Jonathan Young gets all nostalgic for camo clothing and facial hair as he takes a look at Webley’s Tracker, a classic British sidelever springer
As with many rifles of the day, the Tracker came equipped with open sights, but could easily take a scope
To some people of a certain age, the very mention of the word Tracker brings back vivid memories of the golden age of British airgunning, when rabbits were plentiful and the only antis around wanted to stuff you full of cake. Back in the 1970s, the common break-barrel springer vied for attention with the fixed-barrel underlever – and then the sidelever really hit town.
Pellets were seated via the Webley Tracker’s tap-loading mechanism
A bit like an underlever, but rolled over to one side, the sidelever made the cocking cycle seem more natural. Webley had a number over the years with the Osprey, the Viscount and the Tracker. The Tracker was the last of the run, and the one that lasted the longest. Calibres were .177 and .22, and it came in a beech stock as standard, with the Tracker Deluxe in walnut as shown above. More cosmetic reinventions appeared. You know the sort – the same airgun, but in a limited run to draw new interest. So we got the Tracker in a camo paintjob stock, and an all-black version too.
The neat, unobtrusive sidelever was fitted with an end button catch
The shorter carbine-length Tracker was a real gun for the field: it came with open sights, as well as a steel muzzle shroud-cum-barrel weight if you wanted to fit a scope. Scope grooves made fitting your period Japanese glossy black 4×40 easy. Fancy a Tracker? Grow a proper 1980s man’s ’tache, put on an old British Army DPM jacket and go time travelling on your shoot with one of the best springers ever.
The Tracker had a thumb-operated safety and provision for a scope
This article originally appeared in the issue 107 of Airgun Shooter magazine. For more great content like this, subscribe today at our secure online store: www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk
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