.455 Load data

[connexion123]

Hey, I'm loading .455 Webley MKII cases. I have a cast boolit around 240 grains. I have Unique powder, but I was really hoping to use the 4 lbs of SR 7625 I have kicking around.

Any suggestions or experience? The pistol is a Webley MK1 in great condition, but it is still an old girl. Pressures must be kept down.

Thx.

[klcarroll]

Yes indeed! ........"Pressures must be kept down" !!!

Those old Mark I and Mark II Webleys were born to shoot Black Powder. The fact that most of them survived "re-proofing" for WWI smokeless military ball was a testimony to their solid design!

For the older .455s, my "go to" load has always been 3.8 grains of Unique under a "soft cast", 250 grain boolit. (....I never worked up any loads for SR7625: ....Sorry!)

Measure your chamber throats and size your boolits for that dimension. The original ammo featured a hollow base boolit, which would expand to fill the rifling even if the bore was a bit larger than the chamber throats. If you are shooting a solid base boolit, you will not get that sort of upset, and your group sizes will probably reflect that shortcoming.

With a proper hollow base boolit, the old .455s can be tack-drivers; .....But those molds are hard to find and expensive. (....The last time I looked, the RCBS single cavity offering was well over $100!)

......If you find that your barrel "slugs" significantly larger than your chamber throats, and you are fixed on using solid base boolits; .....You can always carefully ream the throats to match the barrel.


Kent

[connexion123]

Right on thx KLC. I may just have to stick to Unique, I sure would like to use that SR though.

Anyone know of a conversion guide on what the equivalent powder would be 1gr-1gr?

Edit: I think Bernie at OW can do one up, but it is expensive.

[PB234]

I just got hold of an old Herters reloading manual from the 1950s where they run 250 grain bullets with loads from 4.5 grains of Unique up to 6.0 grains which I would not want to try. My last load was 4.3 Unique and will reduce it down next time. A nice quote from this manual is, "If you do not already have a Webley revolver chambered for this caliber do not buy one except to hang on a wall for decoration."

Makes me wish I had a time machine to go back and buy a bunch.

There is a group buy going on for the .455 Webley boolit. If you are going to shoot this revolver you might want to get in on it.

Really a lot of fun pistol. You are lucky to have it. Probably was not a lot of fun to stand in front of a 250 grain long hollow base bullet coming in at 600 feet per second either.

[klcarroll]

..........A nice quote from this manual is, "If you do not already have a Webley revolver chambered for this caliber do not buy one except to hang on a wall for decoration.".............


Yeah! .....That quote brings back memories!

I first became interested in Webleys back in the late '60s.

Back then, shop owners and counter people used to laugh at me for "collecting doorstops"! (They never did explain how a "doorstop" could amass a service record that was every bit as long and distinguished as the Colt 1911. :bigsmyl2:)

The 3.8 grains of Unique that I recommended was specifically for the old black powder veterans: .....I routinely use 5.0 grains of Unique in the Mark V and Mark VI revolvers. (Those guys were specifically designed with smokeless in mind; featuring better metallurgy and slightly larger cylinder diameters.)

.....But you are correct: .....There is one direction from which NOBODY laughs at a Webley!! (I still use one for my "nightstand gun"!)

Kent

[HARRYMPOPE]

my mark VI has .450 throats.

[connexion123]

I'll probably have to stick to the Unique. I just measured up what I have and it is in fact a 265 (ish, give or take .5 grains) pure lead boolit. An RCBS mould casts it.

I did manage to find some powder burn charts:

http://www.reloadbench.com/burn.html

http://www.hodgdon.com/PDF/Burn%20Rates_121211.pdf

http://www.imrpowder.com/burn-rate.html

http://www.larrywillis.com/PowderChart.html

http://home.hiwaay.net/~stargate/powder/powder.htm

Seems SR 7625 is close to unique. Sometimes listed a bit less, sometimes a bit more.

Problem would be the pressures in different applications.

Would a pistol brass change pressures vs. rifle or shotgun, methinks. But which way?

These are things that keep me up at night:mrgreen: