1917 or 455HE, or hybrid?

[The Virginian]

I have one of these and it shoots best with .45 Auto-Rim loads with 250-270 grain lead bullets sized to .454-455. I fire form the .45 Auto-Rim cases in the chamber and then use .455 Webley/Colt/Eley dies to reload the cases. The accuracy is much, much better this way and it is as close to how the gun was used with .455 Webley/Colt/Eley loads before it was modified. No moon clips and the slightly larger case capacity of the .45 Auto-Rim makes it easy to drive heavy bullets down range at the 650-720 fps range. When I use the Remington 250 grain LRNFP .45 Colt bullet in fire formed and properly resized .45 Auto-Rim brass, I get 1 1/2" to 2" groups almost at POA at 25 yards. If I use a 270 grain bullet, the same thing, with a slightly larger group to 2 1/4" groups a little left and a bit high, but more than adequate for combat, better than some 1917s I have had with ball ammo. I do not shoot any jacketed .45 ACP ball ammo out of my older S&W and Colts since the steel back then was much softer than today's alloys. Anyway, a great shooter and I got mine for a little high, $450 OTD.

 

[The Virginian]

I wonder if the rifling in these .455 conversions to .45 ACP/AR have shallow or sharp rifling for lead bullets. In my experience they shoot lead bullets in the .454" range the best and softer seems to be better, but the hard cast bullets shoot well too. Heavier bullets in the 250-270 grain range seem to hit to the point of aim better than the 200-240 grain bullets.