What Ammunition For 1916 Mk II .455 Eley

[Muley Gil]

I just checked Midway's site. They have .455 carbide dies for $30.59. If I still had a .455 or was even close to buying one, I'd be on that deal like a duck on a June bug!!!

 

[Onty]

From my experience from reloading this caliber, I have to say that the 45 bullets often used in 455 reloads do not perform as well as original design hollow base cone shaped lead bullets. I have compared the RCBS cast bullets to both standard 45 LRN and HBWC and found them to give superior accuracy. Budget Shooters Supply sells the real deal, plus you can purchase a 455 RCBS bullet mold for your reloading.

I know that there were a few round nosed bullets for this caliber throughout the years, but the 265g HB tapered round nose lead bullets used almost exclusively in the 455 S&Ws and Colts of the early Twentieth Century. I now cast my own and use Alox for lube, simple and effective. Picture of a loaded round compared to Fiocchi factory ammo in the next to last image. Same style bullet was manufactured well into WWII in Canada. Interesting to note they were jacketed.

Hera are two interesting posts:

If you are planning on loading with 45 Colt or 45 ACP lead bullets, you will find them loose in the bore. My 455 S&Ws measure .456" at the throat of the cylinder and .455" groove to groove. Bullets measure .455 according to Barnes Cartridges of the World book.

Groove depths of most revolvers vary from 0.002 to 0.005 inch. So the land to land dimension should be no less than .450" in a .455. Shooting a .452" bullet will barely make contact with the grooves and may not spin properly out of the barrel. Accuracy will almost be guaranteed to suffer with bullets around the same dimension as the lands of a rifled barrel. The 1917 shot 45 ACP which would use a .452" bullet.

From the American Rifleman back when Gen. Julian Hatcher was still on the staff of "Dope Bag":

[Pre war] Smith barrels for 45 Colt chamberings (this does not pertain to post war and current Smith barrels):
He states, "While Smith & Wesson do not ordinarily catalog guns chambered for the .45 Colt cartridge, they have on occasion made them and they list the dimensions, which are exactly the same as they use for their .455 cartridge, as follows: groove diameter--.457 to .458 inch; bore diameter--.447 to .448 inch; 5 lands and grooves, right hand twist; grooves--.144 inch wide, lands--.1368 inch."

When you look at those numbers, there is potential problem for reloader. If solid base bullet .454 dia or less, is used in 455 S&W, it will be undersized, not good for accuracy.

With 455 Webley revolvers, things are opposite, their cylinders are usually .447-.449" dia. They had done it purposely because 455 Webley MkI was initially designed to use black powder. Because that cartridge has a small capacity, pressure was low, so Brits made bullet larger than cylinder mouth in order to bump up the pressure. Since we know that if bullet is smaller than barrel, accuracy goes out the window, 455 Webley designers made hollow base bullet. Such bullet will expand to a right dimension in either, larger cylinder bore, or in barrel, after being squeezed in smaller cylinder bore.

WARNING: NEWER SHOOT 45ACP AMMO IN 455 WEBLEY! Standard pressure for 455 Webley is 5 1/2 tons (2200x5 1/2 = 12,100 psi) and max was 6 tons (13,200 psi). Standard pressure for 45ACP 21 000 PSI (max.). So just starting there, we are talking about PROOF loads for 455 Webley. Now, if we combine solid, jacketed .451 dia bullet, with .447-.449" Webley cylinder bore, pressure must be even higher.

More here CAUTION RE .455 REVOLVERS ALTERED TO SHOOT .45 ACP and .45 Auto Rim - British Militaria Forums.

 

[Toyman]

 

[Jack Flash]

Great picture Toyman! You don't happen to have one of the tops of those boxes by chance, do you?

Interesting that Winchester made those. I bet they sold a lot or even most of them to the Canadian market.

 

[Toyman]

This is brass roll mark tool for marking case lots of Winchester 455 Colt ammo.

 

[delcrossv]

Buffalo arms has(had) .455 Colt/Mk 1 cases. I got 250 a while back and I imagine they'll be back in stock at some point.

455 Colt Cases∗ .890" - Buffalo Arms

 

[Oyeboteb]

Lee dies in .455 are .45Colt carbide sizer .45acp expander and .455 seating die. they are cheap and come with a shell holder..............

When I called "Lee" to ask about these they said the Dies are all "452", so, I passed.

.452 Dies do not work well if wishing to load .455-ish diameter Bullets...even if one avoids re-sizing...the Bullet gets stuck and deformed up in the Seating die.

I ended up using some old IDEAL "310" Dies meant for .45-70, and they worked fine.

 

[ddixie884]

To each his own, but my Lee .455 dies work perfectly, for me.