Webley Nemesis Co2 air pistol - test & review

Pistol fan Tim Finely is impressed by the performance of the Webley Nemesis in this test and review

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‘Nemesis’ has been used by Webley before, from 1994 to 2005, and this latest airgun of theirs to use the name is a multi-shot pistol. Very modern, very stylish and very cool, it’s CO2-powered and has many unique features. It’s a bolt-action, for a start, not a blow-back copy of a real firearm, although it does look quite tactical with its vented barrel shroud and a Picatinny rail for a light or laser under the front end.

The Nemesis is very different to run-of-the-mill pistols; the 12-gramme CO2 bulb is not housed in the grip, as you would expect, but in a compartment under the barrel and above the Picatinny rail. The grip contains a tool to open the CO2 compartment, and there is also a section for the Nemesis’ dual, seven-shot pellet magazines.

GET A GRIP

The tool itself is the cover for the magazine compartment; one end of it is a 6mm Allen key for the CO2 bulb cover held in place by the Allen key, fitting in a female 6mm hole, and it has a small magnet to make sure it doesn’t slip out accidentally.

Five raised bars on its underside form a grip panel on the base of the pistol grip, which is ambidextrous with three front finger grooves and a large thumb groove on each side. It works really well and it’s not too big, or indeed too small. There are stippled grip panels on the sides and rear.

Back to the grip compartment; the magazine on the pistol is a dual, seven-shot rotary mag’, and in .22, it’s two six-shot wheels. There are 14 shots in .177, and 12 in the bigger calibre. The mag’s themselves follow the usual spring tension, rotate under pressure and then fill each hole deal. It’s a pellet-firing pistol, so don’t load it up with BBs! The steel-rifled barrel makes the best of pellet accuracy.

TOUGH PLASTIC

The body of the pistol is made out of tough, modern plastic. The barrel can be seen through six slots on each side of the forward part of the frame, and six more angled grip sections mirror the angle of the holes. Up front, the end of the barrel extends out of the frame and is threaded ½ UNF for screwing on a muzzle brake, or moderator, although they will have to be smaller than 30mm in diameter if you want to use the superb open sights. If you fit a red dot or scope, you will be okay.

I fitted a mod’ that was just 22.4mm in diameter to keep my options open for testing. The thread sticks out by 12mm and is normally protected by a plastic collar with the same stippled pattern as the pistol grip and angled side panels. The top of the gun has an 11mm scope rail, 44mm long behind the loading channel and 120mm in front of it – more than enough to fit a pistol scope or a red dot.

BOLT ACTION

I stuck with the open sights to begin with. It has a 206mm-long sight base with a green fibre-optic rod on the front post and two red rods on each side of the rear sight. The front sight can be adjusted from side to side on a sliding dovetail, if you can find an Allen key that’s small enough.

The trigger feels good with a weight of 0.99kg and it has a manual safety catch above the trigger blade – push in from the right to set to ‘fire’ and in from the left to set on ‘safe’. Over the chronograph, I got 35 or so shots, it’s up there are at 2.7ftlbs.(?) I haven’t mentioned my favourite part yet, the bolt action. It’s slick and fast, and it does say that you can swap it over for either right- or left-handed use. There are cocking slots in the breech block on both sides, but I couldn’t find any manual to show me how to do it. I tried gently unscrewing the bolt, but it was held firmly. As a right-handed shooter I left the bolt on the left-hand side, so that I could operate it with my left hand.

VERY ACCURATE

One odd thing was the tension of the magazine springs going off soon after I began shooting the gun. Rather than a single turn to tension the internal rotary mag’, you then have to rotate it a few more turns to get the magazine to function correctly. Webley should look into putting a stronger spring in the magazines, in my opinion. Webley also supply a single-shot tray if you don’t want the fuss of magazines, another clever feature. I found I had to tip the pistol slightly backward, otherwise the bolt fell forward into the breach, so preventing me from loading a single pellet.

This pistol is very accurate; my very first free-hand group at six yards was 7.2mm for five shots, and resting the gun brought it down to 5mm – wow!

I loved shooting the Webley Nemesis, it’s accurate, has options for different sighting systems and has magazine or single-shot actions. The price is top value as well.

Thanks to Oliver for help in production of this article.

INSTANT OBSERVATIONS

Much more than I expected, an accurate and well-featured pistol in a ‘fun gun’ guise; with a bolt action and almost 3 ft.lbs of muzzle energy, it’s a great plinking pistol.

Specification

Manufacturer: Webley

Distributor: Highland Outdoors 0345 0990252

Model: Nemesis

Power plant: 12-gramme CO2

Action: Bolt action (Single-shot or seven-shot magazines x2)

Overall length: 257mm

Barrel length: 158mm

Calibre: 4.5mm

Sights: Open notch and post (11mm rail)

Sight Base: 205mm

Trigger weight: 0.99kg

Weight: 2.05kg

Price: £125.99