Thought fellow INGO'ers might be interested in a little project I've been working on the past month. I found this about a month ago in a Southern Indiana Bait/Fishing/Guns/Camping store here in Washington County.
I usually don't get fired up about older guns (unless it's a nice S&W revolver) but this just spoke to me. It is an 1883 Webley Metropolitan and Police revolver. Yes, that is a factory 2.5" barrel.
This is the gun the fictional Sherlock Holmes carried in the novels. This is the gun the London cops would have been wielding while attempting to run down Jack the Ripper. So it has some coolness factor built in! As far as I can tell, it is unmolested. Screws aren't even buggered up! Horrendous double action pull, probably in the 20# plus range, but single action is around 7-8# and crisp. Very little play in the cylinder when full cocked. Only missing piece is the actual ring to go through that lanyard on the butt. No chips or cracks in the walnut stocks. Nice brown patina all over, with only a few little patches of surface rust. Bore was dirty, but a patch and .45 brush and it is clean and non-pitted. Cylinder chambers the same. Very shallow rifling for those old, soft lead slugs.
Now for the bad part. Caliber was the almost unknown .450 Adams. Also known as .450 Revolver, ,450 Short or .450 Corto. And I wanted to see if it would shoot. So began the search.
I usually don't get fired up about older guns (unless it's a nice S&W revolver) but this just spoke to me. It is an 1883 Webley Metropolitan and Police revolver. Yes, that is a factory 2.5" barrel.
This is the gun the fictional Sherlock Holmes carried in the novels. This is the gun the London cops would have been wielding while attempting to run down Jack the Ripper. So it has some coolness factor built in! As far as I can tell, it is unmolested. Screws aren't even buggered up! Horrendous double action pull, probably in the 20# plus range, but single action is around 7-8# and crisp. Very little play in the cylinder when full cocked. Only missing piece is the actual ring to go through that lanyard on the butt. No chips or cracks in the walnut stocks. Nice brown patina all over, with only a few little patches of surface rust. Bore was dirty, but a patch and .45 brush and it is clean and non-pitted. Cylinder chambers the same. Very shallow rifling for those old, soft lead slugs.
Now for the bad part. Caliber was the almost unknown .450 Adams. Also known as .450 Revolver, ,450 Short or .450 Corto. And I wanted to see if it would shoot. So began the search.