Webley Mk IV revolvers

[Fred762]

I love old nostalgic firearms and want to buy a Webley Mk IV, as a shooter if possible. What ammo is considered safe to shoot in these old war horses? Can they take modern .45 AutoRim rounds or even .45 ACP..or should I stick to pricey, "new mfr" .455 Webley ammo. What should one use for reloading the cases? Thanks.

[1gewehr]

It depends. Many of the Webleys in the US were cut to use .45acp with clips or the .45 Autorim. If yours was cut, it will not work with .455 Webley as the rounds will be too deep into the cylinder to fire reliably.
Many folks recommend downloading .45acp for these revolvers. Considering that many are nearly 100 years old and parts are getting very scarce, that's not bad advice. IIRC, the .455 Webley had a max pressure of ~13,000psi. The .45acp has an operating pressure of about 19,000psi.
Now, I've fired a bunch of factory .45acp from Webleys without ill effects. But, I don't do that any more as I don't want to take any chances with revolvers which are getting to be very valuable and scarce.

If your Webley was not cut for the .45acp, congratulations! It's worth a lot more. The kinda, sorta good news is that .455 cases are really easy to reload. The Fiocchi ammo is very high quality and cases last almost forever due to the low pressures. More good news is that due to low pressures and low velocity, leading of the bore is very rare. So you can use soft lead bullets without concern.

[Fred762]

I have some once-fired 45auto-rim cases for my Webley. I would like some reloading data for this low pressure round if you have it.

[1gewehr]

Handloads.com is an excellent resource for load development.
Personally, I use 4.2gr of Unique with an old 230gr SWC soft-lead cast bullet. I think that Lee makes that mold.

[Fred762]

[Fred762]

Ok..made up some rounds w 4.2 gr Unique and 220 gr SWCL 45acp projectiles..very tame w little recoil and pretty accurate from the old war horse...but i wonder if it would be OK or NOT to put a bit of cotton in the cases atop the powder to keep that small load of powder back against the primer? What say ye?????