Webley Mastif 12

Okay, so Webley might be a little late to the game as far as the bullpup scene goes but they have done a pretty good job let me tell you! Let me introduce you to the Webley Mastiff.

What we have here is a precharged, multi shot pneumatic semi bullpup rifle that has a side-lever cocking action. Take your pick if you want to run it with either a multi-shot magazine fitted or the single shot pellet tray that is supplied, which I think is a real nice touch and addition. The rifle that’s on test here at Racknload Towers is in .22 and the mag holds 12 pellets and its .177 little sister takes 14; so, firepower wise, I have no gripes. But, myself, I’m not overly fond of cassette style mags and these ones are just like the FX and Kral ones. I just find them a little fiddly but hey, that’s just me! Not only that but they do rattle a bit once loaded up, so hunters be aware! (Give me a Weihrauch HW100 mag any day) On a plus side, they do keep the muck out and the pellets aren’t going to fall out.

At a glance

So, let’s take a good look at this good looker. The butt pad is rubberised and fairly soft and is vertically adjustable via a springloaded button, which is very quick to use. On to the Turkish walnut stock, which is so very sleek, although it does feel like it needs finishing off with a bit of oil or lacquer. To me, it feels just a bit ‘sanded’, if that makes sense? Ten points to Webley for making it an ambidextrous plank of wood though, because us lefties do exist! The cheekpiece is adjustable for height via two Allen screws, so you can soon get this gun set up for yourself.

Moving along to the thumbhole and pistol grip that are so very comfortable; in fact, I found this particular semi bullpup to be one of the comfiest I’ve used and, for a lefty like me, surely that’s a good thing! The thumbhole offers plenty of room for a gloved hand or thumb that is, and the flowing wooden trigger guard has enough room for a gloved finger too. The forend has plenty of real estate for your hand but I personally would have liked to have seen a bit more stippling, as there is only some on the underside of the forend. What is there is nice and has ‘Webley’ in the actual stippling done by a laser by the looks of it. I think a bit more ‘finishing off’ of this stock would have made this rifle a lot classier looking. But on the bonus side, there are sling swivels pre-fitted on the stock, so that saves a job!

The trigger is really not bad, especially for a bullpup and, on my trigger pull scale, this test rifle’s broke at a rather crisp and very light 1 pound 10-ounces! It is adjustable but you do have to take off the stock, which is a bit of a pain. The blade itself is adjustable, which is always good to see, especially on a gun that is around the £500 mark! You don’t very often see that on guns twice the price. The safety catch is manual and is located on the right-hand side of the action, just underneath the cocking lever. The side lever itself is pretty smooth when cycling it but I did notice that it had a bit of up and down looseness to it; yes, I used my oh so scientific rattle test!

Power up

Juicing this PCP up via the supplied probe is easy, with no fuss at all. The 280cc air reservoir’s inlet port is protected from debris by a sliding cover, rather than one of those plastic plug thingies. The pressure gauge, or manometer, is up front at the muzzle end, where I’m not so keen, as it is just a pet hate of mine, but I can put up with it, I guess! Expect to get around 100 shot per fill in .22 and around 80 in .177. As this rifle is unregulated, shots will start to drop off after these numbers mentioned.

A 16-inch ‘precision rifled, match-grade barrel’ is what spits out the pellets on the Mastiff and it is ‘shrouded and ballistically baffled’ according to the manual. In other words, inside the shroud, the barrel is surrounded by baffles and sound-absorbent material. That said, this gun did run pretty quiet. The barrel is not a floating one, as it is braced or clamped to the reservoir.

The action is aluminium and to be honest is pretty plain in matt black but has Webley Mastiff 12 and Webley’s winged pellet logo laser etched on the right-hand side. There is a nice big Picatinny rail up top, with plenty of room to throw on a scope of you’re choosing.

The test glass was a Nikko Stirling Mount Master 3-9 x 50, which wouldn’t have been my first choice, but the combo did deliver decent results. The gun comes supplied with a hard case, which is something I really like to see these days, although the clasps on it did have a tendency to pop off occasionally!

Testing times

So, now the range time! To load up the rifle, once you have loaded up the mags of course, fully draw back the Mastiff’s side-lever and slide in the loaded magazine from the right-hand side. Close the lever and the rifle is ready to rock. There is a manual safety catch, so no messing about with an auto, which I feel is something that you do not need on a multi shot rifle, especially when you want a fast follow up shot! Okay, so I always tend to moan about cassette mags, but they do prevent you from firing a shot once the pellets have all flown!

Accuracy wise, the Mastiff shot well on my 30-yard test range, leaving nothing bigger than quarter inch grouping on paper. That was using Accu Pell pellets, which the manufacturer recommends.

Conclusion

Overall, I really like the rifle, particularly the fit and feel but it would be great to see more of a finished off stock, as far as the walnut one is concerned. Maybe some other stock options would be good too. It was accurate and easy to use, as well as well balanced, considering it is nearly nine-pounds in weight! Safe shooting!