Odd Looking Webley

[MikeJackmin]

This seller on gunbroker has a few of these guns for sale:

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=153829506

A crossbolt safety has been added in front of the hammer, but what's that brass-colored plate between the cylinder and the breechface?



This one looks like it'd make a nice shooter...

 

[Billy Shears]

It almost looks like a stock Webley to me. That thing you take for a brass piece is just the recoil shield, which had straight, downward-tapering sides, rather than being circular. In this photo, I'd say that color is merely due to the way the light from the flash is reflecting off the straight edge. Either that, or it's merely discoloration to the finish. The stock recoil shield is identical in configuration, so I doubt it's a replacement part.

 

[MikeJackmin]

I agree the recoil shield looks to be the right shape. However, the other photos in this auction all show a distinctive brass color to this part. I got curious and searched up a few more examples from other sellers, and found two others that also had the cross-bolt style safety, and both of these guns also had the brass-looking part. The guns without the cross-bolt lacked this feature.

I can't imagine why they needed to replace that particular part... may this batch was somehow shipped without them? Or maybe the wizards at Century have a new diabolical trick up their sleeves...

 

[Radagast]

That is the breach face (recoil shield), they can be removed. I've never seen one done in brass before, or color case hardened. If it is brass and not factory original I wouldn't buy it.

There are dis-assembly instructions here: http://www.marstar.ca/AssemblyWebley.htm

The attached pic is of DrakeGMBH's Webleys, you can see the normal parkerized recoil shield quite clearly.

 

[MikeJackmin]

Update

I emailed the seller and asked him what's up.

My original message:

> The recoil shield (the part on the frame right behind the cylinder) appears
> to be brass, or at least brass-colored, on all of the webleys you have for
> sale at the moment. Do you know why these guns are configured this way?
> I've never seen one like that. Perhaps it was done when the cross-bolt
> safety was added?

His reply:

Sir..i do belive this to be correct and that it was done at the time that the safty was added..thanks

 

[nalioth]

What's up with putting safeties on revolvers?

This is the second one I've seen (the first being the Heritage Rough Rider .22).

 

[MikeJackmin]

The safety is added to satisfy the current import regulations. My understanding is that the gun has to survive a fall, fully loaded, without risk of firing. Webleys do not have a rebounding hammer or transfer bar so they have to be modified somehow, and adding a safety is the cheapest way to make them importable.

This is why you see those cheezy safety levers on Tokarev pistols, too.

 

[Billy Shears]

Webleys do not have a rebounding hammer or transfer bar so they have to be modified somehow, and adding a safety is the cheapest way to make them importable.

This is simply not the case. Webley's do have a rebounding hammer. In fact, it is essentially the same rebounding hammer mechanism that was first employed on the Pryse revolver, and was thus featured earlier than on any American revolver manufacturer's weapons. Whatever the reason for this cross-bolt safety, it can't be because Webley's don't have a rebounding hammer.