Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle - First Series.

With thanks to Troubledshooter for these pics.

With thanks to Peter for these pics:

Another 1st series:

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle - First Series Patent Information.

With thanks to Peter for these scans of research by Dennis Commins.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle - First Series Boxed.

With thanks to Tim at

http://www.timdysonairguns.co.uk/

for these pics. At the time of posting, this rifle is still for sale.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle - Mk2 First Series Cased - Two Barrels.

With thanks to John M for these pics:

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle - Second Series.

With thanks to Peter for these pics.

With thanks to Mick of www.micksguns.com for these pics:

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle - Third Series.

With thanks to Peter for these pics:

And to Brian for these pics:

And to Jules for this pic:

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle - Third Series Engraved.

With thanks to Peter for these pics.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle - Third Series Mk2 Cased - Three Barrels.

With thanks to John A for this pic.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle - Third Series Boxed.

With thanks to Troubledshooter for the first pic:

And to Nick for these pics:

The top one is a boxed 0.25, the bottom one a second series with two barrels. 0.177 & 0.22

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle - Third Series Boxed - Serial No.10444.

With thanks to Peter for these pics.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle - Mk2 Collection.

With thanks to Peter for these pics.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle - All three Series.

With thanks to Peter for these pics.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle - Fifth & Sixth Series.

With thanks to Frank.

Serial number S15130 has both features of the 5th and 6th series as mentioned in Christopher Thrale's book.
Butt plate and barrel are replacements.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle - John Milewski Article.

©John Milewski 2015

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle - Custom With Wood Forend.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle 3-barrelled set.

This rifle will be for sale at the Kempton Park arms fair on 25th March 2018.

With thanks to Peter. This rifle has three original Webley barrels.

Boxed 2nd series Webley Mk2 Service 

With thanks to Sam for these pics.

Webley Mk2 Service .25 cal boxed 

With thanks to Sam for these pics.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle stripdown 

With thanks to Jules for this pic.

Webley Mk2 Service series 3 thumbhole custom stock 

This rifle sold for £350 at auction plus fees in February 2019.

With thanks to Lakey for the heads up.

Reproduction Webley Mk2 Service stocks 

With thanks to Peter for these pics. Each stock is priced at £125.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle - 1st series 

With thanks to Mac.

Cased series 1 Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle (2 barrels) 

Late Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle with 3 barrels 

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle 2nd series in vgc 

Pics copyright Holts Auctioneers.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle (cased, 3 barrels) 

With thanks to a collector friend. Only the oil can is a reproduction.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle (engraved by Don Blocksidge) 

For sale by Cheshire Gun Room for £3,850.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle (in Mk3 box)  

With thanks to Mick W. This rifle is in a Mk3 box, perhaps a factory return.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle (engraved, cased) 

Pics copyright Holts Auctioneers.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle (boxed sold by Ajax & Co) 

With thanks to Tim of timdysonairguns.co.uk.

See also here for history of Ajax & Co.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle (original Webley canvas & leather case) 

Pics thanks to John M.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle (3 barrels) 

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle copy 

Spotted on vzduchovka.info.

This appears to be a reverse-engineered Webley Mk2 Service.

Note: It has a 'J Novak' marking like on this Jano underlever:

https://forum.vintageairgunsgallery.com/jano/jano-air-rifle/

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle (cased) 

With thanks to Kevin.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle series two (cased) 

Pics copyright Holts Auctioneers.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle (boxed) 

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle (video) 

With thanks to Mark.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle - Third Series 

With thanks to Peter.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifles (3x cased rifles) 

With thanks to David, Matt and Steve.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle (video review) 

This excellent video was first posted on Youtube by fieldsport cymru. 

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle (with strange cylinder markings) 

Spotted on eGun.de. With thanks to Len for the heads up.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle - Third Series (safety catch, serial no. 2140) 

Pics copyright Holts Auctioneers Ltd.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle collection 

With thanks to Paul.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle (boxed) 

With thanks to Paul.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle (homemade case) 

 Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle (2 barrels, Webley canvas case) 

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle (stripey stock) 

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle (boxed) 

Pic copyright Holts Auctioneers.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle (.25 cal, boxed, mint) 

With thanks to Tim of www.timdysonairguns.co.uk

Webley Mk2 Service spring clip serial no. 506 

With thanks to Paul.

Webley Mk2 Service series 2 ( serial no. 1752) 

With thanks to Eberhard for the heads up.

Pics copyright Holts Auctioneers.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle (third series, boxed) 

With thanks to Peter.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle .25 (boxed, Webley slip case) 

With thanks to Tim of timdysonairguns.co.uk.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle 1st series (2 matching barrels) 

With thanks to Peter.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle 1st series (Beeman collection) 

With thanks to Steve.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle stripdown 

With thanks to Andrew.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle prototype 

With thanks to Mike Sharp and Lawrie A for facilitating (in 2010).

Mike said:

Webley Service Prototype in .177 smooth bore. Overall length is 42" barrel length is 26 1/4" no butt plate although it probably had one when first made, as the holes are in the stock. There is no Webley logo or numbers on the gun and it has never been blued, this absolutely par for the course for any Webley prototype. Interesting Greener rear sliding ramp sight, note barrel locking bolt is on the barrel not the action, plus it is cam shut not threaded, no safety catch or intercepting sear, no spring or button catch to hold the barrel in place when cocking, it is in good working order and only known example.

Webley Mk2 Service - Conjecture from John Atkins re. S14,000 serial no. range 

(Note: the question of the relative numbers made of the prewar BSA Junior and Juvenile air rifles made is also addressed)

With thanks to Troubledshooter, who posted this on the airgunbbs.com:

The question below comes from my friend Brian Shipperlee, collector, restorer and expert marksman.

Brian has been noting serial numbers for Webley & Scott Mk. II ‘Service' air rifles down the years and has recorded over 170 numbers for his own interest. That's an extensive record of ‘Service' Mk. II numbers!

Brian has noticed he has no serial numbers at all in the 14 thousand range, none at all! He suspects it's just because he's not seen any!

Brian now wonders if Webley left a gap for some reason and then used the 15 thousand range to assemble Mk. IIs after the war? He asked me if I had any thoughts?

As some collectors might know, I took on Tony Williams’s 'Serial Numbers Study’ following his death. A large ledger with numbers entered under alphabetical makers’ sections, in any order (as they came in) - along with their owners coded to the guns and a brief description, calibre's where noted - and anything to help determine and narrow down dates when changes very likely occurred during production.

Right from the start, Tony suggested we did not record Webley air pistols- as so many to enter up!

At some point, Tony also decided to discontinue ‘Service' Mk. II records because he was struggling to find time to keep them up to date - so he had recorded only 50 before marking the top of the pages as ‘Discontinued’.

Also discontinued in the register were BSA Standards, Lights and Sporting .22 underlever rifles - due to the sheer numbers. We could not write fast enough and as we knew so many of these rifles, it was becoming rather like a full-time job!

However, other BSAs recorded are: Military (65 recorded) .25" calibre Sporting (26 only recorded). In my own experience, there are many more surviving Military models than .25’s. Juveniles (18 recorded); Juniors (31 recorded) Prior to noting the above serial numbers and contrary to what others have said, I have seen and handled at least twice as many Juniors than Juveniles over the last 53 years. BSA gun laying trainers. Only a couple of ’T’-prefix numbers recorded so far - John Knibbs' and my one!

That's a very interesting observation Brian made. It never crossed my mind …looking through the numbers, there's not a single one in our list in the 14,000 range, either. Very odd and I'd never thought about this before.

The 13,000 number range rifles noted so far with our two lists combined are: S13039 .22 boxed; S13155 (has both .177 and .25 barrels); S13157; S13217; S13220 (.25); S13304 (.22); S 13319 (.22); S13337 and S13345.

Then: S15171; S15420 and S15709? (The last two digits ‘09') are hard to read as Tony's handwriting deteriorated towards the end.

So I can't explain the strange absence of Mk. II Service rifles in the missing 14 thousand range. How intriguing.

We hope AGBBS may solve the puzzle of the 14000 range of numbers. Photographic proof of any numbers would help as they could then be safely entered on our lists. We don't really require any other Mk. II ‘Service' air rifle numbers, thanks - only those starting with S14, or 14 please.

Author and collector Chris Thrale replied:

Interesting question. I have looked through the dozens of Mk.2 Services I have seen/owned and not one of them was in the 14,000's! Not something I'd ever noticed. Plenty of guns in the 11,12,13,000's, a few in the 15's, and one I saw at Weller & Dufty in the very low 16,000's, but no 14,000's!

Statistically it is virtually impossible that I would not have seen one if they existed - which only leads to the conclusion that Webley indeed 'missed out' on the 14,000 serial number range??

Re the BSA Juvenile/Junior question. I agree with the above. The Juvenile is far less common than the Junior, based on the numbers of each that I have come across.

Author and collector John Milewski replied:

I've never seen a Mk2 with a number in the 14000s and haven't given it any thought previously either.

As for BSA Junior/Juvenile models, I've seen more Juveniles that Juniors over the last 20 years or so, not that the Juvenile is a common model. It took me a long time to track down a Junior for the collection and I've not seen many since I acquired mine. Just goes to show, experiences differ.

Webley collector Binners replied:

I have had one or two MK2 Service rifles and do not recall seeing any in the 14k either. As for the Juvenile/Junior debate. I think the Juvenile is the rarer of the two.

BSA collector Morgan added:

Second that about the Bsa Junior having a much higher survival rate than the Juvenile, its rare to see a Juvenile for sale. Though interestingly if you look at the Vintage Airgun Gallery, they are represented roughly half and half, so maybe collectors hang on to Juveniles. Maybe the Juvenile survival rate is lower, as significant parts are unique to the model. So guns got laid aside and scrapped when youngsters took them apart and lost the bits, unlike the Junior which only differs in stock and cylinder length from the Standards and Lights.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle (3-barrelled set) 

Pics copyright Perkin Guns.

Webley Mk2 Service Air Rifle (cased, engraved by Don Blocksidge) 

With thanks to David for the heads up.