Favorite webley WG bullet

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Dent2

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Getting ready to order some supplies to reload for my WG and was wondering what your guys preference for bullets was. This is a 455/476 marked gun that I shoot 45 scholfield out of. My throats measure .460 and the bore appears to be around 454. I have been questioning my calipers lately(well used Mitutoyo) so take these with a grain of salt. Standard 454 sized 45 colt projectiles seem to shoot better than I can but with so many great antique options avalible for projectiles I would like a little input from other shooters.
 
I can’t speak to a WG specifically but I find my No.5 likes hollow based bullets over solid base. Been using 0.454 HB from Jetbullets you can use either the wad cutter or the more traditional webley round nose billets. My gun is also marked 476, I believe jet bullets now offers a bullet for the 476 cartridge but he didn’t when I last ordered. I will also say that revolver seems to like the BP with a HB bullet combo but that may just be because my smokeless loads are less then .455 mkII velocities in a schofield case.
 
Should add I will be using a full case of fffg. Are you using the wadcutter hollow bas from jet bullets? It was one I was curious about. I'm not sure if the "enfield" bullet will chamber when using a scholfield case, given its...um larger "nose?" Diameter (going off orginal drawing specs here) a no.5 is on my want list but I settled on the WG because that's what I could find. I had a late model RIC with the longer cylinder but much prefer the grip on the WG, I tended to choke up too much on the RIC
 
I’m currently using the wad cutter. My last order from jet I got both and I couldn’t tell the difference from the round nose. I’m not exactly a handgun target shooter though nor do I expect a lot from these old guns. I’ve heard there are No.5s that were chambered for 45 colt so I assume the 476 bullet in a schofield case would be fine for me. I assumed the enfield bullet is just a webley bullet that’s 0.458 instead of 0.455in but I’ve never tried them. You could cut your schofield cases to webley mkI case length to make longer bullets work but that’s a lot of extra work, I did it when experiment with load and case volume.
 
I am not sure about jet hunters enfield bullet but the orginal drawings it is almost more like a heeled bullet than a traditional one in that only the mid section is sized to .458. When I saw the wadcutters listed on jets website I assumed they where a traditional purely cylindrical wadcutter, I will contact them for drawings/description. Out of curiosity have you ever measured your bore and or cylinder throats of your no.5? I suspect the people shooting 45 scholfield out of webleys are a very limited number so I really appreciate any info you can provide. I did purchase a brownells barrel throating tool as I dont think I will see good accuracy given my throat to bore size without some qork. That said I am a horrible pistol shot, but of all the pistols I have shot this is the only one I can plink with and hit reasonable close to where I aim.
 
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Jetbullets wad cutter is basically just 45 cal cylinder with a hollow base, when seating in a case I seat to just cover the lube grooves and it extends about an 1/8in. It is not a semi wad cutter design. I have never measured the throat, I did slug the bore it was around 0.455in (it was done using calipers awhile ago and I say around as I don’t trust calipers to 0.001in). I notice you mention you use a full case of BP too, considering the WGs were made for 455 and 476, have you considered trying lower velocities to match what the WG originally shot I’ve chronographed both a schofield and a webley mkI equivalent loaded with BP and the schofield is almost 200fps faster if my memory serves, might shoot different.
 
I do not have acess to a chrono, just observation from plinking factory 455 compared to reload or factory loaded 45 scholfield is that it shoots alot flatter. 455 drops o
Alot at 30 yards where 45 scholfied seems to shoot more or less point of aim at farther out
 
Actually going from memory the factory 455 shoots a little high at 25 yards compared to 45 scholfield. What I'm looking for is not so much a "regulated" load but an accurate one.
 
Factory 455 is rather sad in my experience in terms of consistency , the fiocchi stuff I tried was less consistent then my current hand loads. I like to load on the safe side of things so my loads are similar velocity which is below what I found for information on the original webley loads but the max spread is about half what I found with fiocchi. Also just so you know for the wad cutter it extends into the case a lot more then the webley RN so you will have less case capacity if that factors in for you or you can leave the lube grooves exposed. My no.5 shoot high with just about anything to around 30-50yards. I’ve heard stories the early mark series were sighted in for 50yards but I don’t have a lot of hard data.
 
This has been very helpful knowledge as most people are hesitant to discuss antique reloads for obvious reasons, and it is unusual to find someone shooting the same caliber in a similar gu the is uncommon. May I ask if your barrel as any throat to it? My research has led me to believe the british thought at the time was that tight throats in the cylinder led to better velocity. I believe knowing what we know now that one can set an antique up to survive a little better by using modern doctrine i.e. properly sized cylinder throats to improve accucyd also decrease cylinder pressure as well as a proper barrel forcing cone to go along with this
 
Sorry I’ve never attempted to measure the throat. Most of the info I’ve heard with tight throats is on the mark series but that may just be the fact that the mark series are the most documented webley revolver. Also one thing I’ve learned about reloading is one side will shout only do this (only size to this bore dimension or chamber dimension) and the other half will shout never do that. Try a few different loads and pick your favourite for your gun. I don’t think I’m a good enough pistol shot to notice the accuracy difference that a couple thousandths makes especially in soft lead. The best advice I can give if you want the best bullet is to try a range and don’t expect your first one to be the best one. I also strongly recommend a good chronograph for these old guns, less important for BP but it can tell you about inconsistencies in your loads. I have probably chronolographed over 100 455 and schofield loads as I work up extremely conservatively and do multiple shots of one load to check for consistency.
 
The WG and RIC revolvers marked 455/476 that I've measured have less throat restriction and larger bore and chamber dimensions than the MKI and MKII 455 service revolvers. My WG takes unaltered Schofield brass and I've had good results using the oversized version of traditional HB webley bullet sized .457 and .458. The 255gr SWC cast soft and sized .455" works nicely in the WG if it's loaded "stout" by webley standards.

In MKI and MKII service revolvers using the 455 Webley MKII case, my best results came with the soft cast plain base SWC sized .454" and medium to heavy loadings of Unique. Very light loads with this bullet were noticeably less accurate. The RN HB traditional webley bullet sized .454" works well too, and shot better than the SWC in the lighter loadings.
 
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jethunter said:
The WG and RIC revolvers marked 455/476 that I've measured have less throat restriction and larger bore and chamber dimensions than the MKI and MKII 455 service revolvers. My WG takes unaltered Schofield brass and I've had good results using the oversized version of traditional HB webley bullet sized .457 and .458. The 255gr SWC cast soft and sized .455" works nicely in the WG if it's loaded "stout" by webley standards.

In MKI and MKII service revolvers using the 455 Webley MKII case, my best results came with the soft cast plain base SWC sized .454" and medium to heavy loadings of Unique. Very light loads with this bullet were noticeably less accurate. The RN HB traditional webley bullet sized .454" works well too, and shot better than the SWC in the lighter loadings.
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Thanks jethunter, I think given that my barrel throat is set up for SWCs I will start with them over a full scholfield case of fffg. If accuracy isn't what I feel it should be then I will give your hollow base webley bullet a try
 
Dent2 said:
Thanks jethunter, I think given that my barrel throat is set up for SWCs I will start with them over a full scholfield case of fffg. If accuracy isn't what I feel it should be then I will give your hollow base webley bullet a try
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If you order, make sure you tell me they are for black powder.
 
I'm not alone discovering the SWC shoots as good or better than the HB. Below is an email I got this morning from a customer using the soft cast, plain base 255gr SWC.

Hi,
I will take another 200 please. My last order is below. EMT sent.
P.S. these bullets have increased the accuracy of my Webley’s considerably. Now I am adjusting power charge to dial them in. Thank you!
 
jethunter said:
I'm not alone discovering the SWC shoots as good or better than the HB. Below is an email I got this morning from a customer using the soft cast, plain base 255gr SWC.

Hi,
I will take another 200 please. My last order is below. EMT sent.
P.S. these bullets have increased the accuracy of my Webley’s considerably. Now I am adjusting power charge to dial them in. Thank you!
Click to expand...

This is the email I sent to Jethunter 2 weeks ago.

I have had the best results with the plain base 255gr SWC and Blue Dot powder.
My RIC is most accurate with 5.5gr Blue Dot and with the Mark I over 6.0gr of Blue Dot.

I had terrible accuracy with the original FIOCCHI AMMO 455 WEBLEY MK-II 262gr LEAD-RN.

I hope this helps.

Thanks for the bullets Jethunter!
 
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