Shooting an Oldie - but Goodie

Ganderite

Ganderite

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Location
Farm south of North Bay
I like to shoot my guns and try to find a load that works well in each one.

I recently was able to get my Webely#5 de-registered. It is now an antique.

It has a 3" barrel and I am sure it was a popular pocket pistol in its day. caliber is 360 Webely. Best described as a 38 S&W bullet (0.360") in a slightly shortened 38 Spl case.

This particular revolver's cylinder is bored straight through, so the 38 Spl case fits as is. No need to size it, since the chamber is slightly fatter than a 38 Spl chamber.

I used 3.5gr of IPP (similar in speed to Unique) and found it a bit too mild, but at 10 feet it shot perfectly. next time out I will try 4.0gr.

I think my wife will like this one. Grips a re small and it is very mild recoiling.

webley5Target.jpg
 
Nice little toy that obviously shoots well.

If you're load is hitting nicely at your POA for the fixed sights then your load is calibrated for this gun and likely simulates the chamber pressure and muzzle velocity of the original rounds. If you try to push the bullet faster with a harder charge you'll find that it starts to shoot lower than the POA. And that should be a sign that you're in danger of exceeding the chamber pressure the gun is designed for. Obviously if you only go a little over then nothing serious will occur. But if you keep shooting slightly hot loads I suspect the internals such as the hand and cylinder stop will tend to beat themselves loose sooner than what would otherwise be normal.

Your gun got me curious enough to search the web a little on the ammo. I managed to find references to the original ammo being more well known as the .360 #5 Rook round. And this info came with it;

Obsolete. Introduced around 1875-1880. 82 gr to 145 gr bullets at 1050 FPS to 1075 FPS. Available until WWII. Small game and target load.
Click to expand...

The lighter side of such bullets would certainly be a soft recoil. On the other hand a 145'ish gn bullet at anthing around 900 or up would certainly require the sort of pressure you would get from a regular .38Spl load. Likely some additional searching about this old cartridge would be wise.

In any event the gun itself will tell you when it's happy by printing the hits at the POA. Slower loads and/or heavier bullets tend to print high while fast and/or light loads tend to print low.
 
BC Rider Thank you for constructive comments.

That velocity you quote is for rifles chambered in that caliber. I have not chonied my load yet, but am guessing it to be around 600fps with the 160gn bullet.

I was taking a 6 oclck hold on the target, so it is printing about 2" high at 10 feet.

I think it is too mild because of the way way it sounded. It reminded me of an air gun, where the gun went off and then i could actually hear the bullet hit the backstop. My guess of 600 might even be high.

This is an old gun. If I want a powerful handgun I have better candidates. I am just looking for something as accurate as possible, which is my standard for almost all of my guns. I am very pleased with the accuracy so far. "Surprised" is probably a better word. That is why I posted it.

If 4 gr is equally accurate and prints a bit lower, I will stop load development right there.

I see it is overcast right now. i think I will take the Chrony out.

Edit: Wow. 446fps and 491 fps. I was right when i said air gun velocity. Did not shoot it for groups.
 
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