I became the custodian of a Webley Mark VI .455 revolver made during WW1 and refurbished for WW2 service. Its former owner's father was an RCAF pilot and the revolver saw very little use and is in near-pristine condition. He gave me a bunch of ammunition, some 1942-era Kynoch service loads, and handloads in Hornady Mk.2 cases with 265-grain Mark 1 style bullets and 4.5 grains of Unique, and others with Ideal #452374 bullets in Fiocchi cases with 5 grains of Unique. Barrel slugs .440 bore and .450 groove, with narrow lands and 7-groove rifling. Cylinder throats are all different, the smallest being .449 and the largest .453 and the others in between covering all of the possibilities. Cylinder gap is a generous 0.018"!! My plan is to shoot the gun as-is to get baseline data, and to generate empty brass for experiments. Then I'll send the cylinder off to DougGuy in North Carolina for him to uniform all of the chamber throats to .453” on his Sunnen hone, then to shoot it again. There are no plans for heavy loads in this, but only to work up charges which approximate the velocity of service ammo with Accurate 45-245D, which I use in the .45 Auto Rim. Obligatory Eye Candy is attached. If you have one of these neat old guns, what do you shoot in yours?
73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia