Thread: British Proofs

In 1894 Jeffery's were selling martini auctioned 500 3" that were designated
.500/570/120

This Webley is from the exact same period.
It has a very long freebore and obvious lead to the rifling.
So I wonder if this rifle being a late BP gun was a heavy bullet rifle rather than an express rifle.

When were jacketed bullets starting to be used in big bore rifles I wonder ?

Originally Posted by akaroa1

In 1894 Jeffery's were selling martini auctioned 500 3" that were designated
.500/570/120

This Webley is from the exact same period.
It has a very long freebore and obvious lead to the rifling.
So I wonder if this rifle being a late BP gun was a heavy bullet rifle rather than an express rifle.

When were jacketed bullets starting to be used in big bore rifles I wonder ?

Martini Henry's have a long lead that acts a bit like a forcing cone,I can't remember the throat diameter off the top of my head but its quite different from the muzzle diameter.

Good question regarding the jacketed bullets,I guess when smokeless became more prevalent?

Originally Posted by norsk

Martini Henry's have a long lead that acts a bit like a forcing cone,I can't remember the throat diameter off the top of my head but its quite different from the muzzle diameter.

Good question regarding the jacketed bullets,I guess when smokeless became more prevalent?

@norsk The long lead suckered me into thinking it was a .500 3 1/4"
I did diameter tests to make sure the bullets would comfortably release from the 3 1/4" cases I made from 470 NE brass.
When I fired the first three rounds with an 80 grain light load there was a very obvious perfect line around every case mouth at the 3" length.
So it was actually a .500 3" chamber and long lead.

This has made life a lot easier for me because both my 500 BPEs are 3" now and both are relatively modern ( for BPE rifles ), strong actions and have conventional rifling. 1:60" on the 1885 ( so a light bullet BPE ) and 1:40" on the Webley ( so maybe a heavy bullet barrel ) .
They can both safely share ammo between rifles and between loads.
The Nitro for Black load I generally use in the 1885 ( because its milder to shoot and easier to clean in that rifle ) will be fine in the Webley and the 100 grain BP load I'm developing for the Webley will be safe but dirty in the 1885.

I'm keen to keep the Webley BP though because being a break action takedown rifle it is absolutely childs play to clean out the BP fouling.
@Micky Duck will be visiting this weekend and he is younger, strong enough and I expect keen ( silly ? ) enough to do some load testing from the bench with me.