I opened my .455 HE for he first time tonight, to see if there was anything inside I should clean/de-gunk - never had it open before.

It was remarkably clean. Three things struck me:

1) The CCH on the hammer and trigger inside the sideplate, which survived perfectly, was spectacular. It was mostly gone on the exposed area.

2) In addition to the hand and rebound slide, cylinder stop, sear, and bolt were a remarkable high-polish stainless steel.

3) The side plate fit was amazing - a flawless fit like nothing I've seen a post ware revolver (I've opened maybe a dozen total, so not a huge sample).


So:

a) I had not seen those three components so wonderfully polished like that before.

b) I thought SS was just entering commercial usage about this time and was surprised to see it used so much, and modern ones I'd see were not so highly finished.

Is anyone familiar with the history of the steel used in the assembly of early HE's? Or has this possibly seen repair/replacement later?