Webley Patriot Review

“Opening the box of my Webley Patriot - it all reeked...”

Written on: 25/02/2009 by Tetrol (1 review written)

Good Points
Accuracy, power, apparent quality, value

Bad Points
Maybe not for those of smaller stature.

General Comments
Opening the box of my Webley Patriot - it all reeked of quality - the finish, bluing etc was perfect. The varius metal working surfaces had a very fine lubricant applied, not even enough to smear with a finger, but there all the same. I think it is a heavy beast, but so am I - 193cm and 111kg. I fitted the scope before trying the rifle, as I figured I would do so in any event later.



While doing so , I tightened the accessible screws down, some of which seemed to me to have some half turn available out of the box.



On loading the gun - cocking was as expected, solid but not excessive force. I find the pellets do not seat totally into the breech but project about .25mm - I was worried about this causing deformation to the skirt on closing the action, but see the next paragraph.



No dieseling was noted by me on initial firing, and the 10.5gr pellets clearly do not break the sound barrier as the report is not offensive. My wifes horse stood 10 metres away through my sighting in period and didn't flich (first firearms fired in her presence)



Setting up a target at 20 metres, it took no more than 12 shots to have the sight zeroed in and land groups of three within a 2cm circle (diameter). Shifting back to 30 metres, I found the trajectory was landing the pellets about 1.5 cm higher, but still ok to land 4 of 5 shots in a bottle cap area - the 5th was me - I flinched.



One thing - if you plan to tightly grip the rifle with your front hand forget it - I simply let it rest lightly on the hand, with a very light grip.


After some more target practice, everything seemed to go pear shaped for me. I found the shots sprayed around - and I found that after no more than 30 shots all my tightened screws were loose - some by over a full turn! Both the scope mounts and the rifle screws alike. Loctite for the win (I hope)



Summary - heavy, powerful and accurate rifle. Good value if you find a deal as I did. Heavy pellets, light grip. Check, recheck and loctite those screws.