Your experiences with factory cowboy action ammo in antiques?
- Thread starter swampdog
- Start date
I think the situation was more of a "poorly repaired components" mess.....
...but here's the story that you might be thinking of....
...and yes 
, Grant's a CGN'er !.....
I think the situation was more of a "poorly repaired components" mess.....
Funny that story is not the Compleat story on that gun and its the only picture thats been around for years of a MKVI blowin up.
The Story i read on what really happened was the load that blew that gun up was some hot factory ammo or hot reload, i dont remember the exact round that caused that but it was some hotter than normal round.
It got in the gun by mistake.
it was only one round that was not supose to be used in the gun.
Standard factory 45 Acp is shot in MKVI webleys all the time with no problems.
Tho its good advise to reload it down some thats not whats happening in the real world.
That picture of that one blowin up gun has been around for along time.
With all the webleys shaved to 45 Acp sold up here in Canada i have not heard of one been blowin up by anyone yet.
I have a MKI** keeper, thats a MKI** with a MKV Barrel and cylinder installed by the webley factory in 1914 i shoot factory 45 acp in it all the time.
No signs of any latch screw bending even no presure problems either, easy extraction to.
The gun is as tight as new with 100s of rounds both reloads and factory thru it! so its not true at all that all factory ammo will blow up guns.
So dont let the picture of that webley blowin up scare you to much.
Its still best advise to reload down abit tho.
just remember one hot load can blow up any gun if it gets in the chamber by mistake.
I think people are carefull what there shooting in there guns up here.
Also the design of the gun or model and its strengths must be taken into account.
Some guns are just alot stronger than others. Does it have a more modern cylinder/parts ect ect
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I think most people are pretty embarassed when they blow up a gun. To date I've come across 3 guns that have blown up from excessive loads, all antiques, all shooting modern loads, two of them shooting modern full pressure loads and the third shooting and undetermined load. In two of the situations the gun was not the strongest design to begin with, and the third was a very strong design, but with an even more powerful cartridge. I question whether one was also not indexing correctly and shot into the barrel wall, but that's impossible to determine now.
Overall it taught me to not push these old guns. They might be able to take it, they might not. There's little way to tell and even the best built guns might have had poor metal quality or fatigue over their lifetimes. There are some I'm more willing to take a risk with, but I still don't like pushing them, and I recognize that they could still just fail.
Halger280HVMag
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A point to ponder....
Many blackpowder revolvers cylinders, frames, barrels, were made of Iron, not Steel.
And some of these, were intended to fire only low-pressure blackpowder loads.
About the only smokeless load, that I would consider in my Colt 1878 DA chambered in .45 Colt.
Would be a very light Trail-Boss load under a light projectile.
I tend to be very gentle with this old gun. It has been in my family for more than 100 years.
I don't want anything bad happening to it on MY watch Eh!
Many blackpowder revolvers cylinders, frames, barrels, were made of Iron, not Steel.
And some of these, were intended to fire only low-pressure blackpowder loads.
About the only smokeless load, that I would consider in my Colt 1878 DA chambered in .45 Colt.
Would be a very light Trail-Boss load under a light projectile.
I tend to be very gentle with this old gun. It has been in my family for more than 100 years.
I don't want anything bad happening to it on MY watch Eh!
I've shot factory .45 acp 230gr fmj, and jhp, also 185gr jhp, 200gr jhp out of 3 of my antique webleys in.45acp,... 2 are mk1*and 1 mk2.
Never had a problem, and they shoot well, knock on wood now.
I reload smokeless and lead bullets to save the life of the bores, but 1 webley mk1* i don't really even care about i've shot the hell outta it since i bought it, its a damn near smooth bore, good for 20 yrds now tho. lol.
It has loosened up, i have noticed the locking latch and the cylinder play, minute, but its happening.
Never had a problem, and they shoot well, knock on wood now.
I reload smokeless and lead bullets to save the life of the bores, but 1 webley mk1* i don't really even care about i've shot the hell outta it since i bought it, its a damn near smooth bore, good for 20 yrds now tho. lol.
It has loosened up, i have noticed the locking latch and the cylinder play, minute, but its happening.
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Good you posted this ^ as most are afraid to on here.
I knew guys were shooting 45 Acp in mKIs and MKIIs but now we know its being done and i do know other guys doing it but they would never post that info.
Just a tip from stuff i have read on webleys for minute looseness!
when the guns start to get abit loose check the latch screw they tend to bend abit with factory 45 acp or 455 domion loads and easy test is turn the screw head 180 Degrees and if that makes the gun shut tighter then the screw is bending,,, easy fix.... get a latch screw from a MKVI or just straiten your orignal screw or get a better modern latch screw made.
Them MKI latch screws are not as good a steel as the MKVI screws.
Tho its being done (factory 45 acp and factory 455 domion) i agree for the guns mild reloads are better for less strain on the parts.
You can be assured that most of the shaved webleys have fired factory ammo out of them at some point, from the proofing houses in england to civilian sales abroad in n.america.
Obviously the full factory loads are relative proof loads for the webley mk1* and mk2's. They were proofed.
Any gun can blow up with an error in reloading. At that point when a gun does,... what was it??, assembly of the gun, a part of the gun, or the ammo?
Obviously the full factory loads are relative proof loads for the webley mk1* and mk2's. They were proofed.
Any gun can blow up with an error in reloading. At that point when a gun does,... what was it??, assembly of the gun, a part of the gun, or the ammo?
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Looking at that blown out Webley I'm really surprised that no one has pointed out the obvious.
This gun is a wreck, you can clearly observe deep pitting that runs nearly through the cylinder and rust has built up all over the whole thing (look at that trigger guard). I can't see a knowledgeable gun owner/user being foolish enough to discharge that piece in the first place!
This gun is a wreck, you can clearly observe deep pitting that runs nearly through the cylinder and rust has built up all over the whole thing (look at that trigger guard). I can't see a knowledgeable gun owner/user being foolish enough to discharge that piece in the first place!
