Colt New Service .455 Webley WWI Revolver

[Von der Goltz]

Here for your viewing pleasure is Colt New Service .455 Eley (Webley) revolver serial number 126149 which was 1 of 500 shipped to the London Armoury Company on December 26, 1916. It had an interesting service life with British Army markings, presumably Canadian Army (C154) marking and AEF marking on butt plate. Any thoughts from fellow forum members?
















Photos of rear of cylinder to show Crossed Pennants marking and frame to show Enfield view marks.

 

[Choctaw]

Ohhh, I like that!!

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

Yet again, a very cool old military arm, can't wait till you get around to showing us some of your rifles!

 

[Vern Humphrey]

Notice how close the back of the cylinder is to the recoil plate to compensate for the thin rims of the .455.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

I don't know about the C number, but I believe AEF stood for American Expeditionary Force.

 

[Jesse Heywood]

You're just trying to make me jealous. And it worked!

 

[floridaboy]

I have one of those. Mine was made in 1914. I'm not sure if anyone still produces .455 webley, I have a few boxes of Fiocchi, 3 of original .455 Colt from Dominion and a bunch of reloads. Very accurate and packs a fair wallop. I've shot a couple of small pigs with it.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

I have one of those. Mine was made in 1914. I'm not sure if anyone still produces .455 webley, I have a few boxes of Fiocchi, 3 of original .455 Colt from Dominion and a bunch of reloads. Very accurate and packs a fair wallop. I've shot a couple of small pigs with it.

Ahem! To rechamber a New Service from .455 Webley to .45 Colt, contact Clymer. They make a reamer that will move the throat forward AND cut a shallow recess for the thicker Colt rim.

 

[Gordon]

Mine (an ex RCMP) is done like that and it shoots both ! No external visual change with cylinder closed

 

[floridaboy]

My barrel is marked .455 Eley, you can buy cases trimmed to proper length with thinned rims from Buffalo Arms. Lee has .455 Webley dies which work well for me. Loaded right its a pretty nice cartridge. Not a boomer, but no weakling either.

 

[Von der Goltz]

Howdy

I don't know about the C number, but I believe AEF stood for American Expeditionary Force.

Yes, Driftwood I agree and if you look closely at the right side grip you'll see what looks like a carved US flag right above the A.E.F.

 

[Von der Goltz]

I have one of those. Mine was made in 1914. I'm not sure if anyone still produces .455 webley, I have a few boxes of Fiocchi, 3 of original .455 Colt from Dominion and a bunch of reloads. Very accurate and packs a fair wallop. I've shot a couple of small pigs with it.

Yes, mine shoots well with both the Fiocchi ammo and WWII Brit surplus ammo.

 

[Jesse Heywood]

I completely disagree with re-chambering to another caliber. Devalues the gun. You can make your own cartridges from 45 Colt. Chuck the case in a lathe and reduce the head thickness from the back side. Then cut to length.

 

[ThomasT]

Found this ammo for $30 a box of 50. It is about $2 cheaper than SGAmmo.

https://www.outdoorlimited.com/handgun-ammo/455-webley-ammo/

Buy the ammo and save the empties. Add a die set and you're in business.

 

[floridaboy]

A couple of things about the Fiocchi .455 ammo. It's very slow, a bit over 600 fps. It uses small pistol primers, and the brass I have is prone to case splitting. It is accurate however. Hornady ran a bunch about 10 years ago and it's great stuff. And last I heard you could get cut and rim thinned brass made from .45 Colt from Buffalo Arms. .455 Eley/Colt is a fine round for small critters that aren't too distant. It's accurate, fun and has style.

 

[Jesse Heywood]

floridaboy, have you tried annealing the Fiocchi cases?

 

[Vern Humphrey]

It takes about as much work to make a dozen cartridges that way as it does to re-chamber -- and then your ammo problems are solved.

 

[deadin]

From a collectors point of view, rechambering not only costs to have done it also lowers the value of the gun.
Sometimes substantially. Check out a Webley Mk VI or a S&W .455 that has been rechambered to 45 ACP vs. one left original.
A Colt New Service in a British chambering is much scarcer than any MkVI...... Just saying....

 

[Von der Goltz]

I was fortunate to obtain around 300 rounds of this WWII British ammo for my Webley & Scott and Colt New Service.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

From a collectors point of view, rechambering not only costs to have done it also lowers the value of the gun.
Sometimes substantially. Check out a Webley Mk VI or a S&W .455 that has been rechambered to 45 ACP vs. one left original.
A Colt New Service in a British chambering is much scarcer than any MkVI...... Just saying....

But it is permissible, I hope, to have a different philosophy. My philosophy is, guns are made for shooting. And the better they shoot, the better I like them.

My Colt New Service had been reblued, and aggressively buffed, so the markings were all blurred. As a result, I got it for about $350 a few years back. It had a front sight about as thick as a razor blade and a rear notch to match. It shot about a foot high and 18 inches to the left at 25 yards. Now there really is no way to fix that.

So I trimmed the barrel back to 5 1/2", mounted adjustable sights and put on a set of Herrett Shooting Master stocks. It's a handsome gun and shoots like Billy-be-danged.

 

[deadin]

Notice that I stated "From a collectors point of view.". It sounds like what you started with was a long way from being collectible....