MoscowMike
Member
I have been trying to get a Webley Mk VI with a cylinder shaved for .45 ACP back into shootable condition. It had a chipped hand and wouldn't reliably rotate into battery, so the gunsmith welded and reshaped the tip.
I know you need to keep to low pressure, so I built some medium loads, 4.9 gr Unique in .45 AR cases behind a 265 gr LRNHB bullet. With those hollow-base bullet I got pretty good accuracy, 2.5" at 15 yd single-action off the bench. Two of the chambers were tough to extract. The cases came about half-way out easily, but stuck and I had to work to remove them. The other four were no problem
A machinist friend of mine checked the chambers. The four which didn't have problems were about .484 from the mouth of the case on towards the forcing cone. The two that had extraction problems were also .484 at the mouth, but opened up to .487 and then back down towards the forcing cone, as if the cylinder ballooned a bit. The cylinder walls look really smooth, no machining marks. I assume that if it had been fed a steady diet of hi-pressure .45 ACP loads it might have stretched things a bit. I could try to polish the mouths on those two chambers, but I'm thinking taking them out to .487 would be asking for trouble, and if the cylinder has stretched from over pressure loads it might not be safe even with lower pressure handloads.
Someone suggested drilling out and sleeving the existing cylinder, but I don't see enough existing thickness in the cylinder walls to do that. Anyone aware of that having been done?
I suspect my best option is to find a replacement cylinder, shaved or not.
Numrich, Apex and Northridge don't show any cylinders in stock. Any other suggestions? Aren't old guns fun?
I know you need to keep to low pressure, so I built some medium loads, 4.9 gr Unique in .45 AR cases behind a 265 gr LRNHB bullet. With those hollow-base bullet I got pretty good accuracy, 2.5" at 15 yd single-action off the bench. Two of the chambers were tough to extract. The cases came about half-way out easily, but stuck and I had to work to remove them. The other four were no problem
A machinist friend of mine checked the chambers. The four which didn't have problems were about .484 from the mouth of the case on towards the forcing cone. The two that had extraction problems were also .484 at the mouth, but opened up to .487 and then back down towards the forcing cone, as if the cylinder ballooned a bit. The cylinder walls look really smooth, no machining marks. I assume that if it had been fed a steady diet of hi-pressure .45 ACP loads it might have stretched things a bit. I could try to polish the mouths on those two chambers, but I'm thinking taking them out to .487 would be asking for trouble, and if the cylinder has stretched from over pressure loads it might not be safe even with lower pressure handloads.
Someone suggested drilling out and sleeving the existing cylinder, but I don't see enough existing thickness in the cylinder walls to do that. Anyone aware of that having been done?
I suspect my best option is to find a replacement cylinder, shaved or not.
Numrich, Apex and Northridge don't show any cylinders in stock. Any other suggestions? Aren't old guns fun?
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