Posted: 5/29/2013 2:42:41 PM EDT
This British Webley was my dads its .38 s&W cal. The gun says wartime finish on it. Any stories on these, value etc?
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Naw, it's worth at least $50.
Seriously, those are very nifty revolvers. The relatively recent run of Century Arms imports ran about $250, IIRC. They were butchered with a butt-ugly push-thru safety; unmolested ones like yours would go for probably another hundred or so. For valuation, best bet is to check Gunbroker and see what similar condition ones actually sell for. While .38 S&W will work nicely, they are technically chambered for .380 Enfield No.2 (dimensionally virtually identical), and yours might need slightly larger diameter and/or heavier bullets to do its best. "Wartime finish" is Webley & Scott's way of saying, "Right, we are fully aware this finish is rather crude and not up to our historical standard. However, we ask you to take note of the fact that the internal bits are, in fact, properly fitted in our usual way. Unfortunately, if we are to give Jerry the thrashing he deserves and make the world safe for Englishmen (and Yanks, too), HM Government has insisted we speed up production and cut costs, resulting in this rather unsightly external finish. We do beg you to overlook it, citing the exigencies of wartime. Thank you ever so much." |
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Naw, it's worth at least $50. Seriously, those are very nifty revolvers. The relatively recent run of Century Arms imports ran about $250, IIRC. They were butchered with a butt-ugly push-thru safety; unmolested ones like yours would go for probably another hundred or so. For valuation, best bet is to check Gunbroker and see what similar condition ones actually sell for. While .38 S&W will work nicely, they are technically chambered for .380 Enfield No.2 (dimensionally virtually identical), and yours might need slightly larger diameter and/or heavier bullets to do its best. "Wartime finish" is Webley & Scott's way of saying, "Right, we are fully aware this finish is rather crude and not up to our historical standard. However, we ask you to take note of the fact that the internal bits are, in fact, properly fitted in our usual way. Unfortunately, if we are to give Jerry the thrashing he deserves and make the world safe for Englishmen (and Yanks, too), HM Government has insisted we speed up production and cut costs, resulting in this rather unsightly external finish. We do beg you to overlook it, citing the exigencies of wartime. Thank you ever so much." That is interesting indeed! Thanks for your post! |
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Naw, it's worth at least $50. Seriously, those are very nifty revolvers. The relatively recent run of Century Arms imports ran about $250, IIRC. They were butchered with a butt-ugly push-thru safety; unmolested ones like yours would go for probably another hundred or so. For valuation, best bet is to check Gunbroker and see what similar condition ones actually sell for. While .38 S&W will work nicely, they are technically chambered for .380 Enfield No.2 (dimensionally virtually identical), and yours might need slightly larger diameter and/or heavier bullets to do its best. "Wartime finish" is Webley & Scott's way of saying, "Right, we are fully aware this finish is rather crude and not up to our historical standard. However, we ask you to take note of the fact that the internal bits are, in fact, properly fitted in our usual way. Unfortunately, if we are to give Jerry the thrashing he deserves and make the world safe for Englishmen (and Yanks, too), HM Government has insisted we speed up production and cut costs, resulting in this rather unsightly external finish. We do beg you to overlook it, citing the exigencies of wartime. Thank you ever so much." Got it out, and on the left side of the top strap it says Mark IV .38 145/200. I guess that's for the range of bullet weights? I just kinda took this gun for granted, without thought to the history of it..... |
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Quoted: Quoted: Naw, it's worth at least $50. Seriously, those are very nifty revolvers. The relatively recent run of Century Arms imports ran about $250, IIRC. They were butchered with a butt-ugly push-thru safety; unmolested ones like yours would go for probably another hundred or so. For valuation, best bet is to check Gunbroker and see what similar condition ones actually sell for. While .38 S&W will work nicely, they are technically chambered for .380 Enfield No.2 (dimensionally virtually identical), and yours might need slightly larger diameter and/or heavier bullets to do its best. "Wartime finish" is Webley & Scott's way of saying, "Right, we are fully aware this finish is rather crude and not up to our historical standard. However, we ask you to take note of the fact that the internal bits are, in fact, properly fitted in our usual way. Unfortunately, if we are to give Jerry the thrashing he deserves and make the world safe for Englishmen (and Yanks, too), HM Government has insisted we speed up production and cut costs, resulting in this rather unsightly external finish. We do beg you to overlook it, citing the exigencies of wartime. Thank you ever so much." Got it out, and on the left side of the top strap it says Mark IV .38 145/200. I guess that's for the range of bullet weights? I just kinda took this gun for granted, without thought to the history of it..... IIRC yes it is the bullet weights, basically the two British issued cartridges were 38 S&W with 145gr bullet or a 38 S&W with 200gr bullet |
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I've got one, would have sold it long time ago if it hadnt been my grandfathers. He didnt use it in the war, he traded for it, so I still think about selling it occasionally. Probably won't, though.
They're worth about 400-450 pristine in that caliber. Thats book and what they actually sell for. Or it was last time I checked about a year ago. As stated "war finish" was Webleys way of saying that they know the finish on the gun sucks. Webley took great pride in the finish they put on their guns, and didn't want people thinking that what they pumped out for the war was up to their usual standards. I think they even got into fights with the Brit gov't about the finish thing--the Brit gov't basically saying "just make the damn guns" and Webley saying they didn't want to put out a substandard product. |
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Got it out, and on the left side of the top strap it says Mark IV .38 145/200.[/span] I guess that's for the range of bullet weights? I just kinda took this gun for granted, without thought to the history of it..... IIRC yes it is the bullet weights, basically the two British issued cartridges were 38 S&W with 145gr bullet or a 38 S&W with 200gr bullet After the Great War, the Brits decided to downsize their revolver. They essentially took the .38 S&W cartridge and loaded it with a 200gr round nose plain lead bullet, calling it the .380 Enfield MkI (or No.1) or the .38-200. After some nattering and hand-wringing over possible Hague Convention violations re. the "expanding" bullet, they switched back to .38 S&W specs (145gr bullet), but specified it be FMJ instead of RNL, and called it .380 Enfield MkII (or No.2) or .38-145. Although the existing large stocks of evil .38-200 were theoretically only to be used for training, both types of ammo were issued in service. As substandard noted, your revolver is marked to be used with either cartridge. I expect you already know this, but just in case: .38 Special ammo cannot be used, nor should you cut down .38 Special cases. The .38 S&W has a fatter case as well as a fatter bullet, so you'll likely get some case splitting using cut down .38 Specials. .38 S&W ammo is relatively easily gotten; it will all have the 145gr RNL bullet. If you want to replicate either official load (FMJ 145gr or RNL 200gr), you'll have some difficulty finding correct .361 - .363" bullets. |
