I don't get it about shaved Webley's

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marcus_bc

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There have been a number of postings, both inquiring about and for sale on EE, of Webley's that have had their cylinders shaved down to accommodate 45acp.
Doing research on this topic I came across this and holy sheep s--t Batman that's scary!
ht tp://britishmilitariaforums.yuku.com/topic/9296/t/CAUTION-455-REVOLVERS-ALTERED-SHOOT-45-ACP--45-AUTO-RIM.html#.UFfb1K74WSo
Please excuse my ignorance (newb-somewhat) but why are these modified revolvers so high in price compared to a much stouter unshaved MK VI?
 
Do they still retain their antique status with the cylinders cut for moon clips (assuming that they were antique to begin with)?
 
The frame is the gun, legally. Whatever you do to parts of the gun without altering the frame, leaves the gun in whatever status it had originally. The cylinders were often shaved because so many of them were sold in the US, and .455 Webley cartridges just never had the same availabillity that .45 ACP did, and does.
 
.45ACP is not on the list of calibers which cancel antique status.
When these revolvers were dumped on the US surplus market, they were $10 -$12 dollars. Hard to sell in .455. If the cylinder was put in a lathe, and a pass taken across the end, it would accept .45ACP cartridges in clips, or .45 Auto Rim without. The fact that the bore size was not correct for jacketed ACP rounds, or that ACP develops as much pressure as .455 proof loads was ignored. Perhaps the undersized diameter of the .45ACP bullets offset the pressure issue.
Handloading the ACP or .455 with appropriate bullets and loads is about the same amount of effort.
 
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