Saving A 455 Webley Cylinder From The Ravages Of Corrosive Ammo

[DougGuy]

Forum member Outpost75 sent this cylinder in wanting it cleaned up and reclaimed from a slow death from pitting caused by corrosive ammo. Started out with the Sunnen hone by just touching down in each throat to shine some "witness" marks and to look and see where the pitting was at the worst and measure the diameter of the throats. The Webleys even though their nomenclature says "455 Webley" the throats generally run much smaller, more like one of our modern Rugers as opposed to the wartime Colts and S&Ws of the era which generally ran .456" ~ .459"

First peek into the throats:

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb374/DougGuy/Cylinder%20Services/455%20Webley%20Cylinder/DSC05150-800_zpsntrmq4cq.jpg (http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/DougGuy/media/Cylinder%20Services/455%20Webley%20Cylinder/DSC05150-800_zpsntrmq4cq.jpg.html)

Once the initial measurements were taken, all the throats were honed to .4525"

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb374/DougGuy/Cylinder%20Services/455%20Webley%20Cylinder/DSC05154-800_zpsbbbk5l3q.jpg (http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/DougGuy/media/Cylinder%20Services/455%20Webley%20Cylinder/DSC05154-800_zpsbbbk5l3q.jpg.html)

The pitting was deep enough that more honing was necessary, so I honed all 6 throats .001" at a time, stopping at each .001" increment to take photos and evaluate the progress of the work. These are now .4535"

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb374/DougGuy/Cylinder%20Services/455%20Webley%20Cylinder/4535%20Throats/DSC05159.4535-800x600_zps0uuqf8cl.jpg (http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/DougGuy/media/Cylinder%20Services/455%20Webley%20Cylinder/4535%20Throats/DSC05159.4535-800x600_zps0uuqf8cl.jpg.html)

.4545" and I can still see an avenue where powder gas can escape along the sides of the boolit causing leading and poor groups on some of the throats. Others have cleaned up very nicely by this point but it's not yet time to stop:

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb374/DougGuy/Cylinder%20Services/455%20Webley%20Cylinder/4545%20Throats/DSC05163.4545-800x600_zpswutlr3sn.jpg (http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/DougGuy/media/Cylinder%20Services/455%20Webley%20Cylinder/4545%20Throats/DSC05163.4545-800x600_zpswutlr3sn.jpg.html)

Finally at a diameter of .4555" one can see the pitting is much less and localized to the center of the throats, the area just entering the throat from the case mouth is now shined to the point it will make a decent seal when the boolit enters the throat.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb374/DougGuy/Cylinder%20Services/455%20Webley%20Cylinder/4555%20Throats/DSC05178.4555-800x600_zpsfm5ybqpy.jpg (http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/DougGuy/media/Cylinder%20Services/455%20Webley%20Cylinder/4555%20Throats/DSC05178.4555-800x600_zpsfm5ybqpy.jpg.html)

I was looking for a good seal at the back of the throats, the pitting that remains will soon fill in with powder and lube residue and some lead, but the area where the arrow is pointing is the place where gas can escape and flame cut the sides of the boolit. I kept honing until I reached this point in all the throats, if you don't leave the gas an avenue of escape, then it can't escape and this is the point where one should consider stopping since it is doubtful that all of the pitting can be removed without making the throats grossly oversized.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb374/DougGuy/Cylinder%20Services/455%20Webley%20Cylinder/4555%20Throats/DSC05176.4555-800x600_zpsvab0qzlb.jpg (http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/DougGuy/media/Cylinder%20Services/455%20Webley%20Cylinder/4555%20Throats/DSC05176.4555-800x600_zpsvab0qzlb.jpg.html)

And a final shot of the throats after honing and after cleaning up the whole chamber with an 800grit ball hone. I think this old girl has much more life added to it now, boolits can be sized to .454" and after some age hardening should be a really good fit in the throats. We DID take into account the fact that we wanted to leave enough room for the age hardened boolits since they generally grow in diameter after they have sat for a while.

Have not gotten a range report, but I feel it will be a tremendous improvement over it's first outing with the current owner.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb374/DougGuy/Cylinder%20Services/455%20Webley%20Cylinder/4555%20Throats/DSC05195.4555-800grit-800x600backlight_zpsx0zs3fyg.jpg (http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/DougGuy/media/Cylinder%20Services/455%20Webley%20Cylinder/4555%20Throats/DSC05195.4555-800grit-800x600backlight_zpsx0zs3fyg.jpg.html)

[leebuilder]

That's neat. Good work.

[robg]

Shame it was let get in that state,good job though

[Outpost75]

Shame it was let get in that state,good job though

The revolver actually looks great on the outside and the chamber pitting wasn't obvious until the cylinder was THOROUGHLY cleaned using a stainless .410 shotgun brush and MIL-C-372B to remove the years of impacted crud and fouling. The pits were filled with lead and fouling from lots of shooting, and the gun shot well for its type, but the tight chamber throats were leading heavily, which is why I sent it to Doug.

This condition is fairly common in WW2 and earlier era revolvers which saw combat service, especially if a British officer were inclined to leave the gun cleaning chore to his "batman" whilst he was having a tipple of rum or whisky with the brass.

I repost here pictures of my "Sewer Pipe .45" before and after John Taylor rebarreled and recylindered it.

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