![]() ![]() We’ll look at the slant-grip version in a moment, but first I’ll tell you about the earlier model. In 1935, the Senior was changed to the slant grip, which lasted through many other small changes until the model evolved into the Premier in 1964. Even modern single-stroke pneumatics, such as the Gamo Compact and the Webley Nemesis, use a similar arrangement, though the forces involved in the cocking stroke are reversed. The Weihrauch 45–known in the US as the Beeman P1–is one notable example but the total number of spring guns with this type of linkage is actually quite large. Today, this barrel-cocking linkage doesn’t seem as strange because of all the other models that have adopted it. And the Webley cocking linkage really multiplies the mechanical advantage of this arrangement–to the point that these are very powerful, yet compact airguns. At first, it’s a bit awkward but with practice, it becomes second nature. To cock the gun requires that the shooter invert the cocking hand to use the thumb as a fulcrum. That holds true for a Senior made in 1925 as well as a Hurricane made in 1995.Ĭocking the gun was unusual in its day, but not so today–the Beeman P1 cocks in the same fashion. The cocking lever is also the barrel! It’s hinged at the front and loose in the rear, so you pull it up and forward to cock the gun. It’s one of the aspects that defines the Webley. Since the beginning, in the 1920s, Webley spring pistols have all shared a unique cocking linkage that sets them apart from most others. Only the Mark I, which may have been made as early as 1923, pre-dates the Senior in the Webley air pistol line. It’s better-finished than handguns costing much more.Īccording to author Dennis Hiller, in his Air Pistols book, the first model straight-grip Senior was produced from 1925 through 1930. ![]() ![]() Hence, the name.Ī slant-grip Senior is one of the all-time classic air pistols. Compared to the later, or so-called slant-grip models, this one appears to have a grip that’s at a right angle to the barrel. The first model Senior is now called the straight-grip, even though there’s a small amount of rake or backward angle to the line of the grip. ![]() But the early straight-grip Senior I got for $75 at a small gun show in Kentucky went way beyond that. And before I saw that first one, I would have told anyone who asked that the Premier Mark II was a very nice airgun. I had owned two Premier Mark IIs–both in. The Senior wasn’t my first Webley air pistol. Webley Senior with the so-called straight grip (even though it has a small backward rake). While I’m in New York filming the TV show, I thought you’d be interested in this lengthy article I wrote in 1998 for Airgun Revue #3. ![]()
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