1873 French revolver

D

Darc

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Hey,

I have in my possession one of these antique 1873 MAS revolvers. I was told that it had been re-chambered for 455 webley MKII. I Have shot maybe 50 rounds of the modern Fiocchi 455 ammo and while it seems to work ok the cases get stuck in the chamber. They dont just fall out. I noticed that there is a slight bulging of the spent casing near the rimmed side causing the cases to stick. Is it possible that maybe this revolver was chambered for 45ACP? Would this cause the problem with the 455 cases?
 
The Fiocchis are actually a pretty hot load for antiques. The 1873 with its belted cylinder sure can take it, and I don't think it was chambered or reamed for 45 acp...a acp is outside from neck to base .476, while the 455 is only at the neck .476 and at its base .480...therefore it would not fit into an acp chamber ( or at least not without force )
Also, the french 11.4 mm barrel is closer to .451/ .452, so squeezing a .454/.455 from the fiocchi trough it would cause higher pressure than the factory cartridge is to begin with.
If you hand load, try resizing your spend fiocchis, then reload with a .452 230gr bullet with 5.7 grs unique, or 5.0 grs with a 250 gr bullet...that should solve your problem.

CG
 
If bubba has attacked the cylinder with heaven only knows what reamer, you can't be sure about what's been done. Do some careful measurement, see what you actually have.
 
Thanks for the responses. Im going to get some calipers and start measuring a few things. Another observation I had made while shooting the 455 fiocchi was that some rounds had more recoil than others..this was from the same box. It was like they werent loaded the same..Anyway I only bought the fiocchi for the brass.
 
Soooo... What I'm getting from here is that Unaltered 1873 MAS aka Chamelot-Delvigne chambers 455Webley MkII?
 
Last edited:
V1 said:
Soooo... What I'm getting from here is that Unaltered 1873 MAS aka Chamelot-Delvigne chambers 455Webley MkII?
Click to expand...

No it will not.
The .455 Webley Mk II round has a larger rim and case diameter. As well, the case is longer than the 11mm French Ordnance.
 
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