Featured in the movie "Zardoz" as Sean Connery's Revolver and also the gun which killed
Sam Spade's partner Miles Archer in "The Maltese Falcon" (for extra credit the gun in the
movie is incorrectly identified by Bogie as an 8 shot .45 cal automatic. The .455 model in reality
had a six shot cylinder - though the .38 cal does have an 8 shot capacity). The terms automatic
and revolver are usually mutually exclusive, but Webley is an exception because of it's unique
mechanism. Essentially, the weapon is cocked by pulling back on the hammer which slides the
entire top half of the revolver - barrel, cylinder and hammer rearward and then releasing it.
When the pistol is fired the recoil force drives the barrel, cylinder, hammer assembly rearward
again. During the fore and back motion, a stud in the lower section which rides in the grooves in
the cylinder rotates the cylinder to the next round ready to fire again. Aside from rapid firing
one benefit of the unusual design is improved accuracy versus a normal revolver. To make
things a bit more odd, the revolver also uses a "break top" reloading scheme (see the last image).
Production ceased in 1918 and fewer than 5k were made.
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