Thursday 22 June 2017

Custer & The Webley Royal Irish Constabulary Revolver:

.. Interesting debate about what side-arms George A Custer would have used while in charge of the US 7th Cavalry at The Battle of The Little Bighorn .. Battle of The Greasy Grass .. or "Custer's Last Stand" - that occurred on June 25/26 1876. - I make that 141 years ago almost to the day.

Wikipedia has this to say about Webley production dates:

" As early as 1853 P. Webley and J. Webley began production of their first patented single action cap and ball revolvers. Later under the trade name of P. Webley and Son, manufacturing included their own .44-caliber rim-fire solid frame revolver as well as licensed copies of Smith & Wesson's Tip up break action revolvers. The quintessential hinged frame, centre-fire revolvers for which the Webley name is best known first began production/development in the early 1870s most notably with the Webley-Pryse (1877) and Webley-Kaufman (1881) models. The W.G. or Webley-Government models produced from 1885 through to the early 1900s, (often incorrectly referred to as the Webley-Green) are the most popular of the commercial top break revolvers and many were the private purchase choice of English military officers and target shooters in the period, coming in a .476/.455 calibre. However other short-barrel solid-frame revolvers, including the Webley RIC (Royal Irish Constabulary) model and the British Bulldog revolver, designed to be carried in a coat pocket for self-defence were far more commonplace during the period. Today, undoubtedly best-known are the range of military revolvers, which were in service use across two World Wars and numerous colonial conflicts."


Columbus Museum Says:
The Webley R.I.C. No. 1 .455 CF Revolver (Royal Irish Constabulary) was first manufactured in 1872. This blued steel revolver is a double-action only pistol that fired a .455 caliber bullet from a rifled barrel.


Webley No.2 .32" Cal. BULLDOG

Wikipedia further has this to say: 
The British Bull Dog was a popular type of solid-frame pocket revolver introduced by Philip Webley & Son of Birmingham, England in 1872 and subsequently copied by gunmakers in Continental Europe and the United States.

The Bulldog was popular in Britain and America. US Army General George Armstrong Custer was said to have carried a pair at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. British Bull Dog revolvers were issued to employees of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company until 1895.

A Cased Webley Set: RIC Revolver With A No. 2 Bull Dog.

- So did Custer carry one or two Webley RIC Revolvers? .. or did he have Webley 'Bull Dogs' ? - or perhaps he had a 'Galand & Sommerville' .450"/ .44" like the one that is recorded as having been given to his brother Tom Custer?
 - Or maybe he had one of each.😎

Marty K.

After researching & writing 1,036 blogs I've got something NEW to try .. I've signed-up to Patreon. - In over five years I've not made one cent from this .. NOW you can send me a wee support $ - starting from $1. to get all this stuff from New Zealand - over a year that's nearly the price of one Shooting magazine. - Am I worth it?


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