Help with British ? Colt New Service revolver markings

[Lee Enfield]

LE, you might reconsider your comments. Thanks for the effort.

Hello Mr. B, I will blame typing on the phone and auto correct for what ever seems to have offended you. This is the first time I have been able to look at your photos on an actual computer screen and blow them up to larger than "life-size".

To re-frame my answer so that it is hopefully (much) clearer:

Your front sight may well be in the proper position for the barrel to have originally been 4-1/2" long...and subsequently shortened to the present length.

I only have 1 NS with a 4-1/2" long barrel, but note that the front sight is consistently placed in relation to the muzzle position on 4-1/2", 5-1/2", 6" & 7-1/2" barreled guns. The only observed exceptions are the (VERY) few factory "Fitz" specials, which look like overgrown Detective Specials.





I have been collecting NS revolvers for around 25 years now, and I must stand by all of my other observations.

However I have now been struck by something, as you say the gun was built in 1918 ? From my understanding, there was NO commercial production of New Service revolvers from October 1917 thru Feb 1919 - ALL NS production was in the form of M.1917 revolvers during that window.

The RNWMP 1919 shipment of guns (250 guns Oct 1919) (with this same post-WWI type barrel) was serial numbered in a serial number range "block" (143,000-149,000) which pre-dated the USGI M1917 (approx. serial numbers 149,000-305,000) production, so they (by serial number at least) were out of sequence for 1919 production.

I wonder if your revolver was part of the same "left over" (approx. 143,000-149,000) serial number sequencing scenario, and possibly a post-WWI (private?) purchase which was "bought in" or "turned in" for gov't service later...it would explain the barrel profile (but of course not the length), and the lack of Brit military & commercial markings.

Interestingly the "Colt New Service Revolvers" monograph by Bob Murphy (1985) records 1x 4-1/2" and 2x 5-1/2" .455 revolvers as being reported by collectors in the 1919-1928 serial number/frame variation "standard frame" guns.