Lightweight Webley Air Rifles

One of the all too few, new young collectors I’m acquainted with has asked me which post-war rifles should be collected now, before they become scarce and very difficult to find in the future.

- John Atkins

Already seldom seen are the lightweight Webley ‘Junior’ and ‘Ranger’ models that may become as hard to find as a mid-1920s to early ‘30s Webley Mark I air rifle is today; so they were one of my suggestions to him. I looked at these in one of my ‘Post-War Plinkers’ articles I copied for him and will expand on the subject now.

On starting to collect airguns seriously in the early 1970s, many of my early ‘finds’ were thanks to my small advertisements in local newspapers, but sadly, these might not be accepted today. Webley pistols: ‘Seniors’, ‘Mark Is’ and ‘Juniors’ were purchased with prices ranging from £3 - £14, depending on the condition and if boxed. One reply from a local reader offered me a Webley ‘Junior’ on the ‘phone – so I wrongly assumed it was another pistol and arranged a convenient time to call.

A quick trip in my bulky VW 411LE with it’s useful petrol-fired heater ticking away like an unexploded bomb, took me snugly to the address, where I was slightly taken aback to be offered a small air rifle, rather than the expected air pistol. Of course, Webley & Scott had rather confusingly, also given the ‘Junior’ title to their small, pressed steel juvenile rifle! I’d forgotten that at the time, but recalled it from the photograph on my old Webley catalogue page.