British Bulldog

[fatelk]

I picked up a "British Bulldog" revolver for cheap recently, thought I'd see if anyone here had any experience with old guns like this.

It's a nondescript, inexpensive, Belgian made gun from the late 19th century. The only markings on it are "British Bulldog" on the top strap. It appears to be chambered in .44 Webley. Chamber throats measure around .427", but I've read that dimensions on these things were all over the place.

I might go ahead and cut down some .44 Special brass to length, and load some up with black powder. The only thing I have for bullets that I think would work would be some round balls for muzzleloaders. I thought I might powder coat a few .45 round balls, run them through a .430 sizer so they're slightly oblong, and load them up over compressed FFFg. They would be lighter than what the gun was made for, but they should shoot OK, as far as a 130 year old, cheap gun will shoot OK, I would think. Any thoughts?

[sharps4590]

You won't know until you try. I'd expect at least card table accuracy.

[Outpost75]

In most of these .44 Russian brass fits correctly.

[ddixie884]

Cool. The arms and ammo companies were well ahead of today. There was no replacement for these big bore snubbies until Doug McClanahan designed the Charter Arms Bulldog in the 70s. Charter is still making hay on this concept.......

[fatelk]

From what I've read online, it seems that most of these type of guns had chambers bored straight through, with no chamber throats. Not this one though. The chambers start to taper about .800" in. The Webley case is about .700", and the Russian about .960", so it sticks out about 1/4". I dug into my box of old rounds that I've been accumulating for the last 30+ years, and have examples of each.

I have an original "Peters 44 Webley" round, and a "REM UMC 44 WEB" blank. I suppose I could trim some .44 Special brass back to .800". That would probably give comparable case capacity to the original rounds, given that they were balloon-head cases. It looks like I'll have to thin the rims a little too, to make them work.

Looks like a fun project. Card-table accuracy is really all I expect. I read that the originals were a 200gr bullet at something like 400fps.

[fatelk]

Here it is, alongside an actual British revolver, a WWII Enfield I recently picked up.

282082

[ddixie884]

Kewl.........

[LAGS]

I have a Belgian " British Bulldog " that it will chamber a 38 S&W cartridge.
But ,
The bore of the barrel measures to only .340. dia.
I take the .38 S&W's and size the casing down with a crimper on my die.
I then size down cast Boolits to .342.
I shoot only BP in the pistol and it will shoot.

[Dan Cash]

You will need some kind of grease wad or a soft lubed grease groove bullet.

[Thumbcocker]

Frank Marshall wrote an article about getting an old revolver to shoot. Iirc he used black powder and round balls. It has been years since I read the article but I bet it is out there. Mr. Marshall had a gift for telling stories of his youth.

[smkummer]

Maybe it’s me from seeing cowboys shoot really low charge trail boss loads and watching the bullets in flight, but I would do that with a soft cast 200 grain or lighter .427 bullet. If you need a Lee sizer in the diameter, let me know.

[EMC45]

Here it is, alongside an actual British revolver, a WWII Enfield I recently picked up.

282082

That's a chunky little beast.

[Green Frog]

When he passed away over 30 years ago, my grand uncle, a retired machinist and amateur gunsmith left one of those to my father. Upon dry firing the hammer broke off in the middle. We got it welded back together and trued up so it “works” but I don’t feel any real need to shoot it, so it sits on a shelf in the safe. It would be interesting to play with though, if I were a little more confident in the metallurgy.

Froggie

[Jtarm]

I’ve watched those occasionally on Gunbroker, got interested in Brit revolvers after watching “Peaky Blinders” (RIP, Helen McCrory.)

I’ll be interested in seeing how things work out with your little Belgian beast.

[fatelk]

It's going to be a while before I get time to tinker with it. I have some .44 Special brass sitting here in front of me, but I'll need to trim it down and thin the rims.

As to bullets, it looks like I can just use some .440 plain lead balls (that I made for my .45 flintlock rifle), with a .44 felt/beeswax wad (that I use in my '58 Remington) under them.

Eventually I'd think about getting an appropriate mold and sizer, but I don't know if I'd ever shoot it enough to justify that. I do have some bullets here somewhere that I think would work great. Years ago I ended up with a box of .44-40 ammo, came with a miscellaneous lot, and I've never owned a 44-40. They're someone else's reloads and I've always intended to pull them down for components. If I can find them, I'll do that, and use the .427 200gr lead bullets for this project.

[Geezer in NH]

In my Belgium made British bulldog I use 44 Russian cases loaded with 13 grains of 3fg Goex and a 433 round ball. It hits a 7 yard silhouette target center mass every cylinder double or single action.

2 cylinders I have to clean it. Being so old that is all the pressure I want to try.

Bull dog aficionados need the book The British Bulldog by my friend George Layman. Great book on a great gun.

[fatelk]

I finally got around to tinkering with this. I cut down three .44 mag cases to .800", thinned the rims, loaded them with .454" round balls sized to .430", over 13gr FFFg and a hard-lubed felt wad.

It shot fine. With only 3 rounds I couldn't really test accuracy, but it showed promise. It's not something I expect to shoot very much, but eventually I'll make a couple dozen more, just to have a few to shoot on occasion.

[Geezer in NH]

Fun wasn't it? I shoot mine every year for a few shots.

[fatelk]

I loaded a few more rounds and took them to the range. I shot one over the chronograph - 135gr ball @550fps, then 5 at a target @7 yards. Three rounds dead center at point of aim, and the other two close enough. Not bad for what it is.
283832

The only problem I'm having is the firing pin really dents into the primer, with some primer metal pushed up to jam up the works.

[Butzbach]

I’ve watched those occasionally on Gunbroker, got interested in Brit revolvers after watching “Peaky Blinders” (RIP, Helen McCrory.)

I’ll be interested in seeing how things work out with your little Belgian beast.

There are some interesting little British revolvers in the Robert Downey Jr. “Sherlock Holmes” movie too.

[KCSO]

Be aware that the 44 Webley was an anemic cartridge with little more power than the 41 Remington. About 12 grains of Black pushing a 130 grain bullet. I have loaded for this gun and although fun to plink with I would not trust it to go through a leather jacket. The gun itself is not subject to any hotter loads. Mostly 44 speer plastic bullets were the ammo of choice.