I’ve had three of those at various times. Great-shooting guns with a unique personality for sure.
My favorite point of the C1 was the sheer physical quality of it. Webley’s metal polish, blueing, stout steel trigger parts, and crisp stock inletting frankly shamed the German guns of those days - just a beautifully-made little rifle.
The power rating (unlike some of Dr. Beeman’s claims, LOL) was no joke, due to an extremely efficient design of piston seal and transfer port. The last one I had shot well over 800 fps with most normal-weight .177 pellets, and nearly 900 fps with RWS Hobbys.
Folks always complained about the typical Webley single-stage trigger. I thought it was just fine, once you: broke it in; realized that a sporter rifle ain’t a match rifle; and appreciated the remarkable simplicity and sturdiness of the gun’s overall design. The C1 isn’t a bench rest or 10-meter rifle, it’s a properly designed tool for a day’s work in the field.
The stock styling deviated from the classic Winchesters lever-actions in one important detail: there is virtually no drop at the heel. This “straight-line” design did an amazing job of controlling the effects of recoil in such a light gun. But the downside was the grip's being at such an extreme horizontal angle. It hurt my wrist to hold, where the classic firearms had enough rake to ameliorate this issue.
The C1 was a Webley Victor action (British-market junior rifle also loosely based on the Vulcan, which shared the C1's squared-off rear plug and skinny 14mm barrel); with a couple inches lopped off the barrel, the stronger Vulcan "export" spring, and of course the unique stock. The gun had three major variations: early ones with no safety; second version with manual safety on the left side; third with heavier 16mm barrel and wide, curved, ribbed trigger blade. The second is the most common in the US but the last version is my favorite - better balance, and the trigger noticeably improves the uncomfortable hand position.
