Webley British Bulldog

About the Webley British Bulldog

The Webley British Bulldog is a compact solid-frame double-action pocket revolver introduced by Philip Webley & Son of Birmingham in 1872. Chambered for short, stubby cartridges such as the .44 Bull Dog, .442 Webley, and .450 Adams, it carried five rounds in a fixed cylinder and used a very short 2.5-inch barrel that made it easy to conceal. Cheap, rugged, and effective at close range, the design was extensively copied across Belgium, Spain, France, and the United States, becoming one of the most common personal-defense handguns of the late 19th century.

Cheap and easy to conceal, the British Bulldog became the archetypal Victorian pocket revolver. One Belgian copy gained grim fame in 1881 when Charles Guiteau used it to shoot President James Garfield; Guiteau had reportedly wanted the ivory-gripped version so it would look better in a museum but declined to pay the extra dollar.

Webley British Bulldog specifications

A Belgian-made British Bulldog in .442 Webley was the weapon Charles Guiteau used to assassinate U.S. President James A. Garfield on 2 July 1881. The .44 Bull Dog cartridge was a shorter, lower-powered American load that could also be fired in .442 Webley-chambered revolvers.