Any of you Swagers Webley Enthusiasts? (MK III "Manstopper")

[Bigslug]

If you're not familiar with the hollow-pointed, hollow-based 218 grain MK III bullet, here's a link to a thread with blueprints we've got going over on NOE's site: http://noebulletmolds.com/smf/index.php/topic,116.0.html

Obviously, this is not something you can pour - it's going to have to be squished.

Has anyone the interest to replicate this, or done it already? Since this slug had it's day long before what we consider "modern" ballistic science, I am curious about what the terminal performance would be. Based on my experiences with shotgun slugs, I'm guessing that not only would the front expand, but the rear skirt would spread forward as well. . . But at 700-ish FPS, hard tellin'. Penetration? Also, hard tellin'.

I have limited access to FBI gelatin if the swaging history buffs want to play.

[Outpost75]

I've done the cup point with solid base in a 250-grain weight for .45 Colt, and cast from 1:30 tin/leadm it performs well with standard charges 6.5 grains of Bullseye for 830 fps from my Colt New Service M1909 .45 DA.

[Outpost75]

I've done the cup point with solid base in a 250-grain weight for .45 Colt, and cast from 1:30 tin/lead and it performs well with standard charges 6.5 grains of Bullseye for 830 fps from my Colt New Service M1909 .45 DA.

[aaronraad]

Looks very Minie Ball styled, so at a guess you'd have to say the rear was made to expand in a similar fashion.

The Mk.III looks like someone put the base punch into both ends given the nose dimensions are missing.
..
Did you consider spin casting the design to get those 'skinny lube grooves'?

If swaging you'll need a grooving tool or similar - http://www.corbins.com/lead.htm

From what I've read the Minie Ball needs to be made from something similar in hardness to pure lead to get the skit to expand fully?

[Bigslug]

Aaronraad,

There's a radius spec for the hollow nose.

I've cast the MKII round nose bullet in a couple different molds. Yeah, the skinny lube grooves are a bit of a pain, but as it's a hollow base, it needs a lot of heat anyway.

At the velocities in question (under 800 fps, possibly under 700) softer alloys are certainly to be preferred. .45 Webleys - MK-VI's anyway - are a little weird in that the bores are commonly a couple thou bigger than the throats (.455 and .452). I've been running roughly 10BHN range scrap with no problems.

My biggest item of curiosity is how this century-old slug stacks up against what we've learned in the intervening decades about handgun effectiveness. Yeah, it's got meplat in spades, but what are the expansion characteristics (both front and back of the slug) at those low speeds? If the bullet totally pancakes, will penetration be sufficient?