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Lord, do I feel old now!
Made in India, the first Webley & Scott .32 Mk IV Revolvers are rolling off the production line.
A few months ago, we reported Webley & Scott Mk IV revolvers would be produced in India under the UK manufacturer’s Indian subsidiary, Webley & Scott India. Two years after establishing a new facility in northern India, the first revolvers are now rolling off the production line.
“A great day in the history of Webley & Scott. The first production model Mk IV to come off the production line in decades, and all made in India.”
The Webley .32 Mk IV is a hinged top-break, self-extracting revolver.
Based on original designs, the 100-percent made-in-India Webley Mk IV .32 S&W Long Pocket and Overhand Pocket revolvers feature a steel hinged frame, 3” carbon steel barrel, polymer grips and a 6-round cylinder. As top-break self-extracting revolvers, spent casings are ejected when the frame is opened for quicker reloads. All revolvers are shipped in a wooden presentation box with green felt cut for 20 rounds of ammunition.
While currently only available for the Indian domestic market, Webley & Scott India does intend to export the firearms to other countries, like the U.S., in the coming years. Pricing for the revolvers converts to roughly $1,300.
Webley & Scott .32 Mk IV Pocket (Left), and Overhand Pocket (Right) revolvers.
Specifications
Manufacturer: Webley & Scott India
Model: Mk IV Pocket Revolver
Frame: Steel, Blue
Action: Double-action
Caliber: .32 S&W Long
Capacity: 6
Sights: Fixed
Dimensions (L/W/H): 7″/1.45″/4.17″
Barrel: 3″
Weight: 23.5 oz.
MSRP: ~$1,300
Manufacturer: Webley & Scott India
Model: Mk IV Overhand Pocket Revolver
Frame: Steel, Blue
Action: Double-action
Caliber: .32 S&W Long
Capacity: 6
Sights: Fixed
Dimensions (L/W/H): 7.5″/1.45″/4.8″
Barrel: 3″
Weight: 24 oz.
MSRP: ~$1,300
For more info: webleyscott.in
The high demand has left many departments unable to keep up, including in Contra Costa County, where sheriff’s department spokesman Jimmy Lee says the surge in applications has been overwhelming.
Prior to this decision, the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Office would typically receive about 20 concealed carry weapon applications each month, which would be processed by one employee, Lee said.
Since the decision in June, the Sheriff’s Office has been receiving “several hundred” applications a month and now has a backlog of over 1,000 applications.
The reason why applications were so low before the Bruen decision is simple; folks knew they stood little chance of being approved. Contra Costa County had about 500 active concealed handgun permits before the Supreme Court decision was handed down; an absurdly small number considering more than 1-million people call the county home. And some gun owners in the county say that even after the Bruen decision, it doesn’t feel like much has changed.
Scores of hopeful applicants recently resorted to Reddit and online forums to complain about the situation in Contra Costa, while arguing that officials there should do more to hasten the application process. Many complained that they’ve received few responses from sheriff’s offices to even the most basic inquiries about the process.“There’s a lot of miscommunication and misunderstanding with the actual process because the information on the sheriff’s website is so vague,” said Alex Urikh, 21, of Walnut Creek. He accused the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office of “dragging their feet,” while lamenting that other gun owners across the state had experienced similar delays.
Other Bay Area-counties are seeing similar delays. The East Bay Times reports that there are currently about 1,500 applications waiting to be processed in Alameda County, where only 300 residents possessed a carry permit before the Bruen decision was handed down. Lt. Ray Kelly with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office says the department is now considering letting local police departments handle applications in the hopes they might be processed in a more timely fashion.
Simply put, the sheriff’s office doesn’t have the resources to handle the crushing demand for permits, Kelly said. Of the roughly 1,500 applications received by the agency, only about a couple dozen have been granted due to the paperwork and bureaucratic difficulty of processing each request, he said.“We’ve never seen this number before,” said Kelly, adding that other law enforcement agencies in the Bay Area have encountered similar increases. “It’s a massive change in the way we do business, based on the Supreme Court ruling.”In contrast, the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Office said Thursday it plans to hire a sergeant and at least one more specialist to help process applications. Exactly when that backlog will begin to ease, however, remains unclear. The agency did not respond to messages seeking how many permits it had approved since the Supreme Court’s ruling in June.
SCOTUS warned in the Bruen decision that while “shall-issue” licensing laws were constitutional, if they resulted in lengthy delays for approvals or tacked on outrageously high fees in an attempt to dissuade citizens from exercising their Second Amendment rights then those policies could rightfully be called into question.
Given the glacial pace of issuing gun permits in these California counties (San Francisco, for example, has received just 65 carry applications since June but has yet to approve a single one), it might be time to haul these officials into court to force them to comply with the Bruen decision. A right delayed is a right denied, and there are thousands of Californians right now who are being deprived of a fundamental civil right because of the toxic mix of government bureaucracy and anti-gun ideology.
Throughout the human experience, there has been any number of weapons that fundamentally changed the way wars were fought. The Roman pilum and gladius, skillfully wielded, subdued the civilized world and poured tribute uncountable into the city-state of Rome. The British Brown Bess musket helped spread the Pax Britannia around the globe. In the 1930s, the Germans secretly contrived a gun that changed absolutely everything about infantry combat. The MG 34 started a revolution that burns brightly even today.
Root Causes
Before the MG 34, the infantry was organized around the rifle. Hundreds of thousands of Americans on both sides died during the American Civil War lined up in massive vulnerable formations designed solely to maximize the effectiveness of their slow-firing percussion weapons. In the hemoclysm that was World War I, it was the infantryman with his rifle who fought to seize and hold terrain. With the man-portable MG 34, however, a single mobile machine gun team could transport serious supporting automatic fire anyplace a man could walk. Warfare would never be the same.
Origin Story
The MG 34 was developed in 1934 and issued to combat troops in 1936. A recoil-operated, air-cooled design, the MG 34 was an absolute nightmare to build. Everything about the gun is meticulously machined out of big chunks of forged steel. However, in the Einheitsmaschinengewehr (or “Universal Machine Gun”) we see the face of the future.
During World War I, the world received its rude awakening to total war in the Industrial Age. Before it was finally over in 1918, some 16 million people perished. No Man’s Land was dominated by belt-fed German Maxim and English Vickers, guns both driven by a common action designed by the American-born Englishman Hiram Stevens Maxim.
These heavy machine guns fired from fixed positions and were water-cooled to facilitate protracted firing. In fact, in one 1916 engagement, the British 100th Company of the Machine Gun Corps fired a million rounds through ten Vickers guns in one 12 hour period. They burned through 100 barrels but purportedly did not have a single stoppage.
As devastating as these revolutionary weapons were, however, they were just not portable. The German MG08/15 was a legitimate effort, but at nearly 40 lbs. without ammo or water for its cooling jacket the MG08/15 was still grueling to carry, particularly in rough terrain. The MG 34 was the world’s first successful effort at producing a belt-fed light machine gun that could conceivably be hefted, moved and fired by a single gunner on a modern battlefield.
Details
The MG 34 weighs 26.7 lbs. empty and fires the German standard 7.92x57mm round at a cyclic rate of around 900 rounds per minute. The gun runs from the open bolt to enhance cooling and can be fired offhand or off of its integral bipod, a collapsible Lafette tripod, or an antiaircraft rig. Dual two-gun antiaircraft mounts were also used to enhance firepower.
The gun is selective fire via a novel two-stage trigger. Pressure on the top part of the trigger produces semi-auto fire. Pulling the bottom bit is full-auto. The gun typically feeds from 50-round non-disintegrating reusable steel belts that can be hooked together as needed. There is a two-drum spring-loaded saddle magazine contraption that can feed the gun as well, but this requires a dedicated top cover adaptor. The gun was frequently equipped with a small sheet steel 50-round drum that kept the ammo out of the dirt.
The MG 34 featured a novel quick-change barrel mechanism as well. To swap out the barrels you lock the bolt to the rear and press the receiver release catch at the base of the barrel jacket. Rotate the receiver assembly clear and the barrel can be removed from the rear. Care must be exercised when the barrel is hot lest you roast your fingers.
The MG 34 includes flip-up sights both front and back as well as a detachable antiaircraft ring sight of dubious effectiveness. The Lafette tripod weighs 44 lbs. and is more complicated than the space shuttle. But, it was undeniably effective. The Lafette system included an optical sight and a cool spring-loaded soft mount that helped dampen the gun’s recoil.
Trigger Time
At 900 rounds per minute, the MG 34 is a bit feisty for my tastes. American M1919-series machine guns cycled at a sedate 500 rounds per minute to facilitate sustained searching fire. By contrast, the German MG 34 and the equally revolutionary MG 42 that followed fired fast on the assumption that targets on the modern battlefield would be fleeting and rare. The end result is that the MG 34 can seem a bit of a handful.
The bipod on the MG 34 has an annoying tendency to collapse backwards under recoil. Lean into the gun and this can be avoided. However, that is one more thing to try to remember when folks are shooting at you.
Every MG 34 I have encountered has been relatively finicky. They are all at least 75 years old nowadays and were originally built like sewing machines. Getting a surplus MG 34 to run reliably and well takes a bit of a jeweler’s touch along with a fair amount of experience and quality ammo.
Prior to the MG 34, grunts would engage in fire and maneuver based solely upon the capabilities of their rifles. After the advent of the MG 34, infantry operations orbited around the portable machine gun. Individual riflemen, therefore, existed to support and defend the machine gun team. So it remains today.
Conclusion
The MG 34 was expensive to produce, difficult to maintain and a bear to hump. However, it also changed the way the world fought wars. To paw over a vintage copy today is to touch a piece of history. Used from the beginning of World War II all the way through the Syrian Civil War today, the German MG 34 is one of the most influential machine guns in history.
Special thanks to www.worldwarsupply.com for the vintage reproduction gear used in the preparation of this article.
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