brian
Last edited by Certus on Sun Nov 03, 2013 9:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Are Webley Spring Powered Air Pistols Badly Made?

Post by zooma » Sun Nov 03, 2013 9:26 pm

Very well put Brian.
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