gun manufacturer founded birmingham england 1790 ; 226 years ago 1790 founder william davis headquarters dartmouth united kingdom products revolvers air guns shotguns website www.webley.co.uk the famous webley mk vi standard sidearm of the british army 1915 1932 webley & scott is an arms manufacturer founded in birmingham england . webley produced handguns and long guns from 1834 to 1979 when the company ceased to manufacture firearms and instead focused on producing air pistols and air rifles . in 2010 webley & scott restarted the production of shotguns for commercial sale . webley is famous for the revolvers and automatic pistols it supplied to the british empire s military particularly the british army from 1887 through both world war i and world war ii . contents 1 history 2 production 3 famous guns 4 webley & scott automatic pistols 5 webley & scott flare pistols 6 see also 7 notes 8 references 9 external links history edit the webley company was founded in the late 18th century by william davies who made bullet 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 . at that time the company was named p. webley & son . in 1897 webley amalgamated with w & c scott and sons to become the webley & scott revolver and arms company ltd of birmingham . webley s revolvers became the official british sidearm in 1887 remaining in british service until 1964 . after 1921 however 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 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 use through world war two . the .455 mk.vi was declared obsolete in 1945 but the .38 mk.iv remained in service as a substitute standard weapon into the early 1960s . in 1920 the passing of the firearms act in the uk which limited the availability of handguns to civilians caused their sales to plummet . as a result the company began producing pneumatic guns their first being the mark i air pistol . demand for air guns increased rapidly in the 1920s and webley s business began to grow again with an inevitable peak related to weapons supply for british military use during the second world war . declining sales led to the decision to give up firearms manufacture completely in 1979 however air gun production at the birmingham factory continued until 22 december 2005 when the company closed down . webley s dependent company venom custom shop ceased trading as well . it was then bought by wolverhampton based company airgunsport . at this time airgunsport relocated the manufacture of all webley guns to turkey . webley & scott ltd is majority owned by fuller brothers and run by roger p williams whose family acquired the company in 2008 . majority control passed to the fuller brothers in 2010 . production edit until 1979 webley & scott manufactured shotguns and revolvers for private use as well as producing sidearms for military and police 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 introduced to supply police and military buyers . the first webley production revolver appeared in 1853 . known as the longspur it was a muzzle loaded percussion cap and ball pistol . some consider it to be the finest revolver of its day as it could shoot as fast 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 . webley 1868 ric no. 1 revolver cal 450 cf there is a well known story that a pair of webley ric model revolvers were presented to brevet major general george armstrong custer by lord berkeley in 1869 and it is believed that general custer was using them at the time of his death in the battle of the little bighorn . 1 there is some question whether the gun or guns presented to george armstrong custer were webley ric s. other sources indicate that lord berkeley paget presented custer with a galand & sommerville 44 calibre revolver manufactured in england by the firm of braendlin & sommerville and gave another to tom custer . 2 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 . 3 galand & sommerville 44 revolvers were made to use the same ammunition as the first webley ric s i.e. webley s .442 centre fire cartridge . almost all of webley s subsequent revolvers were of a top break design . a pivoting lever on the side of the gun s upper receiver was pressed to release the barrel and cylinder assembly which then tilts up and forward on a bottom front pivot . after loading the assembly is tilted back into firing position and locked closed . webley the british bull dog revolver cal 450 cf 1870s webley went on to produce more revolvers for the civilian market . webley s popular pocket revolver the british bull dog was developed in 1872 available in .44 short rimfire .442 and .450 calibers and widely exported and copied . smaller scale versions in .320 and .380 calibers were added later . 4 although often attributed to webley webley only produced some of the revolvers now commonly referred to as webley .577 boxer revolvers which used the most powerful handgun cartridge of the day the .577 boxer . it was produced by webley under licence from the firm of william tranter of birmingham whose design it actually was . webley was just one of several firms licensed to use tranter s double action lock and particularly tranter s patented revolving recoil shield which was a key feature of the early .577 calibre revolvers . 5 in 1879 webley developed & sold commercially a rugged and powerful revolver intended for the british military the wg or webley government in .455 .476 the wg s cylinder was long enough for .44 russian & .45 colt length rounds jim farmer has seen .45 colt chambered wg models but is unsure if they were converted .455 s further research is needed for wg chamberings he has seen belgian wg copies made in .44 40 . the wg frame & cylinder were then shortened for the .455 & the variant was adopted in the 1880s as the webley mk 1 . webley wg army model a.k.a. webley government revolver cal 455 476 .476 enfield nicknamed the british peacemaker in the united states the mk 1 was manufactured in .450 .455 webley and .476 calibre and founded a family of revolvers that were the standard handguns of the british army royal navy and british police constabularies from 1887 to 1918 . the mark vi known as the webley revolver no. 1 mark vi after 1927 was the last standard service pistol made by webley ; the most widely produced of their revolvers 300 000 were made for service during world war i. 6 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 automatic pistol was adopted by london s metropolitan police in 1911 . the same weapon in .38 calibre was used by the royal navy as a substitute standard weapon during world war ii . the ordnance factory board of india still manufactures .380 revolver mk iiz cartridges 7 as well as a .32 caliber revolver also known as iof mk1 with 2 inch 51 mm barrel that is clearly based on the webley mk iv .38 service pistol . 8 in 1924 webley produced its first air pistol the mark i. 9 in 1929 webley introduced its mark ii air rifle . during world war ii webley air rifles were used for rifle training as well as civilian target shooting and hunting . 10 the mark ii known as the service air rifle because of its use by the uk military used break action with a superimposed barrel locked by bolt action . the detachable barrel was easily interchangeable with others of the three calibres available . 10 the mark ii was discontinued in 1946 and replaced by the mark iii in production until 1975 . the mark iii was a top loaded air rifle with a fixed barrel and used underlever cocking . it was only made in .177 and .22 calibres . 10 webley hurricane .22 air pistol webley continues to manufacture air pistols in .22 5.5 mm and .177 4.5 mm calibre and air rifles in .22 .177 and .25 6.35 mm calibre . a variety of actions are available in several different models including the hurricane nemesis stinger and tempest air pistols and raider venom and vulcan air rifles . in early 2007 webley broke away from its traditional barrel overlever design to launch the revised typhoon model a break barrel design with a recoil reduction system . webley & scott has also returned to shotgun production with alliances with european manufacturers and now markets a number of sporting and competition shotguns . in 2008 webley sold to webley international limited but still produces products under the webley name 11 in january 2011 webley international limited held a creditors meeting under section 98 insolvency act 1986 . on the 3 february 2011 liquidators were appointed to wiind up the affairs of the company . 12 according to the statement of affairs produced by the liquidators webley international owed their unsecured creditors a sum of 164 595.76 . they also owed money to one secured creditor webley limited in liquidation a sum of 140 000 . famous guns edit webley mk ii service air rifle the webley longspur revolver 1853 the royal irish constabulary revolver 1867 the boxer revolver 1868 the british bull dog revolver 1872 developed from the ric revolver with a barrel only 2 inches it could fit in a coat pocket . the webley revolver marks i vi 1887 to 1923 sold commercially as the webley government the webley wilkinson 1884 to 1914 a very high quality revolver manufactured by webley sold by wilkinson sword company the mars automatic pistol 1900 the webley fosbery automatic revolver 1900 the webley mark i air pistol 1924 the webley mark ii air rifle 1929 the webley mark iii air rifle the webley hawk mark iii air rifle 1977 the webley hurricane air pistol 1977 the model 100 single barrel shotgun the model 400 500 & 700 boxlock shotguns webley & scott automatic pistols edit webley s first autoloading pistol was an experimental pistol in .45 calibre produced in 1903 ; mass production began in 1906 with the .32 acp 7.65 mm model . this pistol had a 3.5 barrel and an 8 round magazine . a .25 6.35 mm version had a 3 inch barrel and a 6 round magazine . ultimately pistols were produced in a range of bores from .22 inch to .455 inch and included 9 mm models . webley self loaders were simple single action blowback pistols designed