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.

[browningautorifle]

A friend of mine had one of these in New Brunswick. His had a sh*tty barrel and he couldn't change it without all these issues described. I wonder if corrosive ammo could have had a hand in the change of some of these...?

[Claven2]

I think that's really likely given all WW1 ammo was basically corrosive. That being said, people who own these generally do not shoot them, so you are better off (from a value perspective) to leave the original .455 barrel in the gun, even with a poor bore, than to replace it with a non-.455 barrel.

[browningautorifle]

Agreed on the value thing...

[xSentinel]

I agree. I can tell you from experience that trying to find a .455 barrel in decent shape is very difficult and expensive. I would keep the .455 barrel and shoot something else. So many of these guns have .45 ACP barrels in them that to find one with the correct barrel is pretty lucky; regardless of how it got there. As long as it is the correct barrel on the correct gun and would have been a match back in the day you are ahead of the game.

The barrel on any 1911 is so easy to change that to have any 1911 this old it is probably impossible to determine if any barrel that is currently in it is the one that shipped with the gun originally. Especially in a military issue gun since they could have been replaced multiple times during its service life. Even with rifles or other, if you have the right gun with the correct barrel for that year and type and it looks right and has similar wear and is a visual match, then that is pretty good. It might have been repaired at one time but hard to tell unless it is the type of gun where the serial number is stamped on multiple parts thus allowing you to match numbers and have an all matching gun. But not on these.

[rule303]

This is my British contract 455 auto. It was manufactured in 1919, has RAF markings and also has into service and out of service markings on the RH side for South Africa. It looks to have the RAF re-blued finish and still has the correct barrel and a correct but non matching 455 mag. The barrel is marked with the crossed pennants but isn't marked with either a 'W' or an 'E'.
I make brass for mine from 45 long colt shells(I am a self employed machinist) and use a Lee mold to suit a Ruger Old Army cap and ball revolver. The Lee mold is the closest I could find to the original bore size and weight that was suitable. The bore in the this 455 measures .4565" diameter and is in excellent condition.
Can I ask, what is the bore diameter in the examples that you guys have?

[Claven2]

I haven't slugged it, but my barrel is marked .45.900", so I'm assuming the grooves are .459? I do know that .455 Webly Auto MkI ammo is loaded with bullets nominally .455" in diameter.