The Goose
NES Member
I picked this up a few months back, but have not had a lot of time to shoot it. It is a Webley Governement ("WG") model in the original .455. It was retailed in South Africa by a merchant named J. F. King in the mid 1880's. Probably a Boer revolver. These were made largely for military use and were reknowned for their smooth double action trigger pull. I had shot it a little bit, but really wanted to put it through it's paces to see how it stacked up as a military or defense handgun. I loaded up 150 rds using a traditional RCBS 265 gr hollow based bullet that I cast from a 20:1 alloy over 18 grs of Goex 3F black powder. I started by shooting 18 rds in single action at a regular paper target at about 30 feet. Once I got used to it I would say that accuracy was comparable to most modern defensive handguns that I have shot. I am not a great handgun shooter, but I easily kept most of the shots in a palm sized area. Now that I knew how it shot I was ready for some fun. We have a 6 plate rack at the club and I went to work on it. I fired off the rest of the first box of 50 in double action, shooting and reloading as fast as possible. The black powder smoke literally obscured the target and the barrel got so hot that it burned my hand snapping open the action. I hit 5 plates with every cylinder, I missed one every time. Stiil the action functioned smoothly and flawlessly with positive ejection on the empty cases when I snapped open the action. After each 50 rds I dropped out the cylinder and a gave a quick clean, although, there was no indication of the action gumming up or the accuracy declining. Anyone who has ever shot black powder in a revolver knows how gummed up they can get from the residue. The design of the Webley is such that it just keeps going even with the considerable black powder fouling. What a machine.
The Webley revolver design was cutting edge in the last quarter of the 19th century and yet substantial enough that it remained the British service side arm until 1962 when they adopted the Browning Hi Power. That old "WG" even with black powder and soft lead bullets could go up against any moderrn revolver and in the right hands a good many semi autos (in my opinion.) As much as I love the venerable 1873 Colt, the Webley was a superior military revolver in that time frame. Opening the action sends all 6 cases flying every time and then the open exposed cylinder face facilitates rapid reloading. Certainly, it cannot compare to a magazine loaded semi auto, but when cartridge revolvers were state of the art the Webley may have been king. The American .45 Colt was substantially more powerful, but if I had a bunch of angry indigenous peoples with sharp and pointy objects bearing down on me I think I would opt for the faster reloading capability and a double action trigger pull.
The Webley revolver design was cutting edge in the last quarter of the 19th century and yet substantial enough that it remained the British service side arm until 1962 when they adopted the Browning Hi Power. That old "WG" even with black powder and soft lead bullets could go up against any moderrn revolver and in the right hands a good many semi autos (in my opinion.) As much as I love the venerable 1873 Colt, the Webley was a superior military revolver in that time frame. Opening the action sends all 6 cases flying every time and then the open exposed cylinder face facilitates rapid reloading. Certainly, it cannot compare to a magazine loaded semi auto, but when cartridge revolvers were state of the art the Webley may have been king. The American .45 Colt was substantially more powerful, but if I had a bunch of angry indigenous peoples with sharp and pointy objects bearing down on me I think I would opt for the faster reloading capability and a double action trigger pull.
