daniel craig
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Has anyone ever shot one? How was it? I really love these revolvers based on what I know about them but I’ve never shot one.
Webly Fosbery
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Monac
Member
I have fired one, a long time ago. Felt recoil was not bad, because 455 Webley is distinctly less powerful than 45 ACP, and the Fosbery is heavier than a Colt New Service, for example. We used Fiocchi ammo, also, and it may be lightly loaded. But it cycled the gun OK. It felt odd as the top half of the gun shuttled back and forth, fairly slowly compared to a normal automatic pistol.
The main thing I remember is how tall the gun was. The sights are higher above your hand than on a normal revolver or auto, so you have the odd feeling you should be standing on tip-toe to see them properly. The trigger was nothing that I remember, either good or bad.
I guess I was not very enthused about having shot it because I do not like big heavy pistols. Although the Webley-Fosbery is far more interesting than most, it is also heavier and clumsier than most. The same is true, IMO, of the Mateba automatic revolver.
PS - As I should have said specifically, it was a 455, not the rare 38 ACP. I don't remember if the barrel was 6 inches or 7 1/2. It was in decent shape but not minty, and I remember the little hexagon shaped cam in the frame was slightly peened. Accuracy was OK, I think, but I don't really remember. I have never been an excellent shot, even with an excellent pistol. Oh, and I remember the Fiocchi bullets as being as black as licorice; they may have been terribly soft. I hope time is not playing a trick on me there.
PPS - I wonder if the mods will feel this post is in the correct forum?
The main thing I remember is how tall the gun was. The sights are higher above your hand than on a normal revolver or auto, so you have the odd feeling you should be standing on tip-toe to see them properly. The trigger was nothing that I remember, either good or bad.
I guess I was not very enthused about having shot it because I do not like big heavy pistols. Although the Webley-Fosbery is far more interesting than most, it is also heavier and clumsier than most. The same is true, IMO, of the Mateba automatic revolver.
PS - As I should have said specifically, it was a 455, not the rare 38 ACP. I don't remember if the barrel was 6 inches or 7 1/2. It was in decent shape but not minty, and I remember the little hexagon shaped cam in the frame was slightly peened. Accuracy was OK, I think, but I don't really remember. I have never been an excellent shot, even with an excellent pistol. Oh, and I remember the Fiocchi bullets as being as black as licorice; they may have been terribly soft. I hope time is not playing a trick on me there.
PPS - I wonder if the mods will feel this post is in the correct forum?
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Shanghai McCoy
Member
The Webley-Fosbery... also famous for being mentioned in "The Maltese Falcon".
UncleEd
Member
Besides "The Maltese Falcon" don't forget
the Sean Connery 1974 film "Zardoz" in
which Zed (Connery) has only a diaper
to wear during the entire film. His pony tail
hair style doesn't count as a costume.
the Sean Connery 1974 film "Zardoz" in
which Zed (Connery) has only a diaper
to wear during the entire film. His pony tail
hair style doesn't count as a costume.
indy1919a4
Member
Oh Zardoz.. that is where I first saw the Webley Fosbery.. Loved how Mr Connery cycled the pistol in the beginning...
I almost got one once... Went to a gun show with a friend and saw the tag and it said 1500. ( I have a friend to verify this) Asked the guy take it out of the case, I was losing my gourd, my hands shock. I wanted to slam the money on the table and run.. But no, I showed discipline under fire and asked if the gentleman could do better.. He looked at it and said he could do 12,500. So we looked at the tag again and noticed that the decimal point was in fact a little bitty teeny-weeny tiny zero..
Needless to say I did not get it. I did try to retreat with a certain amount of grace but it was hard.. I was trounced... I was a lost man...
And Uncle Ed may I say that Zed also had Boots.. (which covered more than the diaper)..
daniel craig
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I’ve watched this video more than I care to admit lol
daniel craig
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I got interested in webly revolvers because of reading Sherlock Holmes when I was a kid. Watson cared an “eley #2” which I think was actually the webly bull dog but then I got into more research when I started playing a table top game set in that era and I needed a weapon for my character to shoot.The Webley-Fosbery... also famous for being mentioned in "The Maltese Falcon".
Monac
Member
Eley was a British cartridge maker. The correct name for the British 455 revolver cartridge was actually .455 Eley, for example. So saying Watson had an Eley #2 revolver may be like saying he had a 38 Special.
I don't think Eley ever made revolvers, or even put their name on revolvers made by others. As I have found out on here on The High Road, I am wrong a lot, though.
I don't think Eley ever made revolvers, or even put their name on revolvers made by others. As I have found out on here on The High Road, I am wrong a lot, though.
BobWright
Member
Eley was a British cartridge maker. The correct name for the British 455 revolver cartridge was actually .455 Eley, for example. So saying Watson had an Eley #2 revolver may be like saying he had a 38 Special.
I don't think Eley ever made revolvers, or even put their name on revolvers made by others. As I have found out on here on The High Road, I am wrong a lot, though.
Well I think you are absolutely correct here. There are examples of Eley cartridge display boards showing the array of cartridges made by them. Most of the old African big game cartridges were produced by Eley.
Bob Wright
Not this time:Eley was a British cartridge maker. The correct name for the British 455 revolver cartridge was actually .455 Eley, for example. So saying Watson had an Eley #2 revolver may be like saying he had a 38 Special.
I don't think Eley ever made revolvers, or even put their name on revolvers made by others. As I have found out on here on The High Road, I am wrong a lot, though.
http://mlncn.com/lib/holmes/things/gun.html
dbluefish
Member
"We used Fiocchi ammo, also, and it may be lightly loaded. But it cycled the gun OK. It felt odd as the top half of the gun shuttled back and forth, fairly slowly compared to a normal automatic pistol." Isn't the Webley a revolver?I have fired one, a long time ago. Felt recoil was not bad, because 455 Webley is distinctly less powerful than 45 ACP, and the Fosbery is heavier than a Colt New Service, for example. We used Fiocchi ammo, also, and it may be lightly loaded. But it cycled the gun OK. It felt odd as the top half of the gun shuttled back and forth, fairly slowly compared to a normal automatic pistol.
The main thing I remember is how tall the gun was. The sights are higher above your hand than on a normal revolver or auto, so you have the odd feeling you should be standing on tip-toe to see them properly. The trigger was nothing that I remember, either good or bad.
I guess I was not very enthused about having shot it because I do not like big heavy pistols. Although the Webley-Fosbery is far more interesting than most, it is also heavier and clumsier than most. The same is true, IMO, of the Mateba automatic revolver.
PS - As I should have said specifically, it was a 455, not the rare 38 ACP. I don't remember if the barrel was 6 inches or 7 1/2. It was in decent shape but not minty, and I remember the little hexagon shaped cam in the frame was slightly peened. Accuracy was OK, I think, but I don't really remember. I have never been an excellent shot, even with an excellent pistol. Oh, and I remember the Fiocchi bullets as being as black as licorice; they may have been terribly soft. I hope time is not playing a trick on me there.
PPS - I wonder if the mods will feel this post is in the correct forum?
Gordon
Member
It is a self cocking revolver . The cylinder /barrel assembly recoils an a sub frame attached to the pistol grip frame when fired, cocking hammer and bring cylinder around to next cartridge. So it is DA then after firing and recocked SA. The cylinder/ barrel subframe has enough mass so that it's rearward velocity is not as fast as a semi auto pistol slide.
Monac
Member
What Gordon said. Webley is famous for its revolvers, although it also made automatic pistols. But the Webley-Fosbery is an automatic revolver. Fosbery was the man who came up with the basic concept, and Webley turned it into a working firearm and manufactured it.
You can Google it, or check out the "Forgotten Weapons" video about it on YouTube. I guess I forgot how obscure it is, and in fact how obscure the whole idea of automatic revolvers are to a large majority of people.
The only other automatic revolvers made for commercial sale that I can think of are the Mateba, made in Italy the 1990's, IIRC, and a very small number of 32 S&W pistols made by a company named Union Arms in Toledo, Ohio, about 120 years ago.
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NIGHTLORD40K
Member
One might lump the Dardick in as an automatic feed revolver, though not an auto-indexing or auto-cocking gun.
Monac
Member
NIGHTLORD40K, unless I have misunderstood what I have read (or seen on YouTube) about the Dardick, it is no more automatic than any firearm with a magazine. That is to say, it is as automatic as a double action revolver or a lever action rifle. I suppose it would be best referred to as a mechanical repeater, although most sources call it a revolver: https://www.gunsandammo.com/editorial/the-dardick-revolver/358541
It does not use the energy of the fired cartridge to operate any part of the mechanism, which seems to be the key quality for calling a firearm automatic nowadays.
Then again, finding about I have been wrong about something for decades no longer comes as a shock to me.
It does not use the energy of the fired cartridge to operate any part of the mechanism, which seems to be the key quality for calling a firearm automatic nowadays.
Then again, finding about I have been wrong about something for decades no longer comes as a shock to me.
Gordon
Member
Dardrick used Double action finger energy to rotate an open sided triangular cylinder which was fed from a magazine and dumped out previously fired shell
indy1919a4
Member
Never could figure out why the Dardrick was not successful, it cost more then a conventional revolver, it shot proprietary ammo that could not really be found, reloaded and cost more then regular ammo, Oh yeah the ammo was not very reliable . And the gun looked like it fell out of the ugly tree hitting every branch on the way down, landing in the ugly bush,,
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Dframe
Member
Always wanted to fire a fosbery never had the chance
Last time I saw one for sale was at Martin B. Retting in L.A. Probably 25 years ago. Price then was $7000. And they wouldn't even open the case unless you intended to buy. Came oh so close to pulling out the credit card. But figured feeding the kids would have to take priority.
indy1919a4
Member
You know that guy tried the same crap with me
.. He would not open the case unless I intended to buy.. And I can look the Lord in the eye when that day comes and assure him I had intended to buy.. when I thought it was 1500.Now there are all kinds of nuance with these.. So prices can very
Was at a high toned huge auction with people coming from all over the world, about 8 years ago and the auction price was 7000-8000 with an 18% premium. There were 2 there.
On Gun Broker saw one in nickel finish sell in on Gunbroker not that long ago in the 7k range (it was in a real start from the bottom auction)
There are people all day long on GB trying to sell them in the 10 to 15k range..
I really think that they will sell quickly in the 7000 to 9000 range.
shoobe01
Member
Since you all went off a bit on the Dardick, who else has shot a Mateba?
In the 90s (early 2000s?) they imported a few of these, no one cared, they cleared them out then left. For about 10 minutes there, they were dirt cheap, so a very, very revolver oriented friend got one. We shot it plenty, and it was very clever indeed but very strange, and even though maybe better: not allowed in most competitions he did, hard to find leather for, and so different he never got as good as he could with it.
Similar to the Webley Fosberry (which I have touched once, but was not allowed to manipulate in any way) the whole thing slides to recock and re-index. So it works like a conventional selective-double-action self-loading pistol.
They were threatening to bring these back this year: https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog...cheduled-to-make-comeback-in-the-usa-in-2020/
It was also in the original Ghost in the Shell, used to good effect to fire LL ammo, so clever to have a revolver.
In the 90s (early 2000s?) they imported a few of these, no one cared, they cleared them out then left. For about 10 minutes there, they were dirt cheap, so a very, very revolver oriented friend got one. We shot it plenty, and it was very clever indeed but very strange, and even though maybe better: not allowed in most competitions he did, hard to find leather for, and so different he never got as good as he could with it.
Similar to the Webley Fosberry (which I have touched once, but was not allowed to manipulate in any way) the whole thing slides to recock and re-index. So it works like a conventional selective-double-action self-loading pistol.
They were threatening to bring these back this year: https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog...cheduled-to-make-comeback-in-the-usa-in-2020/
It was also in the original Ghost in the Shell, used to good effect to fire LL ammo, so clever to have a revolver.
indy1919a4
Member
You're right about them being here for just a minute of two. When I first heard of them I tried to find one but they were already gone.
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