RON in PA
Member
There have been a couple of threads recently about the availability of surplus Webley Mark IV revolvers chambered in the English 38/200 or commonly known in the US as S&W 38 (not to be confused the 38 special). I recently obtained one at my local den of iniquity here in the Philly, PA area and I was finally able to get to the range to shoot it. The Webley mark IV was the inspiration for the Enfield No. 2 revolver and was purchased by the UK in large numbers during WW2. Along with the Enfield and Smith and Wesson M&P revolvers, both also chambered in 38/200, the Webley was one of the mainstays of Commonwealth forces during the war.
38/200 surplus military ammo with 178 grain ball is not easily found in this day and age so I had to load up some Starline 38 S&W brass that I had. I used Remington swaged lead 158 grain SWC bullets over 3 grains of 231 with a cartridge length of 1.18 in. Please note that theoretically this is a hot load exceeding the usual 2.6 grain max. load recommended. Do not use in other break top guns other than the Enfield no.2. Fired cases extracted easily and showed no signs of excess pressure.
The revolver itself appeared to be unused with a perfect bore. Finish is much superior to the rough wartime finish. It unfortunately has the Century Arms applied safety which is a pain, in order to unload the gun the safety has to be applied and one needs to remember to take it off before shooting. The Webley was coated in some preservative that has proven hard to remove so that you may notice some in the pictures. By the way I took the pictures after shooting 60 rounds, so that what you see is a dirty gun. Also on the bottom of the butt are crossed out letters and numbers that appear to indicate ownership by the Hong Kong Police.
I started shooting two handed and was getting groups going off to the right as if the fixed sights were off so i tried shooting one-handed in the bullseye/ dueling stance and the gun seemed dead on. So what you see is a target with a 2 inch bull shot at 7 yards containing 12 shots. The load seems OK.
Opinions about the Webley: My reference revolver is a Smith and Wesson model 10 and the Webley ain't no Smith. The SA trigger pull is bearable, but heavier than it should be, while the DA pull is a bear and pretty useless except for shots fired at face to face distance. I do not find the automatic ejection system any major improvement over the side loading system used in the usual American S&W, Colt or Ruger. The grips are ok for SA shooting, not so great for DA. To sum it up, an interesting bit of revolver history that doesn't compare to Smith or Ruger revolvers.
38/200 surplus military ammo with 178 grain ball is not easily found in this day and age so I had to load up some Starline 38 S&W brass that I had. I used Remington swaged lead 158 grain SWC bullets over 3 grains of 231 with a cartridge length of 1.18 in. Please note that theoretically this is a hot load exceeding the usual 2.6 grain max. load recommended. Do not use in other break top guns other than the Enfield no.2. Fired cases extracted easily and showed no signs of excess pressure.
The revolver itself appeared to be unused with a perfect bore. Finish is much superior to the rough wartime finish. It unfortunately has the Century Arms applied safety which is a pain, in order to unload the gun the safety has to be applied and one needs to remember to take it off before shooting. The Webley was coated in some preservative that has proven hard to remove so that you may notice some in the pictures. By the way I took the pictures after shooting 60 rounds, so that what you see is a dirty gun. Also on the bottom of the butt are crossed out letters and numbers that appear to indicate ownership by the Hong Kong Police.
I started shooting two handed and was getting groups going off to the right as if the fixed sights were off so i tried shooting one-handed in the bullseye/ dueling stance and the gun seemed dead on. So what you see is a target with a 2 inch bull shot at 7 yards containing 12 shots. The load seems OK.
Opinions about the Webley: My reference revolver is a Smith and Wesson model 10 and the Webley ain't no Smith. The SA trigger pull is bearable, but heavier than it should be, while the DA pull is a bear and pretty useless except for shots fired at face to face distance. I do not find the automatic ejection system any major improvement over the side loading system used in the usual American S&W, Colt or Ruger. The grips are ok for SA shooting, not so great for DA. To sum it up, an interesting bit of revolver history that doesn't compare to Smith or Ruger revolvers.
