The .442 Webley is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 centrefire

Centerfire ammunition

A centerfire cartridge is a cartridge with a primer located in the center of the cartridge case head. Unlike rimfire cartridges, the primer is a separate and replaceable component....

 revolver

Revolver

A revolver is a repeating firearm that has a cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. The first revolver ever made was built by Elisha Collier in 1818. The percussion cap revolver was invented by Samuel Colt in 1836. This weapon became known as the Colt Paterson...

 cartridge

Cartridge (firearms)

A cartridge, also called a round, packages the bullet, gunpowder and primer into a single metallic case precisely made to fit the firing chamber of a firearm. The primer is a small charge of impact-sensitive chemical that may be located at the center of the case head or at its rim . Electrically...

.

Introduced in 1868, the .442 (11.2mm) Webley round was used in the Webley

Webley

Webley Inc. is a company providing speech-driven unified communications solutions.Webley is privately held and headquartered in Bannockburn, IL....

 RIC revolver. This was the standard service weapon of the Royal Irish Constabulary

Royal Irish Constabulary

The armed Royal Irish Constabulary was Ireland's major police force for most of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. A separate civic police force, the unarmed Dublin Metropolitan Police controlled the capital, and the cities of Derry and Belfast, originally with their own police...

 (RIC, whence the revolver's name), which were also chambered in (among others) .450 Adams

.450 Adams

The .450 Adams was a British black powder centrefire revolver cartridge, initially used in converted Beaumont-Adams Revolvers, in the late 1860s...

 and 476/.455

.476 Enfield

The .476 Enfield is a British centrefire black powder revolver cartridge....

. Lt. Col. George Custer

George Armstrong Custer

George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Raised in Michigan and Ohio, Custer was admitted to West Point in 1858, where he graduated last in his class...

 is believed to have carried a pair of RIC revolvers (presented to him in 1869 by Lord Berkley Paget) at the Battle of the Little Bighorn

Battle of the Little Bighorn

The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand and, by the Indians involved, as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, was an armed engagement between combined forces of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho people against the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army...

.

A black powder round, the .442 originally used a 15-19 gr (0.972-1.23 g) charge behind a 200-220 gr (13-14.3 g) bullet

Bullet

A bullet is a projectile propelled by a firearm, sling, or air gun. Bullets do not normally contain explosives, but damage the intended target by impact and penetration...

. This loading was later joined by a smokeless

Smokeless powder

Smokeless powder is the name given to a number of propellants used in firearms and artillery which produce negligible smoke when fired, unlike the older gunpowder which they replaced...

 variety.

At one time, the .442 Webley was a popular chambering in self-defence or "pocket" guns (so named for being designed to be carried in a pocket, what today might be a known as a snubnose

Snubnosed revolver

A snubnosed revolver has a barrel length of less than three inches. It was a popular type of firearm with undercover police officers due to its compact size and ease of handling...

 or carry gun), such as the widely copied Webley British Bulldog

British Bulldog revolver

The British Bull Dog was a popular type of solid-frame pocket revolver introduced by Philip Webley & Son of Birmingham, England in 1872 and subsequently copied by gunmakers in Continental Europe and the United States. It featured a barrel and was chambered for five .44 Short Rimfire, .442 Webley,...

 pocket revolver. The .442 Webley should not be confused with the short, low-powered .44 Bulldog

.44 Bulldog

The .44 Bull Dog was an American centerfire revolver cartridge produced from 1880s until 1930s. No known firearm was chambered exclusively for the .44 Bull Dog cartridge: It was a shorter and less powerful option for use in revolvers chambered for the .44 Webley cartridge...

 cartridge offered by American manufacturers as an optional loading for .442 Webley caliber arms.

The cartridge was moderately effective, being roughly similar in power to the contemporary .38 S&W

.38 S&W

The .38 S&W is a revolver cartridge developed by Smith & Wesson in 1877. Though similar in name, it is not interchangeable with the later .38 Smith and Wesson Special due to a different case shape and slightly larger bullet diameter....

, .41 Colt

.41 Long Colt

The .41 Long Colt cartridge was created in 1877 for Colt's double-action "Thunderer" revolver. It was a lengthened version of the earlier centerfire .41 Short Colt, which was made to duplicate the dimensions of the even earlier .41 Rimfire. The front of the bullet was about 0.406"-0.408”OD, the...

, or .44 S&W American

.44 S&W American

The .44 S&W American is an American centerfire revolver cartridge.Used in the Smith & Wesson Model 3, it was introduced around 1869. Between 1871 and 1873, the .44 Model 3 was used as the standard United States Army sidearm. It was also offered in the Merwin Hulbert & Co...

, and somewhat less potent than the later 7.65mm Parabellum, .38 Special

.38 Special

The .38 Smith & Wesson Special is a rimmed, centerfire cartridge designed by Smith & Wesson. It is most commonly used in revolvers, although some semi-automatic pistols and carbines also use this round...

  or .45 ACP

.45 ACP

The .45 ACP , also known as the .45 Auto by C.I.P., is a cartridge designed by John Browning in 1904, for use in his prototype Colt semi-automatic .45 pistol and eventually the M1911 pistol adopted by the United States Army in 1911.-Design and history:The U.S...

. As a consequence, it was not very suitable at anything but close range.

Smokeless .442 Webley loads continued to be commercially offered in the U.S. until 1940 and in the United Kingdom and Europe until the 1950s.

See also

• List of cartridges by caliber
• 11mm caliber
  11 mm caliber
  This article lists firearm cartridges which have a bullet in the through caliber range.All measurements are in millimeters .-Pistol cartridges:-Revolver cartridges:-Rifle cartridges:-See also:...
  
  
• List of handgun cartridges

Sources

• Barnes, Frank C., ed. by John T. Amber. ".44 Webley/.44 R.I.C.", in Cartridges of the World, pp. 170 & 177. Northfield, IL: DBI Books, 1972. ISBN 0-695-80326-3.
• ______ and _____. ".30 (7.65mm) Parabellum", in Cartridges of the World, p. 153. Northfield, IL: DBI Books, 1972. ISBN 0-695-80326-3.
• ______ and _____. ".38 Smith & Wesson", in Cartridges of the World, p. 163. Northfield, IL: DBI Books, 1972. ISBN 0-695-80326-3.
• ______ and _____. ".38 Smith & Wesson Special", in Cartridges of the World, p. 163. Northfield, IL: DBI Books, 1972. ISBN 0-695-80326-3.
• ______ and _____. ".41 Long Colt", in Cartridges of the World, p. 165. Northfield, IL: DBI Books, 1972. ISBN 0-695-80326-3.
• ______ and _____. ".44 Smith & Wesson American", in Cartridges of the World, p. 167. Northfield, IL: DBI Books, 1972. ISBN 0-695-80326-3.
• ______ and _____. ".45 Automatic", in Cartridges of the World, p. 171. Northfield, IL: DBI Books, 1972. ISBN 0-695-80326-3.
• Dowell, William Chipchase. The Webley Story. Kirkland, WA: Commonwealth Heritage Foundation, 1987.
• Elman, Robert. Fired in Anger: The Personal Handguns of American Heroes and Villains. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1968.
• Ficken, H. R.. Webley's The British Bull Dog Revolver, Serial Numbering and Variations". Retrieved on 2006-08-03.