hi , I am in the market to my a .455 revolver, would prefer a colt , but a clean Webley or S&W will do.
whats a good bullet to use in these old war horses , is the a old mold I should look for casting.
also brass too , who make any ??

please post,
many thanks, rj

No experience with .455 bullets, sorry.

Starline makes new brass. Top quality. If you order from the factory shipping is free.

455 Webley MKII - Large Pistol - Brass Cases

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I'm with her

And Fiocchi, on ocasion, still produces them. You can save the brass then.

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Expect the unexpected

I never had an actual 455. But I had an Enfield that had been milled for 45 ACP. The gun requires Lead bullets of .455/456 diameter and the long conical shape to get any accuracy. I loaded these in Auto Rim cases. They man I got those bullets from went on to heaven last century. No idea where to get proper bullets today.

Ivan

You will stil get excellent accuracy with .454 250 grs cast bullets for .45Colt, just do not resize them. The long conical shape is irrelevant.

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Expect the unexpected

I have had good luck with Fiocchi also. If I recall an outfit called Taipan, which I think is in Australia, makes bullets the correct size and shape but I would not be surprised if someone here in the good old USA does so. I have an old Webley and have had good luck with lead .45 revolver bullets.

It did make a difference in mine! the long conicals have less bearing surface but high weight. Smokeless (WW231) loads were marginal, but Black Powder was fantastic. (never tried any of the substitute black powders)
I sold the gun very long ago, and cant remember the Mark number. It was a square butt, I have a friend with an uncut round butt (bird's head) that the barrel is 3 or 3.5". Just too bulky to be a belly gun!

Ivan

The one with the square but you had should be the MK VI. The one with bird's head grip and short barrel is the Mark III.

Here is my 1915 MK VI in the company of a RAF Enfield from 1934.




About the accuracy issues. It may be related to bullet velocity or powder burn rate. The ones I tried were not my reloads and were not used in my revolver. So I don't know how fast(or slow) those bullets were going. But it was X ring accurate at 25 meters.

I think the powder used was Vectan Ba9 but don't know how much of it.

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Expect the unexpected

I've been shooting a S&W .455 for 15 years. It shipped to England in 1915 and has a British officers name engraved on it. I bought 400 Hornady MK II cases at the time (no longer available) and have only had 1 case neck split. I'd go with the Starline brass if I were buying brass today because I've had great results with their .357, .44 Special, and .45 Colt brass.

I've mostly used Remington 250 grain swaged flat point bullets (intermittently available from Midway). These are .455 diameter and have a shallow hollow base. I've also used Hornady 255 grain flat point swaged bullets. They are .454 diameter. Although both these bullets are marketed for the .45 Colt, they work fine in the Webley cartridge. If you want the traditional long round nose 265 grain bullet, I believe Matt's and Western Bullets make them, but I've never tried them.

The 2017 December-January issue of “Handloader Magazine” had a five or six page article on reloading the .455 Webley Mk II. All of the loads were worked up using the commonly available Bullseye powder. In the article the author states that bores range from .452 to .458. I’ve almost exhausted my old supply of Canadian Dominion brass and have tried the Fiocchi brass but find it thinner and more prone to short case life. When Starline announced they had made a run of .455 brass I got some but haven’t used it yet.

Luckily, this Mk IV Webley’s bore slugs at .452 dia. So the 225 gr. bullets cast in this old Lachmiller mould have worked well for me. Before I found this mould I'd use commercial .454 bullets (I believe they were Made by Remington) that were intended for .45 Colt.

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Reed's Ammunition & Research, LLC has some .455 Eley 250g. Hollow point wad cutter.

reminds me of the cone heads on the old Saturday Night Live.

cute bullets.


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hi guys , has anyone tried the lyman 454424 Keith swc bullet
in the .455 revolvers ??

I once owned a Webley & Scott MKIV in .455. I was able to load my cast 454424s in .45 Colt cases over 5.5 grains of Unique. The bullets were deep seated. These loads were chambered in the Webley and fired fine. I later picked up a box of .455 CIL factory loads.

I don't recall the chambers being reamed. Of course, that was about 1975 and had only been reloading for 2 years.

A year or so later, I bought a S&W 2nd Model .455 that had been rechambered to .45 Colt. Again, I had to deep seat the 454424s, this time over 7.5 grains of Unique. IIRC, it would hold 2 1/2"-3" at 25 yards.

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John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

That’s the ones I load for my 1915 Colt New Service.

I also have the S&W 2nd Model .455 that had been rechambered to .45 Colt. I shoot mild loads, both the .455 Webley and the 45 Colt, in it without issue. .455 under 700fps and the 45 Colt under 900fps.
I adore this gun !

Be very careful if you also make up hot Ruger-only 45 Colt loads. MARK THEM ! Mine would probably blow that old HE cylinder up. I use Red powder coating on my bullets.


If you consider a reworked S&W HE, be sure and check out how they did the conversion; there are several different ways to do it. Some are excellent and some are butcher jobs.

None of them should shoot the ACP or Auto-Rims because of the higher pressure. Many people do try it and many have lost thier vintage piece from it.


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