.45 Schofield brass in a Webley

[jethunter]

I bought a batch of .45 Schofield starline brass for an RIC chambered in .476 Enfield. It fits with no modifications to the brass, either in length or the rim. The revolver fires .455 MKII or .45 Schofield interchangeably. Neat.

I'm also starting to use this brass fits in my MKI and MKII .455 revolvers. Needs to be trimmed about 0.15 inches, but the rim fits fine as is. None of these revolvers has had the cylinder shaved or modified. Anyone else notice ever notice this with starline brass? In my pistols it the rims fit just as well as the Hornady .455 MkII brass.

 

[dingus]

I bought a batch of .45 Schofield starline brass for an RIC chambered in .476 Enfield. It fits with no modifications to the brass, either in length or the rim. The revolver fires .455 MKII or .45 Schofield interchangeably. Neat.

I'm also starting to use this brass fits in my MKI and MKII .455 revolvers. Length has to trimmed about 0.3 inches, but the rim fits fine as is. None of these revolvers has had the cylinder shaved or modified. Anyone else notice ever notice this with starline brass? In my pistols it fits just as good as the Hornady .455 MkII brass.

It works in some guns without altering the rim thickness but in MKIs and MKIIs that arnt shaved and in 455 it normally needs to be thinned same as them old enfield revolvers MKI and MKII unless they have the recessed rim area in the cylinders.
Some enfield revolvers will chamber and cycle 45 colt brass unaltered to like some WGs.
Its hit and miss tho.
mostly i find the rims do need to be thined to 455 thickness tho in most 455 guns you just musta got lucky.
Its not a big deal to get the rims thined tho any machnie shop can do a couple hundred schofield cases for like $40 or less.

 

[jethunter]

The rims on this starline brass measure 0.47 to 0.48 inches on the stuff I have. The only reference I have says the rim on .45 colt is .060 inches. Appears that starline Schofield brass (or this batch at least) has a thinner rim than normal spec. Anyway, I pretty happy it works in all my .455 and .476 chambered pistols.

 

[braun]

Lucky! I've been spending the winter thinning the rims of .45 schofield cases so they'll fit my mkII. I've been using a drill press, a few pieces of hardwood dowel and a very small file! It takes a couple minutes to thin one case, so I do a few every night.

I wish they'd fit unaltered in my mkII, count your blessings!

 

[apu]

Gentlemen,

What is the advantage of using the Schofield brass? Is it just to minimize bullet jump from cylinder to barrel? Does it really help with the accuracy? Are you using it just with blackpowder or do also use smokeless in the larger cases? Just curious as I have never really appreciated much of an improvment using my MKI brass vs MKII brass other than the larger rounds certainly look more impressive.

 

[jethunter]

There's a couple reasons that the .45 S&W has an advantage.

The larger case capacity will produce higher velocity at the same pressure (or lower pressure at the same velocity) compared to a smaller capacity cases. For instance, Quickload program estimates that if both cartridges are loaded with Unique to 12,000 psi the .45 S&W will produce 75-100 fps higher velocity than the .455. Granted, the .45 will take a couple grains more powder to reach that pressure but it's a good tradeoff IMO.

The other advantage is what you already guessed. Longer cartridge puts the bullet closer to where it was designed to be in the cylinder. There may be some slight accuracy improvement, but I like the longer brass because it preserves the cylinder walls. Like a .22 rimfire chamber that has had a lot of shorts fired in it, the exposed chamber walls eventually suffer some deterioration. The MKI and MKII .455 service revolvers were built for the longer .455 MKI cartridge. MKII brass is commercially available, but the only way to get MKI brass is to cut down .45 colt or Schofield brass.

 

[jethunter]

Lucky! I've been spending the winter thinning the rims of .45 schofield cases so they'll fit my mkII. I've been using a drill press, a few pieces of hardwood dowel and a very small file! It takes a couple minutes to thin one case, so I do a few every night.

I wish they'd fit unaltered in my mkII, count your blessings!

I don't get lucky too often so i'm thankful when I do! Just curious, what is the rim thickness on your schofield cases? Is it Starline brass or something else?

 

[dingus]

I have two kindas a new Starline 45 Schofield brass.
1 type is brass and the other type is nickled cases, both measure .056 in thickness so you did get lucky with a batch with thiner rims.

 

[braun]

I don't get lucky too often so i'm thankful when I do! Just curious, what is the rim thickness on your schofield cases? Is it Starline brass or something else?

It's Starline brass, I just measured it and, as with Dingus, the rim thickness is .056". Must be different runs or something. Makes me want to buy some more and try my luck....

 

[braun]

I'm also starting to use this brass fits in my MKI and MKII .455 revolvers. Needs to be trimmed about 0.15 inches, but the rim fits fine as is.

So the cases you use for your MKIs and MkIIs are 0.95"? I chose .90" so I'd have 45ACP load data to compare with, and I wasn't sure if the long and pointy .455 bullets would result in a too-big OAL, I'm using 250gr SWCs but thought I might want the option one day...

Does a properly seated .455 Webley bullet in a .95 case fit in your MkII? If so, I'll increase my case length a bit.

 

[jethunter]

So the cases you use for your MKIs and MkIIs are 0.95"? I chose .90" so I'd have 45ACP load data to compare with, and I wasn't sure if the long and pointy .455 bullets would result in a too-big OAL, I'm using 250gr SWCs but thought I might want the option one day...

Does a properly seated .455 Webley bullet in a .95 case fit in your MkII? If so, I'll increase my case length a bit.

Trim an empty case a bit at at a time, and try chambering it. Keep going with this trial and error until you get the case to headspace on the the rim and not the neck, plus a tiny bit, and you're good to go. There is a variation in all these webley chamber and bore dimensions so what works in one is not a guarantee it will work in all. I'm using 250 gr RNFP, which is not as long as the 265 gr RNHB

 

[zywina]

For all of us who load or would like to load 455 Eley, my good friend is looking to bring in and distribute about 50 000 new manu. cases in the long version, will let you all know if all of this gets imported anytime soon!Dale Z

I just loaded up some old short 455eley cases and they had small pistol primers, first time I have seen this? anyway loaded up some 265gr hollow base lead conical type bullets and fired them in my friends S&W New Century, dead centre hold and on target from 15-25 metres! WHat a gas! cheers!