View Single Post
Old October 19, 2011, 03:23 PM   #13
darkgael
Senior Member
 
Join Date: February 9, 2006
Location: Homes in Brooklyn, NY and in Pennsylvania.
Posts: 5,472
Hmmm

The .44 American used a heeled bullet of .440" diameter according to Ken Howell in his "Designing and Forming Custom Cartridges".
The .44 Webley, also known as the .442 Webley or the .442 RIC or the .442 Revolver, used a bullet of .446" diameter, according to Howell, though I have seen references to diameters as small as .436".

Donnelly in his "Manual Of Cartridge Conversions" has the .44 American bullet at .434" and the head diameter as .440" - as it used a heeled bullet and a straight walled case, the bullet should be .440".
Donnelly has the .44 Webley bullet at .436" dia. and the .44 Bulldog (which has the same rim - .503"- and head - .455" - diameter as the slightly longer Webley) at .440". The only substantial difference otherwise is case length - .69" for the Webley, .57" for the Bulldog.
Cartridge data from William C. Dowell's "The Webley Story" refers to a .442 diameter for the first model British Bulldog (.450 for later models).

So...if the barrel slugs at .430" (is that land or groove diameter?) then you are closest to the Webley (maybe). What does the cylinder measure at it breech end? The difference between head diameters of the .44 American and the two Webleys is significant.
The .44 Evans Short (.419"), the .44 Henry (.423"), the .44 Russian, all have bullets smaller than .430. The Russian at .429" is the closest match.
Pete
__________________
“Auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the only real sports ... all others are games.” Ernest Hemingway ...
NRA Life Member

Last edited by darkgael; October 19, 2011 at 03:35 PM.
darkgael is offline  
 
Page generated in 0.02606 seconds with 8 queries