Shooting the Webley Mk VI

[Patrick Chadwick]

Shooting the Webley Mk VI

I tried out the Webley at 25 meters on Saturday, using 265 gns RN-HB Silver Moly bullets from WM. The very first shot was a 10X. I hate that - you just know it can only go downhill from there - and it did. OK, all shots in the black, and the blackening on the outside of the cases indicates that my "chicken" load can be increased quite a bit.

Then I tried the 255 gn FN-HB bullets. I had expected that the cylindrical shape would help accuracy. Wrong. Shots were all over the paper, with no semblance of a group. I can only hope that increasing the quantity of powder will help.

The good news: as this was a "running-in" session, I cleaned the bore after every shot. It started off looking good, but at the end of the session it looked perfect! And the mechanism is a joy.

Back to the reloading bench. And if anyone out there has some experience of using these heavy bullets, I would be delighted to hear about it.

Patrick

Information

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[jmoore]

WM?

255gn FN-HB bullets by what mfg? What size O.D.?

.455s have a distinctive report. Odd, almost "hollow sounding" boom.

I have had good success with the old Winchester .45 Colt swaged lead HB bullets, but I don't know if they're still available. I guess it's time to find out, as I only have a few hundred left...

Have you tried hitting anything shooting DA (trigger cocking)? I can't do it! Safest place to be is directly in front of the muzzle!

Once the grips are servicable on the Enfield .455 Mk. VI, it'll get tested- It's DA pull seems better than most Webleys.

Oh, BTW, even full house loads don't seal the case well, it's a fairly low pressure round. Clean burning fast powders seem to help, but things never seem to clog up anyway, so...

BTW2, Most of my .455 shooting to date has been w/ Smith and Wessons, the Webleys have been mostly .45 AR w/ oversized bullets.

[Patrick Chadwick]

WM? 255gn FN-HB bullets by what mfg? What size O.D.?

Sorry JM, information deficit!
WM Bullets (WM = Willie Minter) is a manufacturer of moly-coated lead bullets, mainly for Western shooting.

Here is the link:

http://www.wm-bullets.de/

Both bullets have 0.452" OD. The 265 gn RN-HB is a fair approximation to the classic heavy .455 bullet. The 255 FN-HB has a flat nose with a rounded edge. Not quit a wadcutter. Both types have a deeply hollowed base intended to allow good expansion into the cylinder chamber and the forcing cone in a revolver. The back ends are identical. The only differences are in the nose, and hence the weight.

Since wadcutters have the reputation of being accurate in other handguns, I had not expected that they would perform so poorly in the Webley (and in the Colt New Service, which I took along for comparison). In both revolvers, the RN-HB flies fairly well to point of aim with the load I used. Better than the .452 / 220 gn hard lead bullets for the ACP that I had previously tried in the Colt. I do not posess a lead-hardness tester, but my thumbnail suggest that the WM bullets are softer.

"Have you tried hitting anything shooting DA (trigger cocking)?"

Yes, I have tried. Without success. Curiously, althought the trigger pull on the Colt is lighter than on the Webley, the DA release on the Webley is much lighter than on the Colt. With the Colt and DA, I feel as if I was trying to lift a car battery with the bent finger. There is going to have to be some spring adjustment on both of them.

"Oh, BTW, even full house loads don't seal the case well, it's a fairly low pressure round."

Thanks for that tip, so I shall stop worrying and just follow the classic method of upping the load carefully until either the grouping goes to pot or signs of overpressure occur, and then back off accordingly.

"Clean burning fast powders seem to help, but things never seem to clog up anyway"

Confirmed. With both revolvers, one felt wad pushed through the bores after shooting, to remove the crumbs, leaves the bores shining bright. Which I certainly cannot say for my BP revolver!

Patrick

[jonnyc]

Not sure if this will be completely relevant, as my MkVI is shaved for .45 ACP. I use 200 grain .452 SWC bullets loaded into .45 ACP and Auto Rim cases over Bullseye. This load gives me excellent accuracy in my S&W 1917 and very good accuracy in my MkVI, both DA and SA.

[Patrick Chadwick]

I use 200 grain .452 SWC bullets loaded into .45 ACP and Auto Rim cases over Bullseye.

I'm listening. How much Bullseye? A starting figure will do.

[jmoore]

I've never had much accuracy using bullets under 0.454" in .455s (or old .45 Colt chambered revolvers). The old Winchester bullets mentioned above are about 0.456". Still a little small, but they were the largest O.D. bullets I could buy easily and in quantity.

Check your cylinder throat diameters. Run whatever bullet fits the throats the best. Unless the barrel bore is seriously different from the throat dimension this ought to produce the best accuracy.

(S&W cylinder throats ran 0.456-0.460" in .455 and .45 ACP models until the 1990's!- I think that's why it was not uncommon for target shooters to shorten the .45 ACP cylinders from the front- reduced the distance the 0.451-0.452" bullets were unsupported before engaging the rifling. Barrels were set back to suit.)

The drama now is that even most .45 Colt revolvers have 0.452" cylinder throats, so the older "big" bullets are getting harder to buy.