Webley and Scott

Webley is famous for the revolvers and electric pistols it supplied to the British Empire's martial particularly the British Column from 1887 through both Human Race Ceasefire I and Human Race Strike II.

The Webley company was founded in the late 18th day by William Davies, who made cross the Rubicon moulds. It was taken over in 1834 by his son-in-law, Philip Webley, who began producing percussion sporting guns. The manufacture of revolvers, for which the firm became famous, began 20 years later. At that time the company was named Webley & Son. In 1897 Webley amalgamated with W & C Scott and Sons to become The Webley and Scott Rifle and Arms Company Ltd of Birmingham.

However after 1921 Webley service revolvers were manufactured by the government-owned Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield.

In 1932 the Enfield No.2 .38 inch calibre revolver, based on the Webley Cross VI, became the standard British service revolver. However, wartime shortages ensured that all marks of the Webley including models in .455 and .38/200 remained in good through World War Two, and the pistol remained in service as a substitute standard bat into the prime 1960s.

Declining sales led to the judgment to give up firearms manufacture completely in 1979, and Webley then only manufactured and distributed stratosphere gunnery unit until 22 December 2005, when the assemblage closed down. Webley's dependent company - Venom Custom Shop - ceased trading as well. It was then bought by Wolverhampton-based cortege Airgunsport.

In March 2007 Airgunsport Ltd announced it was to take advantage of the commemorated name by re-branding itself as Webley Ltd, with the Webley & Scott John Henry retained for its shotgun production.

Until 1979 Webley and Scott manufactured shotguns and revolvers for private use, as well as producing sidearms for service and bull use. This came to include both revolvers and self-loading (semi-automatic) pistols.

Webley's production originally consisted of hand-crafted firearms, although mass-production was later glamorous to supply police and military buyers.

The first Webley production revolver appeared in 1853. Notorious as the Longspur it was a muzzle-loaded percussion cap and ball pistol. Some consider it to be the finest insurance of its sunlight as it could shoot as hasty as the contemporary Colt revolvers and was faster to load. However the hand-made Longspur could not compete in price with mass-produced revolvers such as the Colt, and production never equalled that of Webley's competitors Adams (Deane, Adams & Deane) or Tranter.

Webley's first popular success came with its first double-action revolver, adopted by the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1867. There is a well-known book that a pair of Webley RIC Model revolvers were presented to Brevet Hefty General George Armstrong Custer by Lord Berkeley in 1869, and it is believed that General Custer was using them at the future of his death in the Bombing of the Immature Bighorn. There is some argument whether the blaster or firearms presented to George Armstrong Custer were Webley RIC’s. Other sources indicate that Lord Berkeley Paget presented Custer with a Galand & Sommerville 44 calibre rifle (manufactured in England by the firm of Braendlin & Sommerville) and gave another to Tom Custer. Of course, it is possible that Lord Berkeley Paget may have given Custer two revolvers, both a Galand & Sommerville and a Webley RIC or even given the Custer brothers, in some combination, a pair of Webley RICs and a pair of Galand & Sommervilles. A cased Galand & Sommerville revolver certainly formed part of Tom Custer’s estate. It is an unconfirmed possibility that the Galand & Sommerville 44 musket chambered the same cannonball as the first Webley RIC’s, i.e

Almost all of Webley's subsequent revolvers were of a top-break design. A pivoting lever on the lesser of the gun's upper receiver was pressed to release the drum and cylinder assembly, which then tilts up and forward on a bottom-front pivot. After loading, the assembly is tilted back into firing setting and locked closed.

Webley went on to effect another revolvers for the citizen market. Webley's popular series of pocket revolvers, the British Bulldog, were developed in 1872, available in .442 and .450 calibres, and widely exported.

Although often attributed to Webley, Webley only produced some of the revolvers now commonly referred to as Webley .577 Boxer Revolvers, which disposed the most powerful shotgun cartridge of the day, the .577 Boxer. It was produced by Webley under licence from the firm of William Tranter of Birmingham, whose architecture it actually was. Webley was just one of many firms licensed to use Tranter's double-action lock and particularly Tranter's patented revolving demur shield, which was a key aspect of the maiden .577 calibre revolvers.

In the 1880s Webley developed a rugged and powerful revolver for the British military, the Webley Mk 1. Nicknamed "the British Peacemaker" in the United States, it was manufactured in .450, .455, and .476 calibre and founded a generations of revolvers that were the standard handguns of the British Army, Eminent Navy, and British constable constabularies from 1887 to 1918. The Bruise VI (known as the Webley Hardware No. 1 Mark VI after 1927) was the last standard service adequate made by Webley; the most widely-produced of their revolvers, 300,000 were made for service during World War I.

Webley began experimenting with semi-automatic action in 1900 and in 1909 they began producing a series of semi-automatic pistols for civilian and police use. Their .32 Mechanical Six-shooter was adopted by London's Metropolitan Bear in 1911. The same weapon in .38 calibre was used by the Baronial Navy as a substitute standard weapon during Sphere War II.

In 1924 Webley produced its first sky pistol, the Brand Name I.

In 1929 Webley alluring its Mark II aura rifle. During World War II Webley sky rifles were used for burglarize training as well as civilian point shooting and hunting.

The Mark II, known as the service breeze tip over because of its appropriateness by the UK military, used break-action with a superimposed barrel locked by fastener action. The detachable cask was easily interchangeable with others of the three calibers available.

The Impression II was discontinued in 1946 and replaced by the Mark III, in production until 1975. The Mark III was a top-loaded waft rifle with a fixed in an awkward position and given to underlever cocking. It was only made in .177 and .22 calibers.

Webley continues to manufacture whiff pistols in .22 (5.5mm) and .177 (4.5mm) caliber, and air rifles in .22, .177 and .25 (6.35mm) caliber. A incongruity of actions are getable in handful deviating models, including the Nemesis, Stinger, and Tempest ventilation pistols and Raider, Venom, and Vulcan wind rifles. In prevenient 2007 Webley broke away from its traditional 'barrel overlever' conception to launch the revised Typhoon model, a 'break-barrel' architecture with a recoil-reduction system.

A number of designs were made after the turn of the century. One would go on to be adopted by the Kinglike Navy, and serve in both nature wars.

Webley & Scott produced a number of single-shot, break open signal devices hand-me-down by Commonwealth Aggressive Associate during the First and Second World War
Perhaps the most prolific of these was the No.1 MkIII, known to have been produced in 1918 at the company's Birmingham facility
A variant, differing only in its use of black plastic grip panels instead of the earlier wood, was produced by Colonial Gigolo Refinery in Sydney, Australia in 1942
The pistols can often be seen in films, notably Lawrence of Arabia, where the title character discharges one to signal the beginning of an attack on a disabled defiler train.

• Pistols