Great price on a shooter grade S&W off Gunbroker. Cylinder gap 0.005" pass / 0.006 hold. No end shake which can be felt with empty brass in chambers. Timing and indexiing correct in both SA and DA on all six charge holes. Bore slugs .454, cylinder throats .456. Light frosting in grooves but strong rifling and no pits. Produces 0.012" indent on copper. Appears to be Cdn arsenal rebuild rechambered to .45 Colt.
Plan is to test fire with WW2 era .45 Colt and .455 ammo to determine if there is significant loss of accuracy or velocity by firing .455 ammo as " shorts" in the longer .45 Colt chambers. Rechamberiing was skillfully done so that deepened rim seat diameter to produce correct head clearance for the .45. Colt rim does not affect the thinner .455 rim of slightly larger diameter from headspacing normally against rear face of cylinder. Also have modern production lead .45 Colt and .455 ammo as well to compare.
Cannot believe that nobody was bidding on this and that I got it for my opening bid of $500! I also have a complete M1917 S&W .45 ACP cylinder and yoke assembly I may investigate to see if feasible to do a swap cylinder job without major gunsmithing.... Sometimes you get lucky.