Webley & Scott Rebel .22 Cal Part 1 General

[Dick Tracey]

In September of last year I purchased and reviewed a Webley & Scott Rebel in .177 Cal.  I liked the rifle but was not that crazy about the accuracy, it was good but not single hole at 60'.  I have stated several times that I would like to have the Rebel in .22 Cal.  I recently noticed that the .22 Cal version is available.  I ordered it and this is a review on the 22 Cal Rebel.  The first thing is the appearance, which looks exactly the same except for the missing 'Webley Rebel' Logo on the receiver, and the cap on the threaded extension of the barrel.  This thread is a 12mm by 1.25mm pitch.  It is said that the standard 1/2" threaded items will fit if used with teflon tape, enough said about that.  This one came with the rear sight installed.





Close up of receiver where the 'Webley Rebel' Logo was on the 177 Cal Rebel



Close up of threaded Muzzle



The Rebel is a copy of the Innova which has roots back to the original rifle made in Japan.  The original did not have a Poly receiver, it was steel and used a bolt action and is reported to be extremely accurate.  It also came in a longer barrel version.  The Rebel being a Carbine version presents a nice compact rifle.  The composite stock has actually started to grow on me.  I am 'Old School' and favor wood stocks.   

It takes the same energy to pump up as the .177 Cal, about 48 Lbs force for 8 pumps  (maximum indicated by manufacture).  The noise levels seem to be a little louder then the .177 Cal especially at the 7 or 8 pumps level, but still is on line with most of the springers that I own.

The first 22 Rebel I received was bad.  It would almost break your fingers to open the pump handle.  It also liked the randomly fire while pumping up (even while the safety is on) and many times I was able to fire the rifle with the safety on.  I called the dealer it was purchased from and they swapped it out for another new one.  They sent me a UPS Shipping label and UPS shipped it back and a new one was sent to me.  This gave about a 10 day delay in getting the replacement rifle.  This pumper is set up to cock the rifle on the first pump and I learned on the 177 Rebel to put the safety on before pumping and not to load before pumping.

I cleaned the brown crud out of the barrel and dried the bore then ran 1 patch with drop of oil on it and one clear patch.  There was a recent post about cleaning 177 cal barrels with QTips and I liked that idea, however, QTips are a little small for .22 and .25 Cals.  I found these QTips in the store.



I found they work well on .22 Cal and I suspect just as good on .25 cal.

First time pumping up the rifle was really stiff and gritty sounding.  I put a drop of Secret Sauce on all the pivot points of the pump lever and on the bolt assembly also.  I would pump up about 3 pumps and fire a pellet.  I did this about 10 times and pump started working fine.  The bolt still was gritty and wobbly working so I took the bolt out and cleaned it, ran some 2000 grit sand paper over it and then applied a heavy coat of Honda 60 Moly grease.  Reassembled and now bolt is much smoother but still a little wobbly.  The bolt does not seem to get caught on the pellet as the 177 did.

The trigger feels the same as the 177 and it gets heaver with more pumps.  It is rather rough now but the 177 has taught me that the trigger will get better with use.  I don't mind the trigger but it is definitely not a match grade trigger.  It does fell like a good hunting trigger, but without any means to measure this, it will be purely subjective.

Loading a pellet is much better with the .22 Cal.  I guess because it is heaver but it will just drop right in the breach.  I found that for the odd one that will not orient itself properly, a round wooden tooth pick works fine in manipulating the pellet (don't put it in your mouth when your done).

I have found it is easy to pump if you put the heel of the but on a chair or anything sturdy about chair height.  Then lean the rifle back slightly with pump handle facing up.  By holding on to the front sight it is easy to pump up and you don't feel like you are going to damage anything.  A little experimenting and you will figure how to hold the tip of the barrel without hurting your hand on the sight.


DT