Ed Harris Cast 45 Cal Cast bullets: 455 Webley

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Last Post 20 February 2017

CBA Member

Larry Gibson posted this 17 February 2017

Ed Harris Cast 45 Cal Cast bullets: 455 Webley

The 455 Webley is an interesting cartridge and one that is very close to the 45 American Cowboy. The Webley case is just a few thousands inch shorter and wider in diameter though not by much. For this test and what Ed requested was to make the cases out of Starline 45 Schofield brass. The 45 American Cowboy is somewhat popular in the SASS CBA matches in SAA’s with 45 ACP cylinders. I just happened to have some once fired Starline 45 Schofield cases from a test I did for Powder River Cartridge Co, VihtaVuori and Laser Cast bullets. It was easy enough to trim 50 of them to 455 Webley length of .87” I initially cut of the majority with a small tube cutter then trimmed to final length with a case trimmer (RCBS).

The cases were then sized and deprimed with a Hornady 45 Colt FL die. The rim of the Schofield is a little larger in diameter than the 45 Colt so to get the now 455 Webley cases to chamber in the Contender 45 Colt barrel I had to reduce the rim diameter. I did that easily enough on my little Uni-Mat Lathe. The Hornady 45 Colt expander (M-die) was used to expand and flare the case mouths. Cases were primed and then charged with 3.5 gr of Bullseye as per Ed’s request. BTW; all powder charges were individually weighed on a Redding powder scale for all of these tests. The 3 different Accurate bullets were then seated to each bullets crimp groove and a medium crimp applied. Testing was done as mentioned in the first thread.

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CBA Member

Larry Gibson posted this 17 February 2017

455 Webley w/45-240H1

This is a very mild load with the velocity being only 639 fps out of the 10” Contender barrel. Obviously the velocity will be a bit less out of a shorter barreled revolver though perhaps not much less out of a service Webley revolver(?). Only 1 shot of the ten shot test string managed enough psi to measure.

That was obvious the highest psi of the test at 11,400 psi(M43). The MAP then would be less . Accuracy was excellent and about as good as my old eyes afford me anymore. The M35P captured the complete velocities for all 10 shots. The ES and SD for this load are quite good.

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CBA Member

Larry Gibson posted this 17 February 2017

455 Webley w/45-260H

This load is also very mild. The M43 recorded the psi of nine of the ten test shots. The MAP is 11,800 psi(M43) . The velocity again is fairly low at 648 fps. This is a real consistent load as shown by the small psi variation of only 900 psi for the nine shots. Accuracy again was very good. I called the low shot. While the range I was at is very nice it does face into the sun so this time of year there is considerable glare off the front sight. It probably accounted for the low three shots.

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CBA Member

Larry Gibson posted this 17 February 2017

455 Webley w/45-290H:

This heavier bullet picked up a bit on velocity and psi given the same 3.5 gr charge of Bullseye. The MAP was a very uniform 12,600 psi(M43) which is still very mild actually. All ten shots were measured by the M43. Again we see very low ES’s across the board. Accuracy also was excellent. I called the 2 high shots as I over compensated for the glare…….my bad…….

This load (3.5 gr Alliant Bullseye) proved to be an excellent one for the 455 Webley. Given the low psi MAPs all three bullets over this load should be excellent performers in 455 revolvers. The weight of the bullets plus the large meplat should give very good terminal performance on target.

LMG

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