History Primer 150: British Webley Royal Irish Constabulary Documentary 

A handgun so British, it came with a monocle and a desire to absorb random territories in your community lol🤣

I know this is a small arms channel, but right now I really want to hear more about deranged Toronto firemen.

Was definitely not what I was expecting when Othais said I was going to be shooting some Webleys.

There is something about old revolvers that are just pleasing to look at.

"This weapon belonged to you father. I served with him in the Clown Wars."

One of the few times working night shift has a perk

Was just in the museum at Colin's Baracks in Dublin yesterday and wondered could I find more info on this RIC Webley and boy did I hit the jackpot! Great video.

Many fire companies in urban areas were volunteer in the 19th century and they were paid by the insurance companies. The individual companies fought each other for the right to put out the fire and get paid.

Webley should have made a .22Lr derringer called “the chihuahua”.

Mae's face for the second shooting bit, just wow, tells you all you need to know

I genuinely love the work You have done to take revolvers from the “Simple handguns” to expounding on their design and development!

Othias has conquered his enemy, the constablurry

Webleys were also acquired by the British South Africa Company for the Rhodesian colony. The BSAP armories still had some in stock in 38 special and .45 ACP.

I've seen Mae shoot an anti-tank rifle and smile. This pistol must have an awful recoil to make her look so grim.

You're on my watch list!

Loving this series on British bulldog revolvers

I've been collecting Webleys over 35 yrs. 70+ currently in my collection. Iconic and fascinating to say the least!!

All 150 plus shows watched ! how does this channel not have 1 million subscribers!!!!

Thank God you still love firearms history..Keep spreading the word

"You're not supposed to touch it down there" - Othais, 2022

Interesting how much peacekeeping/colonial endeavors influences wartime attitudes (the Phillipines, Algeria, Ireland, etc.)

Me: It’s late but I’m going to watch this now because it’s educational and good for me Also me: sleep is also good for me… And just like that, war were declared.

I know "riots related to circus clowns getting into fights in a bordello" isn't supposed to be funny, but ... what.

Congratulations on episode 150 I appreciate all the work you do. You guys make my every other Tuesday the best day of the week.

The Starr revolver (a highly underrated gun) had the exposed sear behind the trigger, as I recall.

You are right, Tranter was a name i had never heard of behind marketing giants like Webley and Colt, despite their designs being so closely intertwined as they progressed. This revolver series has been one of my favorites so far, thank you.

Ahhhh, the Irish Question.... thanks for covering this.

Love the RIC pattern. I started many years ago buying the Belgian copies (usually marked "British "Bull-Dog" or some such) in several calibers. Haven't managed to get my hands on a genuine Webley but hey, at least I have goals. :D

Thank you I was always curious about the RIC revolvers. A 10$ patron.

I like that RIC 83 - the "Chief's Special" of 1883 :D

TY for all your hard work and content contributions.

Just have to say that I loved the PBS bit at the beginning.

Thank you for sharing your extensive research.

You selected shooting section song very nicely in this video

Finally, **the** bulldog revolver, I was waiting for that since your funny video with the fosberry and the RIC. But now that you hinted at a possible video for the british army webleys, which are one of my favourite type of revolvers, I'm even more interested!

So glad you put the bulldog in there. This webly series is gonna be awesome.

I have hoped you would do the RIC. When the Tranter video dropped, my pulse increased. Seriously. And now, here it is! You have made at least one subscriber VERY, VERY happy.

Great job as always!

Awesome "final version" video, subtle changes very smooth!

Excellent to see this episode. I had a late 83 once in 450 with a slightly longer grip. Yours looks overpowered by the .455. In 450 black powder it was quite easy to handle and the slightly longer grip kept the hand in place. The 83 really was a pistol to go in the coat pocket so the size had to be kept within bounds. Just as a pistol the bigger longer barrel classic RIC is better to shoot of course. Webley could see the loading was falling behind in ease so addressed it in the following break open revolvers but the RIC remained a sound cheaper option. In trivia: Warwickshire is pronounced ‘Warrik - shur. Thank you Othias and May.

I have an 1883 RIC in .450 Adams, and it goes to show how different people's hands work and how different guns of the same type can vary. First the grip works fine for me even though I have large hands, and the milder .450 Adams doesn't give me problems with recoil at all. I did make me seriously question whether I'd want to shoot the gun in .455; I could see that would be unpleasant. The double-action trigger on mine is also excellent, not overly heavy and glass-smooth, I actually find it very pleasant to shoot and easy to get good accuracy at 7 yards. That being said with her smaller hand, the harder-recoiling cartridge and a less refined DA trigger I completely get why Mae didn't like it.

Amazing episode! I love these rickety old revolvers, and Maes face when shooting the pocket Webley really something!

Mae keeps looking for a rapid reload because she knows what the future brings. Compared to the percussion revolvers this replaced and the even older single shot pistols this was a rapid reload. As a police and/or pocket gun it wasn’t likely you were going to need more than 5/6 rounds quickly but if you thought you might you carried another revolver (NY reload). Love the channel!

great episode as always

I have a couple knock off RIC / Bulldog Belgian revolvers in .442. They are unpleasant to shoot. Even with my small hands I can’t get a full grip, it’s no wonder there was a market for the .44 bulldog. Very interesting episode! Love this look at weapons outside of WW1. I love early cartridge development.

I own a few webleys including an interesting No.1 in .442 webley that was retailed by rosier in Melbourne

Very informative! Thank you very much for sharing!

another amazing episode!

This is exactly what i've been waiting for

Excellent episode.

been waiting for today;s episode to drop

You went ahead and made my day!!

Constabularying were Declared!

Awesome Video!

You had me at circus clowns fighting in a bordello!

little side note the fenian raids where part of the motivation for the British North American colonies to become one nation . They joined up under Canada .

PBS and C&Rsenal are both on my watch list! PBS produces some great stuff.

Something about that bulldog 83 makes me think "Victorian S&W 640". And seeing that face at 33:38, I instantly knew we'd found Mae's Top Revolver for The Great War. XD

"I'm fairly sure that the producers at PBS are not on the same watch lists as I am." These days I think there are a lot of people on the watch lists...

I had a meeting Tues morning that I actually had to be awake all the way through, but not to worry. I'm watching this wonderful episode suitably late Tues night into Wed.

love this show

Mae could have used a grip adapter for the finger placement problems. I used to see Tranter revolvers at gun shows back in the 1970s. Very nice exposé on the old British revolvers.

There is a US conection to the RIC. Custer owned a pair which after his little boo boo were never found. This is a story that I have read several times. If they were picked up and taken to Canada ammo was more avable and the revolvers them selves would never get a second look. I know I am late to this show. Don't know how I missed it. As usual a great video.

24:45 I love Mae's magic color changing shirt.

Thank you! I didn't know what the constables of the constabulary did back in the days. Now I'm aware they used the bang sticks to constabulize. :D the more you know!

I need to visit Toronto. Those people know how to party.

37:48 hahaha look at the mustache on that guy! Sad thing is he probably tipped his barber extra like "yep mm hmmm yessir that'll do nicely"

28:45 Interesting to see New South Wales stamped on that one - I never realised the Aussie cops used Webleys back in the day. I had an ancestor who was a copper in the mid 1900s in Australia - an Irishman named Andrew Cleary (Sgt) who captured the bushranger known as Captain Starlight (amongst other aliases.) I'll have to see what info I can find, but I'd guess this is probably the same - or very similar - sort of weapon to the sidearm he would have carried...or at least, it's about the right time period and right location.

I love the PBS plug. 🤣🤣🤣

thank you for this video. I am researching the RIC.

Ooh, the Bulldog is a great example of too much bullet for too little gun. Still want one though, just to make other people shoot it.

As a proud Irish man born and bred, I show hate that thing. But honestly having handled one myself, I gotta say they are a cool piece of history.

Great epasoid, thank you..

Needs. Moar. Constabulling! I've seen some of those .577 revolvers in a private collection. I hope you can get one to test someday.

Surprising piece of Canadian history i'd NEVER learned about in this episode.

The latest research shows that the Webley revolvers first sold to the RIC were nothing like either of the two shown here. They were quite basic with ratchet cylinders, a toggle type cylinder pin release and no extractor whatsoever, even screwed into the butt. They were actually much closer to the slightly later RIC No.3 revolvers. There exists a recently discovered circular from Dublin Castle dated Feb 1868 which gives instructions to police on the care and use of these revolvers. It describes the unloading process as "This can be effected by a pencil, small piece of wood, or such like thing; but if none of these are at hand, the axle upon which the pistol revolves may be removed and used as a forcing rod". Clearly, there was no extractor fitted.

Alright, my insomnia paid off!

The funny part for me, 25:39 and 34:44 respectively, no hits in the D-ring with three in the A-ring on the gun she despised, and only two totally within the A-ring (no line touch) and one D-ring with the gun she adored. Short barrel, wonky uncomfortable grip, broken ergonomics, and shoots it arguably better. If we score A=10, C=5, D=1, and count line touches toward the higher score, the gun she loved scored higher, 46-40...but if we're just looking at Minute-Of-Man grouping, Little Grumpy Thunder put more into a centralized grouping. Seemed like the longer barrel and higher capacity wasn't providing that much in exchange for the bulk even though it'd be more comfortable for a ten-boxes-of-ammo range day. BTW, I think the reasons many militaries were hesitant to dispense with single-action gate loaders and such was primarily psychological. If you know it's really easy and fast to reload and you can shoot it real quick, you get into a "well, I'll hit something eventually if I send enough" mentality. I don't have to make these rounds count, it's sooo easy to just reload and do more if I miss. You can start thinking in terms of cylinderfuls instead of individual shots. With a single-action gate loader, you go into it knowing you're fully loaded, but the next reload isn't free and easy and fast, you're going to be there like a goober reloading it for a minute, so maybe you'll actually try to hit something with the rounds in the gun? I see it in teaching shooters quite commonly. Start them off with a Ruger Bearcat and fairly readily they'll work down to a bean can sized group at five or seven yards. Hand them a Ruger Buckmark and once they start to experience the ability to fire quicker without need for pause, that group starts to open up. If you don't correct them early they'll be lucky to keep shots on a pie pan at seven after twenty minutes of practice getting worse with each mag, not better. With an army of soldiers who may have very little firearm experience, you give them a gun that's really easy to shoot for speed rather than accuracy even without the heat of battle, and then put them in the stress of battle, you'll have to send 120,000 rounds to generate one fatality. (Numbers I've read on the Afghanistan/Iraq conflict were in the neighborhood of a quarter million rounds per insurgent killed. I have to wonder if this "I've got rounds and the gun can run fast, who cares, you'll hit somethin' eventually" mentality is the reason. If you're running a Mosin and a Single-Action gate load revolver and it's taking that many shots per enemy combatant...take the weapons away from them and send them to a job like motorpool or something, and make sure they take their seeing-eye-dog with 'em when they go.)

Hi, I have one with 3 1/2 " barrel length in .45 acp. Great video, regards!

Glad to hear some Irish history on this one. Great video guys.

Well you are in my watchlist at the very least.

Congrats on your beard Mathias

Check out the movie "The Outlaw Ben Hall". It's about an Australian bushranger and he carried a brace (2) or 3 Tranter percussion revolvers throughout the movie, as well as utilizing a very rare Tranter carbine. They actually used real Tranters in the movie, but used horrible non-firing pot metal "Colt" reproductions as well. Ben mentions that the Tranters are superior to the Colt in reliable, fit, and finish, being hand made and fitted.

Awesome

If this revolver were any more British, it would somehow declare after each shot "good show!" when you hit something or a somewhat appalled "I say!" when you miss

Sherlock Holmes partner in Detection, Dr Watsons daily carry.

Woooh! Webley's!

Holy shit a New South Wales Webley revolver, how rare is that!!!

The timing of the shooting lyric in the shooting segment

Like the manufacturing history

Did somebody say boost engagement?

Nice facial expressions on Mae when firing the 455

Pardon my english. Im curious of Iver johnson solid revolver and harrington & richardson solid frame revolver. The revolvers have similar design like Webley RIC. Is Iver johnson, and H&R licensed the design from Tranter?

Thanks

Webley Senior air pistols are worth a punt. Bust your fingers re-cocking if you're a butterfingers, but they're a nice vintage novelty. =]

Next we get all the Spanish copies! YEAH!

I'm left wondering if an earlier RIC 83 from 1891-96 would be less unpleasant to shoot in .455 Webley because it would be built for the longer (22.5mm) Mk I black powder cartridge, rather than the short-case post-1897 cordite .455 Webley Mk II-VI.

Before something happens, a good Crozier and Lewis wistle-spud T-shirt, please!!

There is evidence that Custer owned an R.I.C. pistol but only one and it was a standard blue with wood grips model. That gun is unaccounted for so he may have carried it at the Little Big Horn battle. He did own two nickel plated S&W pistols but those are accounted for and so couldn't have been used in the famous battle. Possibly, Godfrey was remembering a different expedition when Custer was carrying his S&Ws. I suppose it's also possible that Custer picked up a pair of nickel R.I.C. pistols at some point, maybe just before the fatal expedition, that were never otherwise documented. Godfrey did describe the rest of Custer's rig very accurately, so it seems odd he'd get a detail like his pistol completely wrong.

Holy crap. I had one of these