Friends-

I know this may be a long-shot but, it's worth a try. I would like to purchase some cast bullets for use in reloading .45 ACP in a Webley Mark VI that I have.

I understand the best bullets are 455" 265 Grain RN Hollow Base for 455 Webley . In addition, I understand these bullets are hand cast from the RCBS mould 45-265-RN-HB (item #RCB57920) out of 20-1 Alloy and lubed with SPG.

If someone has some of these are are willing to part with them, please let me know. Send me a PM or an e-mail at: pmarkstark@satx.rr.com

Thanks,

Nark
Check over at Cast Boolets.
I'd bet there is somebody who has reloaded with cast bullets for that caliber.

Jim

Ditto on "www.castboolits.com" (note spelling).

Your Webley was chambered and bored/rifled for the 455 Webley, a .454 bullet with a .480 base diameter case. Due to wartime needs, the back of the cylinder was milled down to accept 45 ACP (.452 bullet in .476 base diameter case) using 1/2 moon clips. It worked just fine for typical handgun encounters, was fast to reload the gun and, since no one reloaded the ammo the swollen cases were no issue.

Moyer's cast bullets (http://www.moyerscastbullets.com/pricelist.html) makes .454 cast bullets (I'd use the 200) and use Starline 45 Auto Rim cases as they have a stronger web to handle the swelling (test some to ensure the extractor works okay). Buy a proper set of 455 Webley dies and the 45 auto rim shellholder and you should get that old gal slinging lead once again.

Wonderful revolver, especially the match grade ones that were scary accurate.

"keep the classics shooting !"

Whose "wartime needs"? Unless you can cite contemporaneos evidence this is a myth. The British Army or Navy never modified 455 Webley revolvers in such a manner.

Now, many adverts in US gun magazines in the 1960s selling such modified Webleys may have made that claim...but it is false.

Such modification being done, even possibly in England, by the American gun houses who pre GCA '68 dealt in these surplus weapons.

I have seen, also, some Webleys, here in Britain, partly skimmed so as to use cut down 45 Colt cases. But neither these nor a deeper skim to take 45 ACP and a half-moon clip were wartime measures but much later.
Think later 1970s and 1980s when 455 ammunition and cases were practically unobtainable in Britain.

However if the OPs gun is, as noted, one of these then I'd agree that 45 Auto Rim cases are a useful idea. FWIW a number of 455 revolvesr, such as a 455 Colt New Service, needs NO MODIFICATION to chamber or fire 45 ACP cartridges. The practice is nevertheless unsafe. How it was done was to wrap a strip of paper around the outside of the 45 ACP cartridge. Or used gummed or glued paper. The glued edge of an envelope. This holds the 45 ACP in place in the chamber so that a strike of the primer is enough to fire the cartridge.



Indeed if you raise the barrel vertical before each shot, the slowly lower it to horizontal, even the gummed paper strip isn't needed. The weight of the loadef cartridge being enough to allow a strike sufficient to fire the primer.

In TS2 or FFF size the Kynoch blackpowder load for 455 Mk I (a ballon head case) was 18 grains, 265 HBRN bullet and a supposed muzzle velocity of 710 fps.

Rim diameter of 455 was originally .528"-.538" being reduced in 1915 to .525"-.535" and original rim thickness .031"-.038" being reduced in 1943 to .029"-.036". Case width .475"-.479" and length .740"-.760". All from the official Kynoch drawings.

Of note is that the hollow base is longer, deeper, on the 265 Mk I bullet than on the 455 Mk II bullet. It was the Mk Ii bullet which drawings I gave to RCBS when they made, for me, the first run of 100 moulds.

Thanks for the correction on an old "fact".

S&W 1917s and Colt New Service revolvers were factory made to accept 45 ACP cartridges in 1/2 moon clips, and having owned a bunch of each they worked just fine. Full moons (not made back in the day) are even better. In an emergency, both would work w/o the clips but you had to poke out each cartridge with a rod of some type.

The Webley's larger chamber and bore suggest the Auto Rim (my post not the OPs) as a better choice and .455 bullets (available from several commercial bullet makers) teamed with .455 Webley dies and an Auto Rim shell holder should work.

Here is a link to the Midway website with the RCBS bullet mould:

http://www.midwayusa.com/Produ...und-nose-hollow-base

I also saw this on another Forum, the thread dates from 2007 so don't know if the contact referred to, in North America, still operates:

quote:

I to am an RCBS man but the 455 Webley dies are special order from them and cost $75 US when I got them. I understand Lee carries them all the time. I get my bullet 265 gr RNHP (RCBS mold) form OMA bullets at 604-299-6335 in Burnaby. Al at OMA got the RCBS mold and has been making bullets for me. Soft or hard lead ones work great in my MK 1 455 Webley.

I have been running lee 200 grain semi wad cutters with alox lube and 4.0 grains of 231 in a Webley made in 1916. Shoots point of aim out to about 20 yards. Great fun on clay pigeons. I sized to 452 and used air cooled wheel weights. No leading. Good luck.

I used 250gr cast bullets from the Lyman 454190 mould in shortened 45 colt cases in my MkVI Webley. No need to alter the cylinder just thin the case rims for a good snug fit. All quick and easy on a small lathe.

Loaded with 5-6 grains Unique, accurate and good killers on small game and a few not so small. Don't need hollow base slugs, my plain base cast in #2 alloy performed very well.

250gr Lyman cast loaded for .455 Webley on right


45 Colt cases shortened and rims thinned for Webley revolver