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Thread: British Bulldog

  1. #1
    Boolit Master

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    British Bulldog

    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?

  2. #2
    Boolit Master
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    You won't know until you try. I'd expect at least card table accuracy.
    "In general, the art of government is to take as much money as possible from one class of citizens and give it to another class of citizens" Voltaire'

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  3. #3
    Boolit Grand Master Outpost75's Avatar
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    In most of these .44 Russian brass fits correctly.
    The ENEMY is listening.
    HE wants to know what YOU know.
    Keep it to yourself.

  4. #4
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    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.......
    JMHO-YMMV
    dd884
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  5. #5
    Boolit Master

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    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.

  6. #6
    Boolit Master

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

    Click image for larger version. 

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  7. #7
    Boolit Master



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    Kewl.........
    JMHO-YMMV
    dd884
    gary@2texastrucks.com
    Gary D. Peek

  8. #8
    Boolit Master
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    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.

  9. #9
    Boolit Master Dan Cash's Avatar
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    You will need some kind of grease wad or a soft lubed grease groove bullet.
    To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, the trouble with many shooting experts is not that they're ignorant; its just that they know so much that isn't so.

  10. #10
    Boolit Master Thumbcocker's Avatar
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    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.
    Paper targets aren't your friends. They won't lie for you and they don't care if your feelings get hurt.

  11. #11
    Boolit Master smkummer's Avatar
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    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.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by fatelk View Post
    Here it is, alongside an actual British revolver, a WWII Enfield I recently picked up.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    That's a chunky little beast.
    You can miss fast & you can miss a lot, but only hits count.

  13. #13
    Boolit Grand Master
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    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
    "It aint easy being green!"

  14. #14
    Boolit Master
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    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.

  15. #15
    Boolit Master

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    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.

  16. #16
    Boolit Master


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    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.

  17. #17
    Boolit Master

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    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.

  18. #18
    Boolit Master


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

  19. #19
    Boolit Master

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    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.
    Click image for larger version. 

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    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.

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jtarm View Post
    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.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check