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11/12/2017 16:24:40
Warrior
The first version of the Warrior was made to a patent by Frank Clarke and Edwin Anson. The second version was sold by Accles & Shelvoke:
With thanks to John G for this pic and text: "Warrior, First version: This relatively rare version can be distinguished from the later version by (a) the chamfered end to the cocking lever , (b) the semicircular trigger guard, (c) the absence of a serial number, (d) the lettering, which among other things, says “The Warrior. Made in England”, rather than 'The Warrior. Made by Accles and Shelvoke' as on the second version. This first version was made between 1930 and 1933."
With thanks to Trev:
Second version:
With thanks to Brian for these pics.
Plated Warrior
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Topic starter
11/12/2017 16:26:28
Patent information
With thanks to Peter for this scan of research by Dennis Commins.
Topic starter
11/12/2017 16:28:23
Warrior (2nd version)
This pistol sold at Holts Auctioneers in London in March 2017.
Topic starter
18/06/2018 15:38:03
Accles & Shelvoke Warrior - internal parts
With thanks to John A, the author.
Topic starter
15/11/2018 17:19:12
With thanks to Jake on the airgunbbs.com for this description:
Resealing an Accles and Shelvoke The Warrior air pistol
About a year and a half ago I bought a Accles and Shelvoke Warrior .177 air pistol at auction. I paid £85 for it, the gun itself was in fair condition, Almost all the bluing had gone and the grips were missing and a pair of sculpted wooden ones were in their place. But it was complete and did shoot. Happy days! I was later able to find someone on here who could make a pair of repo's from a mold they had, Cheers!
Go forward a few months to around November 2017, After a short plinking session I found that something was blocking the transfer hole. Not really knowing much about the pistol and how it works, I decided to disassemble the pistol to see what the problem is.
The Warrior was actually fairly easy to work with, much easier than a Webley Premier I took apart months before, The front and rear sight screw are what locks both ends in place. Remove them and both ends can turn counter clockwise and unscrew from the main body. There is also a pin that connects the lever to the cocking link arm, this is easily push out with a small punch. After that both ends can be removed (be careful, like with many air guns, the spring will be under tension, no need for a spring compressor, it's not that bad, just be aware) and then the piston, spring and everything else can be removed.
After disassembly I found that the piston seal had disintegrated into mush. Bugger, oh well Ill find another. How naive I was.....
With the Warrior being a concentric air pistol, the barrel runs through the middle of the piston. So unlike with the more common Webley mark 1/senior/juniors of the time (which had their barrel above the cylinder, which was also used to cock the pistol). You simply have a cylinder with the barrel in the middle of it. Similar designs were used in the Shelvoke (also made by Accles and Shelvoke), The Titan air pistol (Which was created by F.Clarke, the same bloke who helped design the Warrior) and I believe Westley Richards the highest possible had some models that used a concentric design. And of course, the Warrior having a side lever to cock the pistol.
So the Warrior was not your standard air pistol of the 1930s. And it turns out it is bloody difficult to reseal these pistols, mainly because the piston does not have a screw which holds the seal in place like the Webley's, no. Since it is a concentric design, this would be impossible. So what they did instead was simply have a seal held in place with a metal washer and then the end of the piston that poked out above the seal were peened over to keep the washer and seal on the piston. Here is the piston after removing the mush of a seal:
As you can see, the end of the piston is peened over. Not exactly consumer friendly and replacing the seal was probably never a concern for the makers.
So as I have said, this was November 2017, a year ago....
After finding out it would be no small task to replace the seal, I placed the pistol and its components in a zip lock bag and into the drawer of my desk it went, never to see the light of day again. I really like the Warrior so I would never sell it, but I did not really know what I should do. A few months later I made a post on here asking for any advice on the matter. Understandably not many could help though one did suggest using a rubber seal from a brake master cylinder repair kit (cant remember your name, sorry!). Since rubber can be easily stretched over the top of the piston I thought great! But I never found a kit that had one suitable and with being busy with work, back into the drawer it went.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago (Some time at the end of October 2018) I was working on one of my old BSA's and was rummaging around a box of random bits and bobs for old airguns I bought off a bloke on E bay (believe he has an account on here but again, I am crap with names!) and I found a leather seal that looked like it could work. And alas it was a 1 inch seal and fits nicely in the cylinder. Now the only problem I have is fitting said seal onto the piston. After a lot of thinking I decided to ask someone who is more mechanically minded than me, my father. Asked him for his advice and he immediately said "why not grind away the top of the piston so you can get the washer off? We can then peen it over again". I was a bit worried since there is not much metal on the piston in the first place. And with it being the same age as my grandfather, I was worried it would be too brittle (A similar worry I have with my grandfather
). But after considering all other options, it was this or nothing.
So today I dragged the pistol out of my draw, blew the dust off it and gave the piston to my father. He got his bench grinder out and began to grind away, all the while I was praying to god for it to not break, since where the hell am I going to find another piston!
But thankfully, it worked! The hole in the seal needed to be widened, but this was an easy task. Once the seal was on and the washer in place, I held the piston as my father started to peen the ends over, swear he aimed at my hands a couple of times.....
In the end it went well and I am sure this seal will last another 80 years (Good luck to whichever unlucky bugger has the gun then!). Here is an image of the new seal on the piston:
Here are all the pieces together:
Not the prettiest thing but she will do.
Now all I had to do was remember how to put the thing back together...... I mean come on, its been over a year since I took it apart.... Still, thanks to the pistol not being a complicated bit of engineering, it quickly came back to me.
After a bit of trial and error when it came to remembering what order things go back together in, I found another problem I had long forgotten about. The trigger spring was kaput.
I then remembered that when I first got it, I thought it was weird that the trigger just flapped about when its not cocked. Well the reason being was that the spring was all mangled up. So I went and searched my spring set to find one that fits and well.....there wasn't one.
For Christ's sake I thought. But then I had an epiphany. What else can you find readily available about the house. Pens, that's what. So again I rummaged around for a pen and found one that would make a worthy sacrifice to to air gun Gods.
Now it turned out that the diameter of the spring of the pen is too large. I mean seriously, why is the trigger spring meant to be so small! Oh well I had an idea. After cutting the spring down to a decent length, I went and found some white tack (blue tack would also be ok, just I only had some white tack) and rolled some into a small ball and placed it into the spring guide on the Warriors trigger:
I then bent the cut end of the new spring so that it would go into the hole and at least make it so the spring would not just fall out when I tried to put the trigger back together.
Here are the old and new springs side by side (old on left, new on right):
After a bit of fumbling I managed to get it seated just right and then placed the holding pin through the frame and trigger, Boom! The trigger is in place and even better, it no longer wobbles about like a flaccid....you get the idea....:
All that was left was to put on the trigger guard and grips:
Now you know when sometimes you take something apart and then put it back together and you find you still have some bits left......Well I had this:
Just a thin metal washer, I think it came from the business end of the barrel but I cant remember. But hey the gun does cock and it even shoots! Now I cant remember how powerful it was before the rebuild but it is currently making a "phut" sound. And just seems a bit less powerful than before. But this could just be probably down to the seal being a tiny bit over size, I also forgot to apply some grease to the piston which could also contribute, ill do this another time. Hey remember that washer? Well I don't know if that was fitted from factory or by someone else later down the line, but maybe that was at the front of the barrel in the cylinder to restrict the space the mainspring has thus increasing the tension on the spring? But I cant say for sure.
Anyway after a clean up I took it outside and it shoots pretty well, Even with the seemingly lack of power (again I cant remember how powerful it was before) it can still penetrate cardboard and plastic lids well enough. Overall I am happy with the end result. Finally I have my Warrior air pistol back!"
Topic starter
18/12/2018 17:53:27
Warrior (detailed pics)
This pistol spotted on Ebay in the US.
Topic starter
09/03/2019 18:39:10
Warrior rear sight close-ups
With thanks to Brian for these pics.
Topic starter
11/04/2019 17:18:30
Warrior stripdown
With thanks to Exwind for these pics. He said:
"Another series of pictures of an exploded pistol of mine and the odd thing about this lot is the last 5 pictures of a secondary sealing system i was unaware of (and can find no reference to anywhere).
"A quick intro -18 months ago i was given opportunity to purchase upwards of 40 airguns-however-every single one of them was in bits in boxes and bin bags,so basically i purchased 40 jigsaw puzzles ,the warrior was from this lot but purchased seperately but,again in bits luckily all the bits were there. Whilst cleaning after taking some photos the three washers (2 leather and 1 dished steel) literally fell out of the piston after a blast of air from an airline.I've spent some considerable time googling this and can find no reference to a seal system that fits inside the piston (but which makes perfect sense to me) so is it aftermarket or is it the original factory fitted ?-whatever it is it works and perhaps explains the 'extra' washer left over by the gent whose 'resealing a warrior' post in the A & S area of the forum clearly shows something very similar to mine.
"A 20 plus shot string averages around 295 fps using Wasps at 7.5grains which im quite pleased with."
Topic starter
30/05/2019 18:51:35
Boxed Accles & Shelvoke Warrior
This pic copyright Holts Auctioneers.
Topic starter
28/07/2019 19:11:26
Pair of Warrior pistols
Topic starter
09/09/2019 18:03:53
Warrior restoration
Pics thanks to Paul.
Topic starter
17/01/2020 17:05:49
Accles & Shelvoke Warrior (boxed, detailed pics)
.177 cal.
Note: John Griffiths in The Encyclopedia of Spring Air Pistols points out that the Italian gold medal awarded in 1921 (pictured on the box lid) - almost a decade before the Warrior was made - was in fact awarded for Frank Clarke's The Titan.
Note also that the serial number on the box lid is not the same one that is stamped on the forward edge of the pistol grip.
Topic starter
18/03/2021 19:14:23
Warrior 3rd series?
Five examples of this apparent third series Warrior have appeared in US, discovered by Bruce Jr.
Bruce Jr said on the BBS (when four were known): "There is presently a Warrior air pistol for sale on Ebay. Seeing it reminded me of some email correspondence I had with John Griffiths and Larry Hannusch a couples years ago. My pistol serial #5924 has an additional screw on the right side of the frame near the trigger. You can tighten, loosen or remove the screw yet it doesn’t appear to adjust the tension on the trigger. Upon further research I have found 3 other Warriors with this same feature. Larry has #5891, the Vintage Airgun Gallery shows #5801 that was on the bay in December-2018 and the third being #4227 which is presently for sale on the bay.
It should also be noted that these pistols have a blade type front sight and not the usual bead as found of most Warriors. As I do not have a picture of #5891, I can’t verify the type of front sight or the location of the serial number. Additionally, on #5801 & #5924 the serial number is stamped on the backstrap of the grip and #4227 is stamped on the inside of the grip.
When was this “adjustment screw” incorporated into production? John helped narrow this down when he said he had serial #4160 which did not have the screw. At that time, the lowest number with the screw was #5801 so there was still over a difference of 1,600 pieces in between. With the earliest number of 4227 showing up on the bay, this narrows it down to a range of just 65 pieces."
John Griffiths. author of The Encyclopaedia of Spring Air Pistols, said (after Bruce Jr spotted a fifth example on Ebay): "Bruce, it certainly seems like you have identified a third unknown variant. However, there may not be a simple serial number relationship for when these were produced. As you say, the earliest number known for this variant is 4227. However, John Atkins owns serial number 5547, and says that it has the normal bead sight and no screw, and he also knows of serial number, 5332, which also has the same characteristics.
Perhaps we should consider serial number 4227 to be an anomaly, perhaps an experimental prototype, and assume that the third version was not fully introduced until after serial number (at least) 5800.
It may not be coincidence that all the known examples of this third version have appeared in the USA.
I wonder if the redundant screw was the result of an abandoned attempt to introduce a safety catch? If a batch of frames had been drilled ready for the safety catch, and then the safety catch idea had been abandoned, the screws could have been a quick means of filling an unsightly hole."
Mick W, an esteemed collector of vintage airguns, said: "l have owned 8 in total. one of them was se/no 5830 plus 5141 and l don't remember them having the trigger screw or different foresight. which l am sure that l would have... l would go along with the theory of the safety catch, as that would make sense. as for the fore sight. my theory is maybe who ever the retailer was exchanged the sights as a better sales feature."
Topic starter
02/07/2021 15:42:13
Video of the Warrior in operation
With thanks to Matt.
Video first posted to the YouTube channel ptdunk.
Topic starter
02/07/2021 16:22:41
Warrior first and second versions compared
With thanks to Peter.
(Later variant top)
Topic starter
14/01/2022 19:17:56
Warrior 2nd series research
With thanks to John G.
Warrior Serial Number list Comments
1. The list does not, of course, include all known serial numbers, but only those that provide helpful information about pinpointing when modifications cropped up.
2. So far the lowest serial number known is 1051 and the highest 6051, a curious coincidence. If numbering started at 1001 as is generally agreed, then the previous estimates of just over 5000 guns made in total are correct.
3. The list contains all confirmed examples of known serial numbered .22 pistols, and these are highlighted in red. There are 20 listed. However, as a much larger number of .177 examples are known that have not been included in the list, we can conclude that .22 examples are rare. It is interesting, but not surprising, that according to the serial number data, the .22 guns seem to have been made in small continuous batches.
4. The list shows that the old style half-moon trigger guard was replaced by the recurved one somewhere between serial numbers 1921 and 1943. However there are a few rare sporadic instances where the old trigger guard was used at higher serial numbers.
5. The pistol underwent something of a minor face lift between serial numbers 5547 and 5801, when the front pillar sight was replaced by a blade sight and the stampings on the grip frame were changed. The serial number was moved from the front to the rear grip edge, and front edge was stamped with ‘Made in England’.
6. The ‘superfluous’ screw on the right hand side of the trigger housing also cropped up by serial number 5801 and seems to have persisted up to serial number 5924 at least. The much earlier pistol with serial number 4227 was exceptional, in that it had this superfluous screw and a blade front sight, but the grip stampings were the old style. (A total of six examples with this screw are known: five are in this list, and a sixth is not included as its serial number is not known).
7. The last two guns in the list (6019 and 6051) broke the trend and, while keeping the new style grips stampings, reverted to the older front pillar sight. They also lacked the superfluous screw.
There are two things that we cannot work out from the list that would be interesting to know:
First, if and when were the old type horn grip plates phased out and replaced by the more modern vulcanite type? This is not something that we are likely to ever find out, as it is often hard to tell the difference between them visually, and few owners are likely to want to subject their grips to the red-hot wire test. The very limited data in the list suggests that both types were in use up to at least serial number 3479, but after that number we have no data at all.
The second gap in our knowledge is quite surprising, and I thought we knew the answer until I started compiling the list. When did the changeover from the first style box (with the pale Union Jack red, white and blue background, and the warrior knight) to the second style box (with the blue-black background and gold medallion) occur? I always thought that this happened well into the serial number sequence, but I have not yet been able to confirm absolutely that the changeover even took place in the second series serial numbered guns. It may have occurred at the introduction of the second series.
If anyone has any definite information about a serial numbered gun associated with a first version box, I would be very keen to hear about it.
Topic starter
14/01/2022 19:24:21
Warrior box anomaly
With thanks to John G.
John asked on the airgunbbs.com:
Were all the second series boxes made up from surplus first series boxes by sticking a new label on them? Or did this happen for just a small number of the left over first series boxes when Accles and Shelvoke took the Warrior over from Frank Clarke? I suspect the latter, as the gun in Mick's box is an early one (serial number 1639). Unfortunately I don't have a serial number to go with the box on the left.
Topic starter
07/09/2022 16:59:11
Topic starter
30/10/2022 19:46:05
Warrior (1st series)
Pics copyright Holts Auctioneers.
Topic starter
24/04/2023 21:01:12
Warrior (boxed, nickel)
With thanks to Eberhard.
Topic starter
14/11/2023 20:35:02
Warrior 'self-defence weapon' 1932 news story (NZ and UK)
Note the NZ story says the Warrior can be dry fired and the fool who wrote it thought that's all it did!
With thanks to Trev and Dave T.
Topic starter
26/11/2024 18:39:04
Warrior
With thanks to Tim of timdyson.co.uk.
Topic starter
07/05/2025 21:29:58
Warrior marked 'Monogram' (Abercrombie & Fitch, NY, USA)
