455 brass, and substitutions for it

infidel29

infidel29

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Hello esteemed gentlemen, I require your reloading and antique expertise yet again. I am looking into acquiring quantities of brass for my 455 webley. I dont like the hardness of the fiocchi ball, so I have Jethunter working on some lead for me in the near future. However, I am finding it difficult to source right now in stock. Mystic precision no longer carries 455 webley brass, rustywood is out, and ellwood only has a bit in stock. If I cannot find 455 webley in decent quality, can I use 45 colt and 45 schofield brass in place of 455 webley? I know they're approximately the same width as 455, but require some trimming in length. Do i need to thin the rims as well? I tried a search on this and found some info, but require a definite answer from those in the know. Thanks for your help.
 
green said:
Easiest way to thin rims is to swage to proper thickness.
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I am a bit puzzled how you would do that, particularly without damaging the primer pocket. When I have made webley brass from 45 colt shells, I put a solid piece of iron in the shell so that I didn't crush the shell and then turned material from the front of the rim. Tedious but do able

cheers mooncoon
 
I cut colt brass to size with a hack saw and peace of steel that i drilled as a jig a little longer than I needed. Then I used a lee case trimmer for the 45Gap to get the right length for MK2 brass. Then I swaged the brass rim in a press in a peace of steel that I drilled out for five at a time.

I made up 300 of them last week. It goes Quick.

Happyness is unlimited .455 MK2 Brass.
 
The other issue I have is how in the world do you thin rims on brass without damaging the crimp and risking a potential kaboom?
 
yeah, i was hoping that was a typo. No way brass should be that expensive for a pistol caliber, especially when 45 colt and 45 schofield are 1/3 the price, although when they're coming all the way from Australia I can see why the price is so high.
 
Beware when thinning rims of this potential danger! I have thinned many rims from .45 colt for the webley and for the most part no issues. But what can happen and did happen is this. The .455 webley MK2 brass rims are .524 dia and the .45 colt rims are .513 so when loading using the thinned rims it is possible to have a round slip between the extractor and cylinder then once you close up the revolver you will break the extractor as I once did and good luck finding a replacement extractor. You could also do the same if you did not thin a rim enough. Try Mystic for MK2 new brass.
 
Well I have paid for bertram brass before and will again if we can't get the cheaper stuff from Buffalo arms because of needing an export permit then I will pay more to get it locally .
 
muzzle flash said:
Beware when thinning rims of this potential danger! I have thinned many rims from .45 colt for the webley and for the most part no issues. But what can happen and did happen is this. The .455 webley MK2 brass rims are .524 dia and the .45 colt rims are .513 so when loading using the thinned rims it is possible to have a round slip between the extractor and cylinder then once you close up the revolver you will break the extractor as I once did and good luck finding a replacement extractor. You could also do the same if you did not thin a rim enough. Try Mystic for MK2 new brass.
Click to expand...

If you swedge the rims they expand radially about .008".
 
unfortunately mystic pmed me back and said he didnt carry mk 2 webley brass anymore. which is why I'm trying to find a new source.
 
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