Brass Webley .455 Mk. I, anybody interested?

[Onty]

Boy, this is going quite well. My good friend JRL asked me to put his name on the list for 1500.

I would appreciate if somebody informs Webley shooters in Australia and New Zealand.

Thanks to all!

[Dead Dog Jack]

Onty, Put me down for 100 right now. May change that when the price comes out.

[GrantRCanada]

.... Many of these revolvers in the US have seen hard use and have excessive headspace. ..... In the case of tighter guns which actually have the proper head clearance it is a simple matter to face the case heads [emphasis added] to obtain the exact dimension required using the facing cutter of a Wilson case trimmer, holding the case in a .45 ACP case holder.

Your first paragraph almost sounds like you are proposing that this brass be manufactured with overly thick rims, to facilitate use in US revolvers which happen to have excessive head clearance, rendering it unusable (without trimming) in many revolvers with clearances in the acceptable range!

In any case I would recommend that new brass be manufactured at the maximum material conditions permitted under their original drawings. The drawing posted does not indicate tolerances[emphasis added], but based upon my observations of guns which I have measured the 0.033" should be the minimum and a tolerance of +0.0015"/-0.0000" should work well.

Which drawing are you referring to as not indicating tolerances? Both of the drawings in the first diagram Onty posted do in fact show the range of acceptable rim thicknesses - being an acceptable low of 0.031" and an acceptable high of 0.036". (Worded another way .... as I did in my first post .... the specified rim thickness was 0.0335" +/- 0.0025" .....)

In light of your first paragraph, I am not following your suggestion, which I take it translates to a suggested rim thickness range of 0.033" and 0.0345" - the latter thickness being below the original maximum acceptable thickness of 0.036". If, as your first paragraph suggests, you really meant to propose a minimum thickness of 0.033 and a tolerance of +0.015"/-0.000", that would of course yield cases with rims as thick as 0.048", which is too thick to work in the majority of Webley revolvers with proper head clearance! This is a detail from the British War Department Mark VI Webley armourer's drawings, specifying the acceptable head clearance (top and bottom) -



Note that the maximum acceptable head clearance was 0.048", with 0.044" being the low end of the acceptable range .....

[Springfield]

So proper Webley rim thickness is .031 to .036 but proper headspace is .044-.048? Looks like they left a lot of room to allow for dirt and other foreign objects.

[GrantRCanada]

So proper Webley rim thickness is .031 to .036 but proper headspace is .044-.048? Looks like they left a lot of room to allow for dirt and other foreign objects.

Yes, "within specs" clearance ranging from 0.008" to 0.017" ...... a generous tolerance for dirt, grit, high primers, out-of-spec cartridge rims and almost anything else that might chance along!

Such liberal tolerances are somewhat traditional in British military firearms ..... intentionally, of course, to allow for the very wide diversity of conditions encountered throughout the Empire. The .303 Lee-Enfield rifle was another well-known example, which easily digested just about everything the atrocious trench conditions of the Great War could throw at it for more than four years. (The same decidedly cannot be said of the infamously close-toleranced Canadian Ross rifle under the same conditions - "the finest ever sporting/target rifle design to fail miserably as a battle rifle" .... )

[Springfield]

So maybe it wouldn't hurt to thicken up the rim just a bit, most of us don't shoot under battle conditions, be a little more precise? Me, I'm glad for the info that 45 Cowboy special brass will fit as I already have 500 of them, brand new.

[ddixie884]

I'd be interested in a thousand, if the price point is $50.00 per 100 or less......

[Onty]

I will be away for several day, will update the list beginning of the next week.

Regards, Onty

[bearbud]

I would probably buy 250, depending on price.

[Outpost75]

I will pass and continue using .45 Cowboy Special, sorting the ones which "fit" in my Mk.4 and using the ones which don't in my New Service Colt.

[B.C.Jay]

I would be in for 250.

[reader]

I would be interested in 250. reader452 at gmail dot com

[GrantRCanada]

Any more progress on this proposal?

[jethunter]

I'd like to hear if there's any update as well. I have 1000 starline .45colt brass just arrived and i plan to make some .476 Enfield, 455 colt eley and .455 MKI brass out of it. Trimming is easy but thinning the rims is more time consuming. If there was some chance this buy was coming up in the next couple months, I'd hold off modifying the 45 colt brass. But something tells me this GB might be a looooong time coming.

[Uncle Jim]

I might be interested if the price is right for 100+

[Onty]

My apology for late reply, I was away for a while, and now waiting for our friendly dealer, he is trying to contact "top brass" for more details. However, he warned me that all manufacturers are still very busy.

Will post update as soon as it becomes available.

[Onty]

I'd like to hear if there's any update as well. I have 1000 starline .45colt brass just arrived and i plan to make some .476 Enfield, 455 colt eley and .455 MKI brass out of it. Trimming is easy but thinning the rims is more time consuming. If there was some chance this buy was coming up in the next couple months, I'd hold off modifying the 45 colt brass. But something tells me this GB might be a looooong time coming.

After trimming, check case wall thickness. When I was going the same way, I had to ream cases inside. Do not have my reloading gear and components here to check who made that 45 Colt brass.

[jethunter]

I made a few before from winchester brass and it was fine. I have some Starline brass i just got and haven't tried yet. I hope to thin the rims using a die and an arbor press instead of trimming them with a cutting tool. Should speed up the process I hope.

[Dave_n]

I too would be interested in 500 or so depending upon the price. Dave_n (Co*nwy-at-ver*izon-dot-n*et). Make the usual substitutions and removal of hyphens and asterisks

[Onty]

Sad news folks. I contacted dealer and he told me that there is no chance that production of Webley Mk I brass could happen in foreseeable future. Too bad, I really wanted this to materialize, but demand for existing products is so great that anything new is on hold.

Just in case, I saved complete list of potential buyers. If something changes later on, I will restart this thread.

Sorry, I tried, but odds are against us...