NP on webley description?
- Thread starter budman
- Start date
Not really.
Most of the Webley MKI, MKII, MKIII .455 service revolvers that we see here are ex-military. They weren't required to have any proofmarks, until they were sold as surplus in the 1950s. Then, by British law they had to be proofed at either London or Birmingham proofhouses before they could be sold to non-military owners. This explains why some MKI 455 Webley Service revolvers have the NP stamp and some do not. It has nothing to do with the date of manufacture or whether they were designed for smokeless or BP.
You are guessing wrong. ALL Webely MKI revolvers were made from approximately 1888 to 1894, for a black powder cartridge (455 Webley). The 455 webley cartridge was later adapted to smokeless powder. Some of these revolvers were proof tested many years later when they were sold out of the military and that is when they may have recived the nitro proof markings. But regardless - A Webley MKI service revolver is still a Webley MKI service revolver and the fact that it has nitro proof marks does not make it stronger than one that does not have proofmarks. They were all built in the same era from the same materials and methods.
Some of these revolvers were modified from the original 455 Webley chambering to accept 45acp on moonclips by cutting down the rear of the cylinder backside of the cylinder. This was done because many of these revolvers were sold as surplus in the USA about 60 years ago, and the 455 cartridge was not commonly available there at that time so they altered them to shoot ammo that was available. The correct way to use the revolvers that have been altered to 45acp is to download the 45acp to 455 webley pressure levels.
The Webley MKI/II/III 455 service revolvers were NOT made for 45acp cartridge or 45acp pressure levels, whether black powder or smokeless. The 455 webley cartridge has a maximum pressure of about 13000 psi, but 45acp cartridge design pressure is about 18000 psi.
It really makes no difference whether the propellant is smokeless or black powder, as long as the pressure level is kept within the proper range. The British army used smokeless powder in these revolvers for half a century with no catastrophic results because the smokeless cartridges they used were loaded to approx the same pressure level as the earlier black powder loads were.
In my experience many of the 45acp chambered webley pistols may tend to be more prone to mechanical failure simply because they may have been abused by shooting a bunch of full power 45acp, which they were not designed for. The webley MKI/II/III that have shot a lot of full power 45acp tend to have problems with loose frame hinges and stretched or damaged latches.
Last edited:
- Location
- Alberta, let freedom reign!
I have one you can have. PM me your address, I'm sure it's still on my shelf.
Did the Brit miltary not do the NP for their purposes? I'd have to think they'd want confirmation that a service gun was up to the rigours of using the new ammunition?
I can't remember the dates but unless I am mistaken, for a while I believe that the nitro proofs were actually done with black powder. Possibly because of difficulties establishing what pressure to test to and what proof load to use (what type of smokeless and how much)
cheers mooncoon.
No what they did is they took the guns and cut the cylinder down and then said good enough the problem is 45 acp pressure is the test pressure of the 455 firearms meaning your shooting a proof load each time. Now if you load the ammo down shoot lead and not copper cased ammo you lower the chance of it blowing up in your face. It's also fun to load 45 ACP black powder rounds too the puff of smoke the differen't noise it's fun...
It was cut back and you paid more for the firearm because they had all the surplus 45 acp ammo after WW2.
