Stourport on Severn Pistol & Rifle Club

The Brown Bess refers to the British Army's muzzle-loading smoothbore Land Pattern Musket and its derivatives. This musket was used extensively during the era of British Empire expansionism for over a hundred years with many incremental changes in its design. Britain’s Brown Bess flintlock musket is simply one of the most important military arms ever devised. Beginning its life more than 200 years ago, helped to win the entire continent of India. The Brown Bess musket was loaded using a paper cartridge that included about 100 grains of coarse black powder (called, simply, “gunpowder” at the time) and a one-ounce, .71-caliber round lead ball. Caliber of the gun was .75, and the difference in ball and bore diameter, called “windage,” allowed for ease of loading, especially when the musket became fouled


The .303 Lee-Enfield series of rifles was born in 1895 as a marriage between the magazine and bolt action, designed by the J. P. Lee, and the new pattern of barrel rifling, designed at the Royal Small Arms Factory (RSAF) at Enfield. Originally known as Lee-Metford, this design was adopted by British army in 1888 and used a Metford pattern rifling with shallow groves, intended to be used with ammunition loaded with black powder. Introduction of the smokeless powders in the form of the Cordite showed that the Metford rifling was very short-living, so it was soon replaced with Enfield rifling, with 5 traditional land and grooves and left hand pitch. Early Lee-Enfield rifles, officially known as a ".303 caliber, Rifle, Magazine, Lee-Enfield", were carried by the British army through the Boer war (South Africa) of 1899-1902, and Boers, armed with their Mausers, taught to the Brits some hard lessons. And, unlike some other Empires, Brits were quick lo learn. In 1903, they introduced a new design, which improved over the older Lee-Metfords and Lee-Enfields in some important respects. The main improvements was the introduction of the "universal" rifle idea. The common thinking of the period was to issue the long rifle for infantry and the carbine for cavalry, artillery and other such troops.

The Webley–Fosbery Self-Cocking Automatic Revolver was an unusual, recoil-operated, automatic revolver designed by Lieutenant Colonel George Vincent Fosbery, VC and produced by the Webley & Scott company from 1901 to 1924. The revolver is easily recognizable by the zig-zag grooves on the cylinder. Though Webley viewed this weapon as an ideal sidearm for cavalry troops, the Webley–Fosbery was never adopted as an official government sidearm. At over 11 inches long and weighing some 44 ounces (1239 grammes) unloaded, the Webley–Fosbery was a heavy and unwieldy sidearm even by the standards of the day. Several models of Webley–Fosbery revolvers were produced, and the type saw limited action in the Boer Wars as well as World War I, where some privately purchased examples were carried by British officers in the .455 service chambering. Reports from the field suggested that the Webley–Fosbery, with its precisely machined recoil surfaces, was more susceptible to jamming in wartime conditions of mud and rain than comparable sidearms of the period. It has been commonly alleged that the Webley–Fosbery required a tight hold in order for the cylinder to properly cycle and cock the weapon. Another disadvantage was manual recocking. Unlike the simple technique used for ordinary revolvers, the Webley–Fosbery requires pulling the entire action-cylinder-barrel assembly back across the frame, a two-handed operation.


The long rifle, also known as longrifle, Kentucky rifle, or Pennsylvania rifle, was one of the first commonly used rifles for hunting and warfare. It is characterized by an unusually long barrel, which is widely believed to be a largely unique development of American rifles that was uncommon in European rifles of the same period. The longrifle is an early example of a firearm using rifling, spiral grooves in the bore. This gave the projectile, commonly a round lead ball, a spiraling motion, increasing the stability of the trajectory. A more stable trajectory meant dramatically improved accuracy over the more commonly available smooth bore muskets also used in the period. Rifled firearms saw their first major combat use in the American colonies during the French and Indian War, and later the American Revolution in the eighteenth century.


The Mauser K98K 7.92mm rifle is a manually operated, magazine fed, bolt action rifle. The magazine and the bolt action are the two most famous features of the model 98. Magazine is a two-row, integral box, with quickly detachable floorplate. Magazine could be topped either with single rounds, by pushing rounds into the receiver top opening, or via the stripper clips. Each clip can hold 5 rounds, enough to fill the magazine, and is inserted into the clip guides, machined into the rear receiver bridge. After the loading, empty clip is ejected automatically when bolt is closed. The bolt has three locking lugs, two at the bolt head and one at the rear part of the bolt. The bolt handle is rigidly attached to the bolt body. The bolt handle was bent down, which allowed for more comfortable carrying and bolt operations. Bolt has a gas vent holes that are designed to move the hot gases away from the shooters face and into the magazine opening in the case of the cartridge case or primer rupture. Next famous feature of the model 98 bolt is a "controlled feed" extractor. Massive, non-rotating claw extractor was designed to engage the cartridge rim as soon as cartridge left the magazine, and held the cartridge case firmly until it was ejected by the ejector, fixed inside the receiver.

The De Lisle carbine .45acp (auto colt pistol) or De Lisle Commando carbine was a British firearm used during World War II that was designed with an integrated suppressor. That, combined with its use of subsonic ammunition, made it extremely quiet in action, possibly one of the quietest firearms ever made Combined Operations requested a small production run of De Lisle carbines and an initial batch of 17 were hand–made by Ford Dagenham, with Godfray De Lisle himself released from his Air Ministry duties so he could work full-time on the project; this initial batch was immediately put into combat use by the British Commandos. In 1944, the Sterling Armaments Company was given an order for 500 De Lisle carbines, but eventually only produced around 130 During the remainder of World War II, the De Lisle carbine was mainly used by the Commandos, although they also saw some use by the Special Operations Executive (SOE). E. Michael Burke, the American former commander of a Jedburgh Team, stated that a De Lisle was used by them to assassinate two senior German officers in 1944. A number of De Lisles were shipped to the Far East and used during the Burma Campaign. The De Lisle would also be used during the Korean War and the Malayan Emergency. It has been claimed the weapon was also used by the Special Air Service during the Northern Irish Troubles.