W&S had a better option, one that combined the company’s traditional reputation as a revolver-maker with the new trend in repeaters. After turning out a small number of these arms, the project was scrapped. (Philip Schreier photo)Īs early as 1898, Webley & Scott had made examples of a complex, ungainly, but ultimately flawed repeater designed by Hugh Gabbett-Fairfax. Model 1911, however, its workings were considerably different. The W&S Mark I Self Loading was similar in power and size to the U.S. Soon, repeaters designed by the likes of Georg Luger, Ferdinand Mannlicher, Peter Paul Mauser and John Browning all presented more sophisticated designs that established the practicality and marketability of semiautomatics. ![]() In 1893, naturalized-American Hugo Borchard’s revolutionary 7.65mm recoil-operated pistol, while not perfect, became a harbinger of things to come. 455 Mark I models used by the British Royal Navy and others, proved reliable and robust. ![]() ![]() ![]() The line of Webley & Scott self-loaders was among the oddest ever built, but the guns’ cartoonish looks belie a deadly efficiency. Though the double-actions (DA) of such makers as Nagant, Colt and Smith & Wesson were certainly arms to be reckoned with, it can be said that W&S arms resided at the apex of military and civilian self-cockers. By the end of the 19th century, the British firm of Webley & Scott (W&S) had firmly established itself as the purveyors of a large and successful line of double-action revolvers.
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