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Webley Service Rifle MkII


louisvanhovell
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For Christmas I treated myself to a lovely Webley Service Rifle MkII .22. I first saw the gun a few weeks ago when I was visiting my former landlord in Okehampton; he used it to hunt when he was a farmer in Derbyshire. Unfortunately it wasn't for sale. So I went and looked on the internet. Soon I found one back in the Netherlands, in pretty good condition seen its age; S6313, which makes it a series 3. According to the Mr Thrales Webley book, it was manufactured in Webley's factory in Birmingham in 1935 or 1936. Unfortunately the barrel serial no. does not match, but that's ok. The barrel is in fantastic condition and very accurate. Surprisingly, it shoots very well with JSB Exact's 5.52. The fit is loose, as the barrels is actually 5.6mm. They fly out at 440-450 ft/s, giving about 7fpe. Enough to go straight through old bean cans at 30m. And when using my gun rest, I can hit them easily. There's lots of info to be found on this beautiful piece of engineering. The main features are: interchangeable barrels (in a few seconds you could change to a .177 or .25 barrel - that is, if you have one. MkII with 3 barrels are very rare and very expensive. They often come in a case, but not many cases are original ones). In .25, it was called the Rook and Rabbit Rifle. Open sights, with also a flip-up aperture sight for longer shots. Bolt to close the barrel and push it against the leather breech seal (the seal on my gun has been replaced and is not made from leather). The Service Rifle was used for military training, as airgun pellets are so much cheaper than bullets. It was also a loved poacher's gun, as it would fit under a jacket when the barrel is off. For me it's a lot of fun to own and shoot one, and to find out more about the history of the gun. In the next years (or longer) I will try to find extra barrels, a box, original instruction manuals... Happy new year. 

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A few more pictures. The 2nd and 3rd are of my gun. 

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What a joy to behold - I met an elderly gent about 6 months ago who had brought one into our local dealer as it needed a new breach seal , he had owned it from new and bought it just before the war with his first wage. I did not want to put it down and fell in love with the gun as he recalled his memories of shooting Rabbits for the pot during the War - got to be my dream gun, look after her.

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Now that brings back a few memories, as a young lad i remember my dad taking me to see his friend, Pat. Well Pat was an old soldier who used to take us fishing and i loved going to see him because he would tell you about his time in the war and all sorts of tall story's but the best thing of going to see Pat was that he had a  webley service air rifle, well i fell in love with that rifle so much that the fishing was put on the back burner and my dad bought me a BSA meteor and my life in shooting began. Thanks for that.

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Many thanks for the replies, bruno22rfmrcunnieRimfireboy

It's nice to read that there are so many stories/memories that feature the Service Rifle. 

6 hours ago, Rimfireboy said:

That’s a great post, thanks for sharing. I have a couple of mk3’s, but they’re fairly common. Last time I was in C.H.Westons, they had a couple of Webley service air rifles in. One was mint. Might be worth giving Ivan a call if you want barrels etc?

Rimfireboy thank you for the tip. I will contact C.H. Westons to find out if they have any spare barrels for sale for the gun. I know that John Knibbs makes new barrels, but they are a bit expensive at 250 GBP. 

What are the MK3's like? I'm thinking of buying one in .22. They look nice. Are they accurate and nice to shoot? 

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1 hour ago, louisvanhovell said:

Many thanks for the replies, bruno22rfmrcunnieRimfireboy

It's nice to read that there are so many stories/memories that feature the Service Rifle. 

Rimfireboy thank you for the tip. I will contact C.H. Westons to find out if they have any spare barrels for sale for the gun. I know that John Knibbs makes new barrels, but they are a bit expensive at 250 GBP. 

What are the MK3's like? I'm thinking of buying one in .22. They look nice. Are they accurate and nice to shoot? 

The mk3’s are nicely made and work well with the right pellets. In .22 they prefer the original eley wasps as they’re a tighter fit in the barrel. You can expect around 9.5 - 10.5 ft lbs from a .22 mk3 in good order. Some lovely walnut on some of them.

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I dont have a mark 2 or 3..

But i like the look of then .well made and good solid rifles. Thanks for adding the old adverts and posters to the theat

I am however fortunate enough to have a webley mark 1 rifle which i was given by an old bloke over the road..his dad used it in the sunderland shipyards to shoot rats..unfortunatly it had been kept in a shed so was a little worse for wear.would not cock and needed a new top brace manufacturing as well as screws etc..again ..its superbly engineered with a safety catch on a gun thats almost 100 years old

the before scrap pics notice the manufactured by engraving bottom photo
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I then thought in for a penny in for a few hundred so i sent the gun to sean at isp who manufactured the brace replaced the screw and did a fine job on the woodwork...the gun then went tp v-mach and had the internals reworked the cylinder trued as it was ovel..the gun parts went to don blocksidge for a little engraving..then back to steve pope to be blacked and assembled tested and returned..it puts out 5.5 foot lb and is great for 6 yard target shooting ..were it is pellet on pellet

 My now fully restored Webley Mark 1 
after a 5 month wait.
From scrap to this..note manufactured by photo this time


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Edited by psycho
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12 hours ago, psycho said:

I dont have a mark 2 or 3..

But i like the look of then .well made and good solid rifles. Thanks for adding the old adverts and posters to the theat

I am however fortunate enough to have a webley mark 1 rifle which i was given by an old bloke over the road..his dad used it in the sunderland shipyards to shoot rats..unfortunatly it had been kept in a shed so was a little worse for wear.would not cock and needed a new top brace manufacturing as well as screws etc..again ..its superbly engineered with a safety catch on a gun thats almost 100 years old

the before scrap pics notice the manufactured by engraving bottom photo
IMGP0399.jpg
IMGP0401.jpg
IMGP0400.jpg
IMGP0397.jpg

 

I then thought in for a penny in for a few hundred so i sent the gun to sean at isp who manufactured the brace replaced the screw and did a fine job on the woodwork...the gun then went tp v-mach and had the internals reworked the cylinder trued as it was ovel..the gun parts went to don blocksidge for a little engraving..then back to steve pope to be blacked and assembled tested and returned..it puts out 5.5 foot lb and is great for 6 yard target shooting ..were it is pellet on pellet

 My now fully restored Webley Mark 1 
after a 5 month wait.
From scrap to this..note manufactured by photo this time


WM1_RHSeng.jpg
WM1_RHSBackeng.jpg
WM1_RHSBack2eng.jpg
WM1_RHSFronteng.jpg
WM1_RHSBack3eng.jpg
WM1_Right.jpg
WM1_Trigger-1.jpg
WM1_Back.jpg
WM1_Left.jpg
WM1_Name.jpg

That is beautiful, thank you for sharing. You have given the MK1 a second life. Very nice.

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2 hours ago, Robertt said:

Bought some Defiant Vintage 22 , 5.6mm off ebay.

Very well made pellets.

By far the most accurate in my Mk3 and Airsporter .

I’m going to have a look at them. I’ve been meaning to try some in my old webleys. My old senior .22 works so much better with the old original eley wasps than any other pellets I’ve tried. Most are such a loose fit. It produces an astonishing (for a Webley air pistol) 5.1 ish ft lbs with the wasps, and around 3.8 - 4 ft lbs with most others. Trouble is, my stock of old wasps are running down now. Similar with the old Webley rifles, don’t work so well with modern pellets for 5.5mm barrels. Also my airsporters only really liked the old tight fitting pellets like eley wasp and champions that you can’t really source easily these days.

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On 02/01/2018 at 12:04, Rimfireboy said:

I’m going to have a look at them. I’ve been meaning to try some in my old webleys. My old senior .22 works so much better with the old original eley wasps than any other pellets I’ve tried. Most are such a loose fit. It produces an astonishing (for a Webley air pistol) 5.1 ish ft lbs with th8e wasps, and around 3.8 - 4 ft lbs with most others. Trouble is, my stock of old wasps are running down now. Similar with the old Webley rifles, don’t work so well with modern pellets for 5.5mm barrels. Also my airsporters only really liked the old tight fitting pellets like eley wasp and champions that you can’t really source easily these days.

Get onto eBay and search defiant vintage 5.6 

Edited by theshootist
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On 01/01/2018 at 09:10, psycho said:

I dont have a mark 2 or 3..

But i like the look of then .well made and good solid rifles. Thanks for adding the old adverts and posters to the theat

I am however fortunate enough to have a webley mark 1 rifle which i was given by an old bloke over the road..his dad used it in the sunderland shipyards to shoot rats..unfortunatly it had been kept in a shed so was a little worse for wear.would not cock and needed a new top brace manufacturing as well as screws etc..again ..its superbly engineered with a safety catch on a gun thats almost 100 years old

the before scrap pics notice the manufactured by engraving bottom photo
IMGP0399.jpg
IMGP0401.jpg
IMGP0400.jpg
IMGP0397.jpg

 

I then thought in for a penny in for a few hundred so i sent the gun to sean at isp who manufactured the brace replaced the screw and did a fine job on the woodwork...the gun then went tp v-mach and had the internals reworked the cylinder trued as it was ovel..the gun parts went to don blocksidge for a little engraving..then back to steve pope to be blacked and assembled tested and returned..it puts out 5.5 foot lb and is great for 6 yard target shooting ..were it is pellet on pellet

 My now fully restored Webley Mark 1 
after a 5 month wait.
From scrap to this..note manufactured by photo this time


WM1_RHSeng.jpg
WM1_RHSBackeng.jpg
WM1_RHSBack2eng.jpg
WM1_RHSFronteng.jpg
WM1_RHSBack3eng.jpg
WM1_Right.jpg
WM1_Trigger-1.jpg
WM1_Back.jpg
WM1_Left.jpg
WM1_Name.jpg

Lovely job well done.      As for Sunderland Shipyard ..... Happy memories .... the lads shouting across the river to the girls working at the fish factory.

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On 1/1/2018 at 09:10, psycho said:

I dont have a mark 2 or 3..

But i like the look of then .well made and good solid rifles. Thanks for adding the old adverts and posters to the theat

I am however fortunate enough to have a webley mark 1 rifle which i was given by an old bloke over the road..his dad used it in the sunderland shipyards to shoot rats..unfortunatly it had been kept in a shed so was a little worse for wear.would not cock and needed a new top brace manufacturing as well as screws etc..again ..its superbly engineered with a safety catch on a gun thats almost 100 years old

the before scrap pics notice the manufactured by engraving bottom photo
IMGP0399.jpg
IMGP0401.jpg
IMGP0400.jpg
IMGP0397.jpg

 

I then thought in for a penny in for a few hundred so i sent the gun to sean at isp who manufactured the brace replaced the screw and did a fine job on the woodwork...the gun then went tp v-mach and had the internals reworked the cylinder trued as it was ovel..the gun parts went to don blocksidge for a little engraving..then back to steve pope to be blacked and assembled tested and returned..it puts out 5.5 foot lb and is great for 6 yard target shooting ..were it is pellet on pellet

 My now fully restored Webley Mark 1 
after a 5 month wait.
From scrap to this..note manufactured by photo this time


WM1_RHSeng.jpg
WM1_RHSBackeng.jpg
WM1_RHSBack2eng.jpg
WM1_RHSFronteng.jpg
WM1_RHSBack3eng.jpg
WM1_Right.jpg
WM1_Trigger-1.jpg
WM1_Back.jpg
WM1_Left.jpg
WM1_Name.jpg

Have to say Psycho that I dribble every time I see your Venom mk1 mate :yes:

 

John :good:

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