My first antique revolver
- Thread starter Rifle Master
- Start date
I would never use full loads of smokeless in an antique.
I'm a big fan of the .44 Russian. When I started out shopping for a legal bush carry sidearm I was looking at the .455 Webley's. I quickly discovered really good ones were out of my price range. I picked up my first S&W double action on spec and fell in love with them, both the caliber and the action. Over time, I refined exactly what I wanted (blued, long barrel, excellent mechanics, double action option) and I had a few pass through my hands before I got the one pictured. From what I've been able to discover so far, the .44 Russian is the most powerful of the .44 family that you can legally carry in a double action revolver. The .45 Schofield is more powerful, but all the revolvers I've seen are single action only and good luck trying to find components for reloading, particularly brass and dies.
Lawrence, I have made a good reloading kit from a Lee Precision .45 Colt hand-loading kit which cost me all of $65 from Amazon (or Western Metals). It takes a bit of fiddling to get the right depth for the crimp, but works really well once you have figured it out. 45 Schofield brass and bullets are available from Rusty Woods.
When I made my first foray into the realm of antiques I ended up going with Smith & Wesson. On the S&W forum ALL of the old pros were adamant that soft cast was a must and jacketed or hard cast was a major no-no. At that time Jet Bullets was still in operation and I bought 200 gr. and 240 gr. HP bullets. Given the collective centuries of experience on that site, I'd tend to follow their advice.
Nice gun.
Low velocity/pressure don’t need very hard lead. Straight wheel weights works well. I use it in my 455 webley, 38 S/W and 38 Special wadcutter loads. Saves on my Linotype which isn’t cheap.
Low velocity/pressure don’t need very hard lead. Straight wheel weights works well. I use it in my 455 webley, 38 S/W and 38 Special wadcutter loads. Saves on my Linotype which isn’t cheap.
I found WW too hard in my 41 LC...wouldn't bump the HB up into the bore
I had that problem with one of my Sniders and 575 minies. Tried a 50/50 mix of WW and roof flashing which worked to allow bump up. I have since switched to a 595 bullet with that alloy. A lot of reloading the old stuff is trial and error. Hopefully you have someone around that has done it and saves some effort. Threads like this are helpful to a lot of people
