LOV Model-1 Air Pistol

LOV Model-1 Air Pistol.

LOV Model-1 Air Pistol 

With thanks to Eberhard.

LOV Model-1 Air Pistol 

LOV Model-1 Air Pistol x3 variants (plus explanation) 

With thanks to John Griffiths, author of the Encyclopedia of Spring Air Pistols. He says:

I have always considered the Lov 1 pistol, a Czech copy of the Webley design, to be very rare, so I was surprised when Polish collector Veco sent me pictures of no fewer than three different versions he has in his collection.

The top one is the earliest, serial number 1218, and is characterised by the grip/trigger housing being set further forward on the cylinder. The second two are the later version, and the bottom one is unusual in having the rarely encountered .22 calibre.
My own pistol, serial number 3061, is the later design with the normal .177 calibre.

It is a chunky, solidly built pistol but lacks the finesse of the Webleys. It has a larger cylinder and bigger swept volume than the Webley Mark 1 so in principle should be more powerful, but mine delivers about the same muzzle velocity. This may be because the seals are original and I have made no attempt to upgrade them. The rear sight has lateral adjustment only, and vertical adjustment can only be made with the front sight. The most interesting feature is the barrel release lever, which is very user friendly. It essentially uses the top-slide Webley principle, but instead of having to use a lot of thumb pressure to slide the catch back, the thumb lever pivoted in the barrel housing lets you slide it back effortlessly. You can see how it works from the schematic:

The Lov 1 was made by Lovena in Prague in the 1950’s, and probably about 10,000 were made. It is difficult to date the period of manufacture exactly as this was the communist era and catalogue data is almost non-existent. This page is from a 1955 catalogue of “bicycle parts and guns” from the “Central Union of Production Cooperatives” based in Prague, and shows the later design, as well as the Lov 2 pop-out pistol.

The gun came in a good quality cardboard box, as shown with this example, not mine unfortunately.

Collecting rivals to the Webley pistols like the Lov 1 would be an interesting option to those dedicated Webley collectors who already have every Webley pistol variant and who might be looking for another challenge!