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Webley Raider

Webley Raider

The original Webley Raider 10 came out during a time of much turmoil at one of the UK’s most prestigious airgun manufacturers - Webley & Scott. Fighting to stay afloat, they somehow still managed to produce air rifles many people yearned to own, virtually right up to 2005 when financial matters forced them to stop production and close their doors for good.

Well now the Webley brand of products is distributed and marketed by Highland Outdoors. In Webley’s case, that means airguns of all types, including the rifle featured here. Granted, these rifles are now made abroad, but by gun manufacturers with their own histories, good names and respected codes of practice. These Webleys are still claimed to be manufactured to the original blue prints and tolerances as those ‘classic’ originals. So let’s get down to seriously scrutinising this new Webley Raider 10 XS.

Better Handling

The stock is a fine example of how the Raider 10 XS has a character all of its very own. I’ve owned original ‘10’s’ and I’d say this is a tad trimmer, more ergonomic in the hold, and handles all the better for it. I do notice there’s now no chequering to be seen at the grip, but the quality beech wood stock has a fully ambidextrous cheekpiece that’s equally high as it is substantial. The butt is finished off with a brown rubber ventilated butt pad and a black Delrin spacer.

The lengthy yet slim forend glides forward from the relatively steep drop down pistol grip to end in a nicely rounded off tip. The top fluting that runs along the full length of the forend seems to be more generous than I remember and affords a good leading hand hold all along its length. The slim neck above the equally slim pistol grip was at first surprising for an air rifle measuring 42.25” with the QGS silencer screwed up front. It certainly doesn’t feel that long in use; after tucking the neat butt pad into my shoulder, my trigger hand soon found both holds. It offers both ‘thumb over’ or ‘along’ if you use the neat palm shelf. Personally, I found the thumb rest just in the right position and proportion for my shooting hand and adopted this hold for most of my time with the rifle.

Well Balanced

With the action including barrel and silencer being relatively lengthy you’d think it would feel out of balance. This was taken into consideration when they designed the rifle because the chunky, raised action block is set to the very rear of the action, and when holding optics this brings the weight back to the shoulder, making this a very robustly built yet sleek and stylish looking sporter. In fact, un-scoped but with the silencer on-board the rifle still only tips the scales at 7.9lbs.

For charging with air a simple push fit probe connector inserts into the fill point at the front underside of the air reservoir, allowing you to fill the rifle to the recommended and required 190-bar fill. A neat and discreet cover plug keeps out dirt and grime when not in use. The whole arrangement is practical, neat and simple. Once fully charged expect approximately 75 full power shots in the .22 calibre rifle tested and 60 in .177 calibre. There’s a button size air pressure gauge deeply recessed into the underside of the stock to keep you updated with the status of air pressure in the reservoir.

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Cocking and loading is still a simple operation. First pull the chunky side-mounted cocking bolt fully rearward and drop it down into the rear keeper slot in the stock. Then the ‘sprung’ magazine retaining pin (set in front of the alloy drum magazine and to the right of the action) can be pushed forward to slip across into its own retainer groove. This allows the magazine to be manually taken out of the right hand side of the housing that it sits in.

Though holding 10-pellets, the alloy magazine isn’t overly large. After all 10 chambers are filled you then place (not push) the magazine back into the loading well, allow the retaining pin back to its original position to secure it in place. When you’re ready to take the first shot, simply lift the cocking bolt up out of the rear keeper slot, push fully forward to load a pellet into the breech and turn down to its original position in the forward bolt slot cut in the stock.

Range Time

After setting a Nikko Stirling 4 – 12 X 50AO IR Mountmaster onto the raised rail in high mounts, it didn’t take long to set a 25yd zero and soon reminded me of the efficiency of the short throw bolt and the multi-shot system it runs.

The 2-stage trigger unit is fully adjustable for length of travel as well as pull weight. A nice feature is that the adjustment can be made by removing the trigger guard rather than having to remove the action from the stock. The gold anodised trigger blade gives the rifle a nice touch of class, and in terms of practicality the blade is definitely curvaceous enough to allow for an assured and comfortable feel. Combined with the design of the pistol grip, trigger control for most won’t be a problem.

The next feature to concern a true hunter would be muzzle report on firing. The Raider 10 XS has an inbuilt integral silencer inside the 19mm barrel shroud. On inspection it consists of three baffles and for those in the know it’s all about proportion and positioning of these baffles if you are to get this sort of arrangement to work as it should. To add even more ‘hush’, the rifle comes supplied with their acclaimed QGS Silencer already screwed on up-front. Quite frankly, I found this rifle to be amongst the quietest multi-shot PCP air rifles on the market.

Accuracy is another plus of any PCP but Webley have gone all out to make the Raider 10 XS able to stand up against the competition. Taking no chances of a weak link in the chain from the pellet leaving the magazine to target they’ve fitted the rifle with a 16.5” Lothar Walther tube.

After zeroing at 25yds, shooting from a rested position I was soon making ragged .22 calibre size one-hole clusters in the target with Webley Accupells - these groupings opening out to 3/8” at 35yds. Now that’s some accuracy for a non-regulated rifle. Yes, the price shown below is correct, and considering the accuracy, handling, and overall performance the Webley Raider 10 XS is quite frankly unbelievable for the price. Dare I say it’s now much more appealing than any version I ever tested in the past and I can foresee that this way of reducing production costs and in turn bringing down the price for the end consumer may well be a path that some other companies will be taking…   

PRICE: £399 approx.
CONTACT: Highland Outdoors 01858 410683 www.highlandoutdoors.co.uk

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gun
features

  • Model: Webley Raider 10 XS
  • Type : Bolt action, Multi-Shot PCP
  • Magazine: Rotary with 10 shot capacity (two supplied)
  • Length: 42.25"
  • Weight: 7.9lbs with QGS Silencer
  • Calibre: .22 on test .177 available
  • Stock: Sleek-slim full length ambidextrous beech wood sporter
  • Sights: No open sights fitted but is grooved for scope mounting
  • Barrel: 16.5" Lothar Walther barrel with outer shroud (QGS Silencer included)
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