Reloading Webley Mark 1 ammo (.455 colt?)

flipp121

flipp121

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Hello everyone,
well i have done lots of searching on threads and came up with some confusing results. I need to reload for an old Webley mark 1 revolver.
I have found out the following information.

-The .455 webley mark 1 ammo is dimensionally the same as .455 colt
- .455 webley mark 2 ammo is what is referred to as .455 webley ammo (on average)
-Mark 1 ammo is longer then mark 2 ammo to acommodate black powder.

My questions are:
1) Can I use mark 2 cases in a mark 1 revolver? I read that there might be
a safety issue due to length.
2) If I do have to reload mark 1 cases, can I use .455 colt cases, with .455 colt dies? Because the Lee .455 dies are for the shorter mark 2.

Thanks
Mark
 
These two cartridges you have listed are interchangable. Even some of the old .450 Webley's I have has will chamber the Mk 1 cartridge. Remember your MK 1 Revolver was built for Black Powder so load light!!!
When seating your bullet do not screw the seater die in as for the MK 2 cartridge, a little less would be good.
Scott
 
Beauty thanks guys. Now my only problem is the ejector star wont go back down when the gun is opened all the way. Is that normal for a mark 1?
 
I am in Calgary, no I do not know a good smith. I read that those cut for .45acp acted the same way. So i'm wondering now if the person i bought from made a mistake about it being in .455 still. I will have to measure i guess.

edit:
Well it isn't cut for 45acp, it just has a weak spring that helps the star snap back down. I guess I will need a webley smith. Do I have a beef with the person i bought it from, them stating that it was mechanically 'excellent'?
 
Last edited:
Okay so I have done some research and gotten some conflicting results. It appears all these rounds are interchangeable, but I would like to use the original round if at all possible. Buffalo arms has brass for all three:

1) .455 colt .890" long
2) .455 webley mk2 .755" long
3) .476/455 Enfield .870" long (the proper dimension for mk1 ammo)

So it seems to me that .455 colt will be too long for my revovler. And it also poses the problem of load data. The lee data is for the mk2 case, the longer case would completely change the pressures. Also the case length gauge lee sells is for the mk2 length. So the question is, what does a guy do if he wants to load mk1 ammo? So far all I can think of is buying the .476/455 cases, use the lee mk2 carbide dies (if they will size correctly for the longer case), and top it up with fffg 777 powder. Then theres the fact that 777 is 15% hotter then fffg black. So does anyone know a good complete recipe for loading proper mk1 ammo?
 
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