This report covers:
- Happy Memorial Day
- Bucket list
- Webley Mark I
- Webley Mark II Service
- One of the finest ever made
- Breech
- Sights
- Large rifle
- Stock
- What now?
I’m on my way home from the Pyramyd AIR Cup with reader Ian McKee today. Hopefully I’ll get back to Texas this evening. I have been running past reports that were well received while I was at the Cup. This report series started in late May of 2016.
Happy Memorial Day
Today is the day we remember all those who have fallen in defense of our nation. To all the veterans and to the families of those who have given their lives to protect our way of life I say, thank you!
Bucket list
The Webley Mark II Service air rifle is one that’s been on my bucket list for decades. I think I first learned about it in Smith’s Standard Encyclopedia of Gas, Air and Spring Guns of the World, by W.H.B. Smith. That would have been around 1977. I was living at Ft. Knox, Kentucky and bought a Webley Senior air pistol at a local gun show around the same time. It was an old model with the straight grip and was a contemporary of the Mark II Service rifle, made around 1936.
Smith said the Mark II Service was used to some extent as a service trainer, though I find no information to back that up. I do know they were produced as three-caliber sets in wooden cases, because this rifle allows for a rapid barrel change. That fact alone was intriguing back in 1977.
Webley Mark I
Since there is a Mark II we must ask whether there was a Mark I? Indeed there was. It was Webley’s first air rifle, appearing in 1926. It was based heavily on Webley’s line of spring-piston air pistols, and therefore cocked in a similar way and had a similar powerplant.
Webley Mark II Service
The Mark II Service rifle was an improvement to the Mark I. It first appeared in 1929 and was both larger and more robust than the Mark I. It also featured interchangeable barrels in .177, .22 and .25 calibers. They came in cased sets with all three barrels/calibers, though the rifle was also sold by itself with just one barrel/caliber. A cased set with all three barrels is considered to be one of the top airgun collectibles.
Webley’s Mark II Service air rifle is a Holy Grail of airgun collecting.
One of the finest ever made
Smith wrote that the Mark II Service rifle was “…unquestionably one of the finest target-type air rifles ever made. I would have to agree with that statement from a build and finish standpoint, but from a target rifle standpoint, I have my doubts. However, that is what we shall discover in this test. For you see I encountered a Mark II Service rifle on the Gun Broker auction website recently and I bid for it and won it.
Until now I have only seen this rifle on display at airgun shows. I’ve never seen one for sale in person, though there are a couple for sale on the internet right now. Be prepared to spend a lot of money — as much as $2,800 for a cased set with three barrels! So, when I saw this one going for what I felt was a reasonable number, I had to try to win it.
My rifle is a .22 caliber that has over 90 percent of the original deep lustrous blue finish remaining. There are random spots of rust on the finish at present, but I am treating them with Ballistol, which will soften and remove them over time. Some of the bluing has converted to patina, which keeps the overall rating from being higher.
Breech
The rifle is a breakbarrel that uses a bolt to draw the barrel back into a fiber seal to seal the breech. My breech seal is well-worn and leaks air when fired. The Mark I rifle used a spring-loaded sliding catch to do the same thing — similar to what the Webley pistols use. It didn’t draw the barrel back into the breech seal. This cammed bolt/breech closure is one of the big improvements in the Mark II.
The bolt is closed to seal the breech.
When the bolt opens, the barrel can be lifted out and up for cocking.
Sights
The rifle has both a sporting rear sight that adjusts for elevation alone and a built-in peep sight that adjusts for both windage and elevation. It’s the mark of excellence that strikes you when you first examine the gun.
The sporting rear sight has adjustments for elevation. For windage it can be drifted sideways in its dovetail.
Rear peep sight flips up for target shooting. It adjusts in both directions.
Front sight is a squared post. Notice that it is marked for position on its base and seems to have been moved in its dovetail.
The front sight is a squared-off post in a dovetail. It should be a good target sight.
Large rifle
This is a large air rifle. The overall length is 41.5 inches, which doesn’t seem that long, but the barrel is a stunning 25.5 inches long! The pull is 14-9/16-inches, which puts it into the large category. The rifle weighs one ounce under 7 lbs., which doesn’t sound heavy for a large air rifle, but when you consider that there is no forearm to hold — only a thin receiver bottom — it does seem heavier.
Stock
Yes, there is no forearm. There is only a buttstock, which means that the attachment is via a long through-bolt hidden under the butt-plate. Such attachments either work or they don’t and the buttstock gets loose. This one seems to work well. The wood is walnut without much figure and is stained a dark brown color. Both grip panels have small patches of checkering that don’t seem to add anything to the grippiness.
What now?
Okay — I now own a Webley Mark II Service air rifle. So what? Back in the 1970s when I first saw this model, it seemed like a rifle to get and shoot, but since then I have had numerous .22-caliber air rifles that were fantastic shooters. I doubt this one will live up to the best of them. But it’s still a bucket-list item, so keeping it rests more on what it is than on what it can or can’t do. We shall see.
B.B.
Drive carefully!
-Y
PS Oh to be a fly, inside the car, on the long drive home. What tales were told? Better inside than outside against the windshield.
“Today is the day we remember all those who have fallen in defense of our nation. To all the veterans and to the families of those who have given their lives to protect our way of life I say, thank you!”
Amen!
BB,
I second that excellent sentiment.
As to the Webley Mark II, is that not the rifle that RidgeRunner later obtained from you?
I know you put a lot of work into that gun before she went to live at RRHFWA.
I do hope RidgeRunner will give us an update on how the old gal is holding up these days. 🙂
Praying for safe travels for you and Ian,
dave
Dave,
Mrs. RR bought it off of BB for my Christmas. It is hanging on the wall of our great room with that Webley Senior he speaks of and a Wilkins Pellet Pouch of its favorite pellet. Every once in a while,
they both come down off the wall and spend a little pellet slinging time off of the back porch.
No, they are not the most accurate airguns I have, but they sure are fun to shoot. 😉
RidgeRunner, that’s very cool that the Webley Mark II Service is still in service. 😉
Dave,
Around here, the old gals do indeed get out every once in a while. The truth is, they go out far more than my “modern” airguns.
I’d take your BSA, Webley Service, or Millita over a modern airgun any day of the week! 🙂
Me too. 🙂 I have often said to Mrs. RR that I would get rid of all of my toys, but those three airguns.
Amen! Those 3 are keepers…and so is Mrs. RR. 🙂
Dave,
Yes, this is the rifle RidgeRunner got from me.
BB
Coolness…I should have known that right away…but the old brain’s not what it used to be. 😉
thedavemyster,
This is a re-issue of /blog/2016/05/webley-mark-ii-service-part-1/ while Tom is still away from his keyboard. This is the one that was bought by Mrs. RR for RidgeRunner
Siraniko
RidgeRunner is a lucky guy; Mrs. RR is a keeper, for sure. 😉
BB and Ian,
We wish you both safe journeys and we are looking forward to your spiel of the trip.
Amen to that to which would add let us remember those who have given all for their country every day.
I used to have a Webley Mark II set.
Kevin,
A picture may be equal to one thousand words but the fact that you no longer have the set gives indication of a larger story.
Interesting! Looks like darts in the far right-lower compartment. I wonder what caliber? Was one or mor of the barrels smoothbore?
shootski
shootski,
The 3 factory barrels were all calibers that Webley & Scott offered (.177, .22 & .25). They were all rifled. The darts were in .177. Not much of a larger story but during a period of time liquidating my gun collection to simplify my heirs lives.
Oh man! I would surely enjoy having that set! I would be tickled if I could just find a .177 barrel somewhere.
B.B. and Ian,
If i wasn’t still in the grips of the Opthalmologists i would have made the drive to the PA Cup.
Just to watch and see the Matches this time along with visiting with you two and any other regular readers.
Perhaps if they had a Senior Division i might sign up for 2024.
I hope you two have a safe and enjoyable trip back home and i look forward to the Cup Tales in the near future.
shootski
shootski,
A senior division???? I was one of the youngest guys there!!!
No, seriously, there were guys of all ages, including several in their 80s.
BB
B.B.,
Well Boy Howdy if there are some that old!
I guess i need to start planning what event(s) i want to give a try.
shootski
“extra points for being cool-looking”
Well, this rifle certainly has it in the looks department.
Back in the 60s and 70s, if they wanted to outfit James Bond with an air rifle in one of his movies, I think this might have been the gun of choice…modified by Q of course.
I could see Q handing one to Bond, and saying something like,
“Now pay attention 007. This Webley Mark II Service air rifle has been modified with my ‘air booster’ to bring the velocity up to just below the speed of sound. You’ve now got the silent power you need for this mission.”
Yeah, I could see something like that, LOL! 🙂
They used a Diana LP-8 in one of their promotional posters.
-Yogi
Yogi, oh yeah! I forgot about that classic poster with the air pistol!
That airgun sold for huge bucks at auction:
https://www.007museum.com/Walther_LP53_Connery_Bond.htm
The following note from the auction house is an amazing piece of provenance that drove the price of the airgun up to $430,000 USD:
Lot Notes from Christies: “The original vendor, who was commissioned to shoot the images required for the publicity campaign for the second Bond film From Russia With Love, explains in his accompanying letter that “it was decided that for the main image in the poster and advertising campaign what was required was a strong portrait of Sean Connery as Bond 007, with his Walther pistol” He explains further that when Connery arrived at his studio for the shoot, it was discovered by publicist Tom Carlile that no one had brought the gun needed for the shoot, the synonymous small Walther automatic [Walther PPK]. By chance the photographer practised air pistol target shooting as a hobby and had the gun he used for this purpose, also a Walther, at the studio “it was decided that – without telling Sean or the other representatives of United Artists – we would use my pistol for the pictures and presumed that should anyone have doubts on their seeing the name Walther on the gun, they would be reassured.”