1911 in .455 British

[Claven2]

Right. That makes sense. But this one has a .455 barrel; not a .45 ACP. Unless I am mistaken Claven was saying that some people that had these with the proof stamped .455 barrels that indicate that they were likely bought on the commercial market and likely not brought home in a vets bag, changed the .455 barrel with the proof mark to a .455 that does not have a proof mark to make it look like it came home with a returning vet.

If so then I am just wondering why someone would do that? What is the benefit of changing the proof marked barrel to a non-proofed one? Especially when any .455 original barrel is so hard to find. It sounds like a very expensive switch and I see no gain.

Unless I am just not understanding his post. If so please forgive my ignorance.

Close. What I meant is that once a .455 barrel with a proof stamp was replaced by a .45ACP barrel with no british proof marks, the provenance of how the gun got to the US is lost if the original barrel doesn't stay with the gun. It could be a vet bring back, OR a commercially surplussed firearm.

As Brian points out, many of the .455's in North America are guns that stayed in service until after 1945, then went to the surplus market and were sold commercially. A small number would have been acquired somehow by allied servicemen and came here in duffels, but given .455 ammo was not issued to US troops and would not often have been issued to Canadian troops, this would not have been too common and the chances of the owner later changing to .45ACP would have been pretty high.

I think a private officer purchase in original Colt high-polish blue with no markings or evidence of having been sold out of British service is probably a more collectible and less common gun than an issue piece, but the blue book disagrees with me and rates all the .455 variants at about the same price for equal condition - and it's a hefty price at that!

I would not be surprised if Interarms, CAI, or someone like that, put .45ACP barrels into them on purpose to make them more marketable in the 1950's and 1960's when guns were bought more for shooting than for collecting.