.455 Eley

[MI2600]

I have a Colt New Service that has been "converted" from .455 Eley to .45 LC. As far as I can tell, all that was converted was the length of the chambers. I have been using .45 LC brass with .454 lead bullets.

But, I've been looking at a S&W chambered in .455 Eley which has, thus far, not been touched by any evil converters. I would prefer to leave it original.

Looking through the archives, I found discussion about using .45 acp and .45 auto rim cases. Why wouldn't trimmed down .45 LC brass work?

 

[Jesse Heywood]

The problem is the case head thickness. The head diameter of the Eley is the largest, but the thickness is less.
455 Eley head dia. .530, t=.039
45 AutoRim dia. .519, t=.090
45 Colt dia. ..512, t=.060

Usually the conversion to the gun is done by machining the back of the cylinder to accommodate the thicker rim.

To convert the brass you need to reduce the head thickness by machining the rim on the cylinder side, so the primer pocket depth is not affected. If you have a hobby lathe it just takes time.