Casting the .38 Webley?

[fal_762x51]

Well my first voyage of casting came out well with the .45 ACP, now I would like to work on the Webley. It is chambered in .38 S&W and I would like to know which Lee mold and powder combination will work.

-Pat

[missionary5155]

As with all firearms the first question that needs asked is... what are my cylinder / chamber diameters and the barrel diameter. I would be surprised if your Webley is the same as my old S&W top break.

[Bret4207]

My 38 S+W is a S+W Perfected model. I haven't done a real sluggung, but the chamber mouths will swallow a .362 ( my fattest 38 mould) boolit with ease. You'll need to do some slugging.

[andrew375]

Here you go. This is from the armourers chart. Don't forget it was loaded with and sighted for 200gr. bullets

[9.3X62AL]

I have both a Webley-Enfield and a S&W M&P in 38 S&W, and both have .363" throats with grooves around .3615"-.362". So far--so good.

Unfortunately, die makers (RCBS, in this case) don't get it. The seater die in my Cowboy set won't swallow a boolit over .361", and the expander spuds are .355" and .357"--and too long to set a crimp on the short cases. Useless, in other words. After one attempt to swap these for tools that worked, the identical parts were sent. They don't get it.

My fix was to use 9mm Makarov dies to size/expand/seat bullets, and after seating the NEI #169A boolit the 38 S&W seater die's crimp shoulder can apply crimp without an issue.

[Bret4207]

Al reminded me- Lee makes a 9mm Makarov mould, supposed to throw a .366 (+/- I forget) that is big enough to size to work. It's light though, only 90 or 100 gr.