doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Webley & Scott 400 Series vs. 700 Series Shotgun

I stand corrected. Thanks, Dustin.

Best,
Ted

One more Len story before I forget. This morning I am fitting a pad with a widows peak and happened to remember Len telling me about an especially picky client while working at H&H. The client had a new pad fit to his gun and felt the LOP was off, by less than a 1/16" of an inch. The shop managers solution?

Bend the F@%&ing trigger.

Len drove a ww2 jeep from Kenya to south Africa he had a problem on the way a failing part(I don't remember what he told me) in some fuel stop along the way hanging on the wall was the part he needed he was flumuxed .half the story was the way he told it.

What ever the part was I’m sure he could have made one from an old file 🤪🤪!

Indeed.....Did you see the monkey tail rifle he built from parts he picked up at the scrap yard and an old .577/450 take off barrel?

Len was something.

He build a purdey clone muzzle loader ,he said the original purdey was in the shop for cleaning so he copied it it is a thing of beauty.the monkey tail started off with his brother finding a lock in a junk store in england len built the rest and made the rounds with period looking packaging with his name on them.

So I managed to track down the Webley & Scott 1922 catalogue. The Webley & Scott, 400 Series, Grade 1, is fully engraved, includes deeply carved oak leaf design on the fences, has spaniels ears on the forend, and drop points on the stock (as per Morphy's Auction). The Grade 2 is still fully engraved but without the deep relief engraving on the fences, and has drop points on the stock Webley & Scott, Series 400, Grade 2. The Grade 3 has the minimal border engraving, and no drop points on the stock. So it appears the Hallowell pictured Webley & Scott 400 series would actually be a Grade 3.





Webley & Scott, 400 Series, Grade 3 taken from a circa 1930/1940 advertisement.

Regarding the interchangeable principal on the Webley & Scott, 400 Series, 'The History of W. & C. Scott Gunmakers', by Crawford & Whatley, states on pgs. 65 & 68, "Webley & Scott introduced the Proprietary hammerless boxlock, later called the Model 400, in 1900. The Proprietary boxlock was one of several Webley & Scott models designed on the interchangeable principle. Virtually all of the major British gunmakers of this era used machines for the initial shaping of parts, but the interchangeable principal took the use of machines an additional step. The components of the gun were machined to precise dimensions to reduce time required for assembly of the gun and to facilitate replacement of worn or broken parts. Final fitting of parts, stocking, and finishing were all performed by hand."

That isn’t “ancanthus” on the fences. That style is deep relief oak leaves. The action body and barrel wedges are fine English scroll.
I miss my Proprietary grade 1 W&S. Beautiful gun.

You are right about the engraving on the fences.Thanks LeFusil. My eyes are getting too old to see properly. I've corrected that mistake in my above post.

Webley & Scott, 400 Series, Grade 1

Webley & Scott, Series 400, Grade 1