Webley 1913 Semiauto Pistol: History and Disassembly
Forgotten Weapons
•
22m
William Whiting and the Webley company had high hopes for their self-loading pistols being adopted by the British military - but they never got the success they were hoping for.
After the poor performance of the Webley 1904 at trials, William Whiting decided to make sure his next attempt would be fully developed before he put it in the hands of the military. He did very well at that too, as the gun which would become the Model 1913 Webley did very well from its very first military tests. The Royal Navy was, in fact, quite enthusiastic about it, although the Army was not. The Navy would ultimately adopt the gun and purchase about 8,000 of them during World War One, while the Army acquired just a couple hundred and preferred to stick to its revolvers.
Thanks to Mike Carrick of Arms Heritage magazine for loaning me these pistols to bring to you!
Up Next in Forgotten Weapons
-
Lepage Wax-Bullet Dueling Pistols
In the early years of the 20th century, before the Great War tempered society's interest in the martial arts, dueling came into the popular vogue. Not the lethal kind, but rather a more sporting style using pistols firing wax balls instead of lead bullets. It was even demonstrated at the 1908 Oly...
-
Walther WA2000: The Ultimate German S...
The Walther WA-2000 has a reputation of being the ultimate German sniper rifle, with no expense spared in its design and construction. Designed in the aftermath of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, the WA2000 was intended to be a police sniper rifle, not a military arm. It is a bullpup layout an...
-
Shooting the Ishapore MkIII Vickers-B...
The Vickers-Berthier MkIII was adopted by the Indian army in 1933, and served through World War Two and into the 1970s (at least). It is chambered for the standard .303 British cartridge, fires from an open bolt, and uses top-mounted 30-round magazines. I didn't know exactly what to expect when I...
