[ Khyber Pass Webley Copy ]
Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I am here today at Morphy's
taking a look at a Khyber Pass copy
of a Webley revolver. It's a pretty neat little gun,
it's got all sorts of terrible features to it
which we'll take a look at in just a moment. But first
I want to talk for a moment about the actual background of where this gun came from.
So we hear "Khyber Pass" a lot, and that is the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
And it's sort of accurate, but it's not really specific.
What we should be referring to is the town of Darra Adam Khel.
And that is essentially a small-scale firearms production centre
that sprang up in this region 150 years ago or so.
This is an area where, in reaction to the British occupation of Afghanistan and Pakistan,
small gunsmiths set up shop, and sort of a manufacturing centre
solidified around this little town and the wider area of the Khyber Pass.
And they were making ... guns, and then also copies of British guns,
that were used to fight against the British occupation forces.
And basically over time a real niche industry built up around this particular area,
and it was able to survive on guns that were sold locally, and also guns that were exported.
Now there's often discussion of how this is all black market and illegal.
But in fact the gun trade and manufacturing that went on, and continues to go on,
in Darra Adam Khel is entirely legal based on local laws.
For a very long time this town was in an area
called the Federally Administered Tribal Region of Pakistan.
And ... it was federally administered,
but independent of other areas of the country and had its own laws.
And this firearms manufacturing proceeded according to local law.
It wasn't black market, it may look unregulated to the outside but it actually wasn't quite.
Now that political situation has changed a bit.
Just fairly recently the area has been incorporated
into one of the provinces of Pakistan, and so the laws are changing.
The regulations requiring licensing and permitting and such are changing,
and I don't fully understand the exact implications.
But if we look at this area historically, to get back on track on our story here,
firearms production ramped up again with the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
And Darra Adam Khel and the Khyber Pass region were a source of arms for that conflict as well.
Now it's never been only military arms, there are also commercial arms
sold to civilians, anyone who just wants to buy a gun.
And there have been a wide variety of quality levels manufactured there.
There is sort of a general conception that this is just a bunch of guys
with files made out of truck springs in mud huts hacking together guns.
And that's really not accurate, there's a lot of modern machinery
that is used in a lot of these shops. They are small shops.
And yeah, there's outdoor stuff done like heat treating
that requires good ventilation, and you do it outside under a shade structure.
... This doesn't look like a first world robotic firearms factory,
but it's not just a guy with a file and a camp fire.
That said, production quality does vary.
If you're willing to pay more you're going to get a gun that's better made,
if you want something really cheap you're going to get something that's pretty cheap.
I'm expecting that this one was on the pretty cheap end of things.
So let's take a closer look at this now.
This is a copy of a Webley Mark IV revolver.
It is chambered for .32, although I don't know exactly which .32.
Originally Webley themselves made guns like this in .320 revolver, 0.320, and also in .32-20.
This one the timing is terrible, like all of the mechanics are terrible.
Even if you like went to the effort of doing a chamber cast to figure out
exactly which cartridge it is, I would very strongly recommend not ever firing this thing.
Because I don't think it would go well.
But Webley did make civilian versions of their Mark IV revolver.
This is the sort of gun that's probably best recognised
as the World War Two British military revolver.
Those guns were in .380 calibre, .38/200.
This is ... essentially a copy of the civilian version.
Webley Mark IIIs were also made in .32 calibre.
Those can be distinguished by having sort of a round hump back here on the grip,
where this pointed, more squarish profile, is indicative of the Mark IV design.
So it is a top-break revolver, we've got a takedown lever right there.
You open this up, and in theory you can open the ... barrel all the way open,
and it will push this star ejector out and kick out all the empty cases.
This one, something's broken in there and it will only open this far.
These are also double action revolvers. However something else is also broken,
and I can't get the hammer back past there.
Although you can manually cock it and fire it single action.
Which the originals, you could run single action as well of course.
We have some markings on the top strap, "Made in England" and "Birmingam".
I will note that the British could maybe take a lesson from the Pakistani gunsmith who made this,
he has left the "h" out of Birmingham, presumably because Birmingham doesn't actually use that "h".
And perhaps the British could simplify their spelling by
copying that from this gun. But I digress.
We have a serial number down here, or a facsimile of a serial number.
And then a bunch of proof marks. The gunsmith has correctly recognised that
the British will proof each individual chamber in the cylinder,
and so there's a proof mark on each one there.
As well as a pair of proof marks out on the barrel.
A few distinctive things to note about this being a Khyber Pass gun.
The rear sight here is barely more than a scratch in that opening stirrup.
If it were a properly made rear sight it would be quite a bit larger.
As it is, ... like the front sight is substantially larger than the rear sight there.
If we look at some details like the striations, the ... grip surfaces here on the hammer
and the opening spur, you'll see that those lines aren't quite parallel, they're not quite perfectly done.
The gunsmiths in this area are, at least some of them, are quite capable of making
a really, really good looking gun that could be indistinguishable from an original one.
But that's going to cost you money.
It's not like machining skills are limited geographically, and some of these guys are really good.
But also some of them aren't so good, or are good
but are relegating stuff to apprentices because it's deliberately being sold cheap.
It is also worth pointing out here that the rifling is actually pretty well done
in that barrel, so kudos for that.
Alright, one last thing I want to touch on, and that is this odd wedge-like feature.
This is standard on Webley revolvers and I've had a number of people ask me why.
And the answer is to open up your holster.
So if you have a leather holster that is collapsed a bit flat without a gun in it,
if you didn't have these two wedges you would essentially have this perpendicular
flat faced cylinder that would hit the top of the holster.
And you'd have to like reach down with your other hand and open it up and try and wiggle the gun in.
These two wedges serve to blend the skinny barrel into the wide cylinder
and open that holster up for you as you're holstering the gun.
It's guns like this one that really exemplify the fact that firearms collecting
for many people is about the story behind a gun, and where it came from,
and having something that is interesting and different.
It's not always about having the most effective, or the most modern,
or the most high-quality firearm, because this is none of those things.
But at least to me, this sort of thing is fantastically interesting.
Guns like this, guns that come out of workshops in the Philippines,
the Warlord Era Chinese pistols and rifles for that matter.
I find all of these really interesting aspects of history.
And so it's pretty cool to be able to give you guys a closer look at a
Darra Adam Khel or Khyber Pass example.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed the video. Thanks for watching.