Webley & Scott was established in Birmingham, England in 1790. Today, like some other revered names from the Birmingham and London trades, the shotguns are  made in Turkey. Under the leadership of Matt Nelson based in Baird, Texas, Webley & Scotts have returned to the U.S. In this series, we discuss the Webley & Scotts currently available at affordable prices to American wing and clays shooters.

The formula for the Webley & Scott Sport X is simple: build an affordable over/under that’s a clays crusher.

For an MSRP of $2,399, you get a 12-gauge Sport X with black-chrome 30-barrels topped by a High-Viz bead and proofed for steel, plus five extended chokes. The barrels are chambered for three-inch shells. The shotgun’s handsome oil-finished Grade 3 Turkish walnut stock features an adjustable comb, a pistol grip and palm swell. The receiver is black chrome as well – a finish that’s been proven to resist corrosion in the elements. An automatic safety integrated into the stop strap.

The Sport X is slotted above Webley & Scott’s All Purpose Pro (APS) Pro and its cousin the All Purpose Monte Carlo Pro (APM) priced at $1,799. The APM designation refers to the Monte Carlo stock. (See the Shotgun Life story at https://tinyurl.com/4v9h3deu).

When buying a Turkish shotgun, probably the most important thing in appreciating it is managing your expectations. Start comparing it to a $15,000 Krieghoff or Perazzi and you’ll you be disappointed. Take the shotgun on face value, though, and you may be in a for a pleasant surprise.

The Webley & Scott Sport X is straight from the Turkish drawing boards: 

Monobloc barrels, boxlock action, underlug lock-up on a full-width hinge pin for first-rate functionality and durability and a single selective inertia trigger with barrel selector and manual safety. 

It’s a core design that’s been around since dinosaurs roamed the earth, and providing the craftsmanship is solid should be a keeper for your children and grandchildren. 

At this point in the Turkish shotgun industry, raising your expectations for price and performance should make you look at a shotgun  more optimistically than perhaps a decade ago.

The Webley & Scotts are manufactured by the 80-year-old Akdas Arms. The Turkish shotgun industry has come a long way since its humble beginnings. Once known primarily for affordable, entry-level shotguns of questionable quality, Turkish shotgun makers have evolved into a leading force in the firearms market. They have adopted advanced manufacturing techniques and design principles, including the widespread use of CNC-machined precision parts to enhance appearance, performance and reliability. In fact, as of 2020, about 1.04 million Turkish-made shotguns were imported into the U.S., according to Statista. So can that many people really be wrong about Turkish shotguns? Webley & Scott taps into this phenomenon by including a five-year warranty.

We shot the Webley & Scott Sport X on the sporting-clays course of the Guitar Ranch in Spur, Texas. At 8½ pounds, the Sport X conforms to most sporters in its class. But weight is only part of the equation. You really want a well-balanced clays gun, and the Sport X balanced far enough in front of the hinge pin to qualify as being muzzle heavy. Of course there are two school of thoughts about this. The first says that while it’s harder to start the swing, the momentum should easily carry you to the target. And the other is that a muzzle-heavy shotgun provides a more controlled experience if you tend to jump out in front of the target after the call. 

Shooting from the ready position, the Sport X required some muscle to get the shotgun into the shoulder pocket, but the overall swing was smooth and predictable. Once going, the site picture was predictable if you like flat-shooting sporters.

The trigger exceeded expectations. A weak link on Turkish shotguns tends to be heavy triggers, mostly due to substandard finishing. Webley & Scott’s Sport X, meanwhile, had a creep-free, crisp trigger with a pull of about five pounds. A bit heavy for a sporter? Maybe, but not excessively, and at that weight it can simply come down to personal preference.

At 14¾ inches, the length of pull was a tad long, but I managed to adjust with little fuss so that felt recoil was minimal to the shoulder and cheek and mounting the gun just required a slight lean forward. 

I imagine all of us want to own a prestige European clays gun. The reality, though, is sometimes more financially realistic. The Webley & Scott Sport X is an excellent alternative for the rest of us.

Irwin Greenstein is the Publisher of Shotgun Life. You can reach him on the Shotgun Life Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/shotgunlife#

Important resources:

The Webley & Scott web site https://webleyscott.com

Webley & Scott in America Part 1

Webley & Scott in America Part 2

Irwin Greenstein

Irwin Greenstein is Publisher of Shotgun Life. Please send your comments to letters@shotgunlife.com.

www.shotgunlife.com