26 replies to this topic

[Fidde]

Hi from Sweden

Can anyone of you Webley aficionados give me some information about backstrap markings on my Webley Mark Vl revolver?It was made in 1915.   8/15

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             6BY

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            RES

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            BDE

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            REA

All the best/Fidde

Attached Files

•  Markings Webley MK Vl 001.JPG   93.32K   0 downloads

[Fidde]

Sorry,the last letter combination should be RFA.



Fidde

[4thGordons]

6th Battery
Reserve Brigade
Royal Field Artillery

would seem to be the most obvious, although I don't know enough about artilley units to know if that makes sense.
Chris

[Fidde]

Thanks Chris

That seems to make sense to me.Is there any chance to find out where the 6:th battery was located ?

[4thGordons]

HI Fidde
If I were you I would start a thread under units and formations asking about this.
Perhaps one of the Artillery experts might be able to help you out.
Chris

[Fidde]

Thanks Chris



I`ll try that

[Thewebleyman]

Fidde, on 20 April 2012 - 11:24 AM, said:

Hi from Sweden

Can anyone of you Webley aficionados give me some information about backstrap markings on my Webley Mark Vl revolver?It was made in 1915.   8/15

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             6BY

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            RES

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            BDE

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            REA

All the best/Fidde

Hi ,



it is the 8th pistol out of 15 issued to the 6th Battery  Reserve , Royal Field artillery



Hope it helps

[Fidde]

Thanks Webleyman

l was out at the range yesterday shooting a few cylinders with original style bullets and l have to say,these are gorgeus revolvers.Very wellmade indeed.One have to admire the skilled workers at Webleys factory making revolvers that works excellent even when they are nearly 100 years old.

The sun never sets on a Webley
All the best

Peter

[Thewebleyman]

Fidde, on 03 May 2012 - 06:53 AM, said:

Thanks Webleyman

l was out at the range yesterday shooting a few cylinders with original style bullets and l have to say,these are gorgeus revolvers.Very wellmade indeed.One have to admire the skilled workers at Webleys factory making revolvers that works excellent even when they are nearly 100 years old.

The sun never sets on a Webley
All the best

Peter

I hope you weren't using the original powder loads !  



Whereabouts are you located Peter ?

[Fidde]

Hi again

I use 3 grains of Hercules Bullseye powder for the original style bullet and the same powdercharge for the Naval team bullet (bullet mold that l bought from Loweth UK.I use smokeless powder for my Mark lV,V and Vl only.For my RIC83,WG,WS and Mark l-3 l use Swiss blackpowder.

I am located in Sweden.

All the best/Peter

Thewebleyman, on 03 May 2012 - 02:45 PM, said:

I hope you weren't using the original powder loads !  



Whereabouts are you located Peter ?

[Thewebleyman]

Fidde, on 03 May 2012 - 04:41 PM, said:

Hi again

I use 3 grains of Hercules Bullseye powder for the original style bullet and the same powdercharge for the Naval team bullet (bullet mold that l bought from Loweth UK.I use smokeless powder for my Mark lV,V and Vl only.For my RIC83,WG,WS and Mark l-3 l use Swiss blackpowder.

I am located in Sweden.

All the best/Peter



Thanks Peter. I didn't realise you were in a sensible country !.


Unfortunately I have to keep my weapons locked up never to be fired and / or leave them at a range to be seen and shot only a few times a year , if I'm lucky !  A truly lovely pistol the Webley and I do envy you !


Best regards

[Fidde]

Thank`s Webleyman

I remember the very sad day getting my subscription issues of "Target guns" and "Classic arms" front pages covered with BANNED.All the shops that had to close down and people loosing their jobs.This was to be the last year that l purchased revolvers from UK.I hope the laws will change in due time making it easier for serious collectors in UK to regain collecting and shooting these nice vintage revolvers again.It`s a shame that the goverment banned vintage handguns,especially when all the blame should go to the polis department that gave this horrible monster hamilton permission to have guns.

I was visiting London in 1994 purchasing some items in a gunshop at Docklands Rotherhite Tunnel think it was called London Armoury Company.I also visited National Army Museum and Imperial War Museum.I strolled around all the classic streets like New Bond Street (William Bishop).After strolling around about five hours in lively London streets l took a long rest in beautiful Kensington Garden and Hyde Park just a few minutes from my hotel .


All the best

Peter

[Thewebleyman]

Fidde, on 04 May 2012 - 07:39 AM, said:

Thank`s Webleyman

I remember the very sad day getting my subscription issues of "Target guns" and "Classic arms" front pages covered with BANNED.All the shops that had to close down and people loosing their jobs.This was to be the last year that l purchased revolvers from UK.I hope the laws will change in due time making it easier for serious collectors in UK to regain collecting and shooting these nice vintage revolvers again.It`s a shame that the goverment banned vintage handguns,especially when all the blame should go to the polis department that gave this horrible monster hamilton permission to have guns.

I was visiting London in 1994 purchasing some items in a gunshop at Docklands Rotherhite Tunnel think it was called London Armoury Company.I also visited National Army Museum and Imperial War Museum.I strolled around all the classic streets like New Bond Street (William Bishop).After strolling around about five hours in lively London streets l took a long rest in beautiful Kensington Garden and Hyde Park just a few minutes from my hotel .


All the best

Peter

Hello Peter , I'd love to think that the handgun ban will be repealed but sadly I can't see it.  However, we can still own Webley's , Lugers , Broomhandles etc... although its not easy to get a licence. And you are correct in the name of the shop .  

Keep on shooting Peter and enjoy while you can because you never know what might happen in the future.



Regards


James

[Fidde]

I fear that day will come if a lunitic in Sweden goes koko like the one in Norway did.I hope this day never comes though.I am glad that l bought so much brass for my Webleys from UK before the ban since they are quite scarce these days.I am going to cast some bullets next week because they are running out fast.The hollow base mold only have one cavity so it`s quite time consuming to cast them.Tried a slower powder today that l`m going to stick with in future,5,2 grains Vihtavuori N340 making a velocity of 610fps and excellent accuracy.The brass l`m using is Mountain&Sowden MKll.For my blackpowder Webleys l use MKl cases that l bought from NDFS (North Devon Firearms UK).



All the best
Peter

[Thewebleyman]

Fidde, on 05 May 2012 - 02:36 PM, said:

I fear that day will come if a lunitic in Sweden goes koko like the one in Norway did.I hope this day never comes though.I am glad that l bought so much brass for my Webleys from UK before the ban since they are quite scarce these days.I am going to cast some bullets next week because they are running out fast.The hollow base mold only have one cavity so it`s quite time consuming to cast them.Tried a slower powder today that l`m going to stick with in future,5,2 grains Vihtavuori N340 making a velocity of 610fps and excellent accuracy.The brass l`m using is Mountain&Sowden MKll.For my blackpowder Webleys l use MKl cases that l bought from NDFS (North Devon Firearms UK).



All the best
Peter

Peter , for your sake I hope that day never comes. I got most of my cases from NDFS and I think I used Unique or Bullseye powder but its a long time since I did any reloading so I might be mistaken about Unique. What weight of bullet do you use ?  You ever tried Webley's semi autos ?  Lovely to shoot , especially the 38HV.



Regards

[Fidde]

I have never used Webley semiautos but l once had a Webley Fosbery that was very pleasant to shoot,and extremely accurate.Sold it back to UK though.The bullets I use are original style hollowbased 265 grain and Webley Naval Team bullet 220 grain.I used 3.3 grains Bullseye for the Fosbery which made it cycle correct.

All the best

Peter

[TonyE]

Thewebleyman, on 02 May 2012 - 08:53 PM, said:

Hi ,

it is the 8th pistol out of 15 issued to the 6th Battery  Reserve , Royal Field artillery

Hope it helps

Sorry, but I have only just noticed your post above.

I have to disagree, "8/15" is an issue date of August 1915.

When weapon numbers are stamped in UK service they are always simply "rack" numbers and not in the form of "x of y" weapons.

Here are a couple of RFC pistols with both an issue date and a rack number.
Regards
TonyE

Attached Files

•  Rfc1.jpg   31.82K   1 downloads
•  DSC00108.JPG   50.96K   0 downloads

[Fidde]

Thank`s Tony

Much abliged.All history is very interesting when it comes to your precious Webley`s.Would have been interesting to see how the skilled workers made these revolvers in the days without todays modern equipment and computers.I took one of my WG:s apart completely to understand how all the parts functioned and l must say that l was impressed.Everything is extremely wellmade and polished inside.

The sun never sets on a Webley
All the best

Peter

[Thewebleyman]

TonyE, on 05 May 2012 - 04:49 PM, said:

Sorry, but I have only just noticed your post above.

I have to disagree, "8/15" is an issue date of August 1915.

When weapon numbers are stamped in UK service they are always simply "rack" numbers and not in the form of "x of y" weapons.

Here are a couple of RFC pistols with both an issue date and a rack number.
Regards
TonyE

Hello Tony ,

Always happy to learn something new. I was told years ago that the first digits were issue numbers and not dates , just goes to show you shouldn't believe everything youre told !!


Thanks

[Thewebleyman]

Fidde, on 05 May 2012 - 03:55 PM, said:

I have never used Webley semiautos but l once had a Webley Fosbery that was very pleasant to shoot,and extremely accurate.Sold it back to UK though.The bullets I use are original style hollowbased 265 grain and Webley Naval Team bullet 220 grain.I used 3.3 grains Bullseye for the Fosbery which made it cycle correct.

All the best

Peter

Hello Peter,


Youre right about the Fosbery , lovely and smooth when shooting and an amazing piece of engineering. I'm lucky to have one that saw action at Kut .

Regards

[Thewebleyman]

TonyE, on 05 May 2012 - 04:49 PM, said:

Sorry, but I have only just noticed your post above.

I have to disagree, "8/15" is an issue date of August 1915.

When weapon numbers are stamped in UK service they are always simply "rack" numbers and not in the form of "x of y" weapons.

Here are a couple of RFC pistols with both an issue date and a rack number.
Regards
TonyE

Tony

would you know if the same practice was applied to holsters ? I have a Mk V that is not marked but came in a holster that was . Just trying to reduce pic size so I can attach ii, incidentally also RFC.
Its marked as  :

3 RFC
    4

1914


cheers

[Fidde]

You must be a lucky man having such a fine revolver.I regret that l sold mine but done is done.I was always afraid breaking anything when shooting the Fosbery because it`s very delicate and sensitive.What would l do if l broke a spring or something like that,horrible thought.There seems to be no sources for old Webley parts any longer anywhere so one have to be careful and shoot only mild loads with them.Yesterday l took both MKV and MKVI to the shooting range comparing a little bit,and l have to say that both revolvers are very nice to shoot with some preference to the MarkV and it`s birdsheadgrips.Shooting DA gave a better holding grip in favor for the Vl though because it was easy to hold a firm grip.Next week l will try my MKVl with short barrel(believe it`s four inch only) to see how it shoots with the same load as the others.Have to work up some bullets though.l cast them with 90 % pure lead and 10% tin and have no problems with leading in barrel or cylinder.

Best wishes

Peter

Thewebleyman, on 06 May 2012 - 09:14 PM, said:

Hello Peter,


Youre right about the Fosbery , lovely and smooth when shooting and an amazing piece of engineering. I'm lucky to have one that saw action at Kut .

Regards

[MikB]

Thewebleyman, on 05 May 2012 - 02:58 PM, said:

Peter , for your sake I hope that day never comes. I got most of my cases from NDFS and I think I used Unique or Bullseye powder but its a long time since I did any reloading so I might be mistaken about Unique. What weight of bullet do you use ?  You ever tried Webley's semi autos ?  Lovely to shoot , especially the 38HV.

Regards

You might well be right about Unique - it's an extremely versatile handgun powder. I used it for loads from the little .32 ACP up to medium-hot .44 Magnum, and it worked very well in everything. I would guess it would give better velocity with a lower peak-pressure than Bullseye, which I always thought severely fast in anything other than minimalist loads.

Regards,
MikB

[Thewebleyman]

MikB, on 07 May 2012 - 11:02 AM, said:

You might well be right about Unique - it's an extremely versatile handgun powder. I used it for loads from the little .32 ACP up to medium-hot .44 Magnum, and it worked very well in everything. I would guess it would give better velocity with a lower peak-pressure than Bullseye, which I always thought severely fast in anything other than minimalist loads.

Regards,
MikB

Hi
from memory I think Unique was either too slow in burning or too fast for most handguns but I can't remember which it was  !

Regards

Webleyman

[Sommewalker]

Thewebleyman, on 07 May 2012 - 12:41 PM, said:

Hi
from memory I think Unique was either too slow in burning or too fast for most handguns but I can't remember which it was  !

Regards

Webleyman

I used to shoot various handguns and your mention of handgun loads caused me to dig back in my old notebooks. I did use Unique frequently because I considered it a versatile and moderate load for large calibre pistols.  I used 6.9 gns with a 200gn SWC bullet in Colt .45 ACP for competition work, giving 930 ft/sec., and in 0.455 Eley Auto with a 225 gn lead bullet, either 5.7 gns of Unique or 4.0 gns of Bullseye.  I used these latter loads for both Webley and Colt M.1911 pistols in this calibre.   None of these loads gave any sign of pressure in these self-loaders and cycled the mechanism cleanly.  Those were the days! SW