Webley British Bulldog
- Category
- Pistol
- Barrel
- 64 mm
- Weight, empty
- Not recorded
- Introduced
- 1872
About
What it is, and why it matters
The Webley British Bulldog was a compact, solid-frame, gate-loaded double-action pocket revolver introduced by Philip Webley & Son around 1872. With a short 2.5-inch barrel and a five-shot cylinder, usually in .442 Webley, it was designed for concealed carry and personal defence. It became one of the most copied revolver patterns in history, with Belgian makers in Liège and American firms such as Iver Johnson and Harrington & Richardson producing vast numbers of Bulldog-type guns.
On 2 July 1881 Charles Guiteau used a .442 British Bulldog to assassinate US President James A. Garfield; Guiteau specifically wanted the ivory-gripped version 'so it would look nicer in a museum,' but declined to pay the extra dollar for it.
The 'British Bull Dog' name was trademarked by Henry Webley in 1878; the design lineage traces to 1868. The total number produced is effectively uncountable because of widespread unlicensed copying.
Specification
Everything measured
IdentityWhat it is, who built it and when.
- Manufacturer
- Webley & Scott Ltd.
- Category
- Pistol
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Status
- Discontinued
- Produced
- 1872 to 1914
DimensionsAs issued, without a magazine or an optic.
- Barrel
- 64 mm
ActionHow it cycles, what trips it, and what feeds it.
- Firing mechanism
- Double action single action
- Trigger
- Double action
- Capacity
- 5
- Magazine
- Rotary
MaterialsEach swatch is the material itself, not a colour chosen to stand for it.
- Frame
- Steel
- Barrel
- Steel
- Stock
- Wood
- Finish
- Blued
BallisticsFrom the service cartridge, not a handload.
- Muzzle velocity
- 198 m/s
- Effective range
- 14 m
- Maximum range
- 18 m
Trajectory
What the round does downrange
Solved from the muzzle figures and the bullet. The dashed rule is the effective range on the record, and the crosses are the steps the solver returned.
No load solved for this record yetThe flight path is computed from a cartridge and a bullet. This record has no ammunition filed against its chambering, so there is nothing to solve.
Features
What it has
What the record lists as fitted, drawn from the catalogue.
Solid frame
Side loading gate
Short barrel
Concealable pocket revolver
Standing
How it compares
Each figure against the firearms of the same type and cartridge that record it, or of the same type where that cartridge has too few. Positions are read to the nearest tenth.
| Measurement | This firearm | Median | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barrel lengthAmong 1,941 pistols | 64 mm | 102 mm | Shorter than about 90% |
| Magazine capacityAmong 1,962 pistols | 5 | 8 | Holds fewer rounds than about 90% |
Answers
Questions about the Webley British Bulldog
What caliber is the Webley British Bulldog?
The Webley British Bulldog is chambered in .442 Webley and .450 Adams.
How many rounds does the Webley British Bulldog hold?
The Webley British Bulldog holds 5 rounds, fed from a rotary magazine.
How long is the Webley British Bulldog?
The Webley British Bulldog has a 64 mm (2.52 in) barrel.
Who makes the Webley British Bulldog?
The Webley British Bulldog is made by Webley & Scott Ltd. (United Kingdom). It was designed by Philip Webley.
When was the Webley British Bulldog introduced?
The Webley British Bulldog was introduced in 1872 and discontinued in 1914.
Compatibility
Which parts fit this firearm
Studio
Every part that mounts on this, resolved
Not a list the maker typed out: the answer comes from the mounts this firearm exposes and the interface each part needs, so it stays right when either one changes.
- Every part that mounts on any firearm in the catalogue
- Interface standards, platforms and fit overrides
- The same answers through the API and the MCP server
Requires a signed-in GunSpec account on the Studio plan. The answer is computed per part, so it is not part of the public record.
Provenance
What the record holds
Every figure above was taken from one of these pages. The confidence reflects how much of the record came from a page a claim can be checked against.
Provenance
Confidence in this record
62%
Stockists
Where to buy
Offers link straight to the shop. GunSpec never takes the order.
No shop has listed this firearm yet
Stock and prices come from the shops themselves. If you sell this firearm, you can list it and it appears here.
List a firearmMCP
Ask an assistant about it
The same record, reached the way a person asks for it rather than the way a program does.
Ask GunSpec
Works with
Point an MCP client at GunSpec and it answers from the catalogue rather than from memory. A free key covers the read tools.
API
The call that returns this record
The same fields, in the same units, from the same endpoint the page reads.
curl --request GET \ --url 'https://api.gunspec.io/v1/firearms/webley-british-bulldog' \ --header 'X-API-Key: your_key'{ "id": "webley-british-bulldog", "name": "Webley British Bulldog", "manufacturer": { "id": "webley-scott", "name": "Webley & Scott Ltd.", "countryCode": "GB", "foundedYear": 1834, "website": "https://www.webley.co.uk", "logoUrl": null, "description": null, "status": null, "defunctYear": null, "stateOwned": null, "makesFirearms": null, "parentId": null, "predecessorId": null, "createdAt": "2026-04-26 23:12:00", "updatedAt": "2026-04-26 23:12:00", "version": "f6a435d7fe2ad4892656b432b340a5ef7f9eef71b43c9e876d188767587fd08a" }, "category": { "id": "pistol", "name": "Pistol", "description": "Handguns designed to be fired with one or two hands" }, "country_of_origin": "GB", "year_introduced": 1872, "barrel_length_mm": 64, "weight_empty_g": null, "action_type": null}