The 1st variant of the 1st Webley rifle - the "Holy Grail".

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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Leonardj
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The 1st variant of the 1st Webley rifle - the "Holy Grail".

Post by Leonardj » Mon Dec 02, 2013 6:30 pm

Yes indeed, the very earliest variant with the trigger adjusting screw located at the front of the trigger block - the "Holy Grail" of Webley collectors.

Image

I was fortunate enough to have been able to add this gun to my collection in the fall of 2008.

Shortly thereafter, the gun was introduced to the airgun collecting world by John Atkins, in his column in AirGunner magazine, in the March 2009 issue. At that time, it was the only specimen of this rare early variant known to exist.

The gun also received a vague mention in Chris Thrale's book, Webley Air Rifles (copywrite 2010). Why he did not include any pictures of such a historically significant specimen when they were quite readily available to him is unknown.

In July 2013, a second specimen of this early variant surfaced for auction in the UK, at Wallis & Wallis. That particular gun, bearing serial number 85 immediately precedes my gun, bearing serial number 86.

Therefore, there are now two specimens of this early variant known to exist - one here in Canada, and one that, to the best of my knowledge, remains in the UK.

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Tank
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Re: The 1st variant of the 1st Webley rifle - the "Holy Grai

Post by Tank » Mon Dec 02, 2013 7:34 pm

Very very interesting Leonard.
I saw John's version on another forum and I just knew it deserved a mention here. I would dearly like to see one of these in the flesh, and maybe even shoot one someday. You never know.
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Re: The 1st variant of the 1st Webley rifle - the "Holy Grai

Post by pmh » Mon Dec 02, 2013 7:44 pm

Very interesting indeed.

I wonder what happened to the others, maybe there are still one of two buried in attics.

Kind regards,



Phil
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