A fine old Colt New Service...

T

tex_n_cal

New member
I noticed a nice old Colt New Service today, .45 LC. probably 75-80% finish remaining, possibly of an old reblue. Has British proof marks, 5.5" barrel. It's a standard model, not the target version. Has vintage ivory grips which are in decent condition, some yellowing and cracks.

Mechanically I would call it excellent, nice tight lockup, and excellent bore, probably carried a lot more than shot. I noticed you have to manually pull the cylinder latch back in place, in order to put the cylinder in battery. I'm not that familiar with the New Service, more used to S&W revos - is this normal?

Serial Number is 120XXX. The price I could probably haggle down to $700 or so. Yes, this is the PRK and handguns of all flavors are expensive here:rolleyes:

Opinions on it? It's a useful caliber, should shoot well, and has a couple of collectable features - the grips and proof marks. I'm not really a New Service afficianado, but it has a lot of charm.:cool:
 
Having to pull the cylinder latch back is not normal. Could be just gummed up.
These are nice old guns, made when quality was at it's peak.
 
Sounds interesting and my New Service is without a doubt the BEST revolver I own.

One word of warning though. Many of the New Service guns that went to England were originally chambered for the 455 Eley. When these came back stateside people would sometimes swap out the cylinder for a 45Colt or 45acp. but often they didn't change the barrel. The result was an over sized bore and the gun ended up not very accurate. If this is a British gun you want to make sure that it has the 45 barrel.
 
This gun was made in 1916. Talk him DOWN to $700? That sounds really high to me for a refinished gun. I bought one made in 1917 and sold in England. It also has British proofs and was originally in .45 Eley. I suspect yours was, too, with those markings. Barrel may have been replaced or polished and re-stamped.

Mine is nickeled (refinished long ago) and I paid $275 for it two years ago at a pawn shop. I reload using bullets sized .454 and it shoots just fine. The .451 bullets usually offered for the .45 ACP and later Colts are a bit undersize.

Things are tough in the Occupied Territory. Between the outright gun bans and the "safety" crap, it's getting near impossible to find used guns there. A big reason why I left in 1992 and moved where the Second Amendment still means something.

I would offer him $450. All he can do is say no. He will never sell it for that much to an out of state buyer and maybe that's the best offer he'll get from a resident in the OT.
 
This gun is numbered right in the range when Colt was building guns for the British in World War I. Take off the left grip and see if a small letter "E" is stamped on the frame. This would indicate it was originally chambered in .455 Eley and rechambered to .45 Colt later. Some barrels used on the British guns were marked "45 Colt." They were in a hurry and a war was on. Some of those "proof marks" may be property marks indicating government ownership, in which case it would be even more likely it was originally in .455 Eley.

I have a commercial .45 Colt made about the same time as the one you are looking at is, and I sometimes have to pull back on the cylinder release when closing the cylinder. This is mostly caused by dirt and dried grease getting into the spring behind the latch. A good cleaning should cure it.

If this gun is a real .45 Colt the asking price is high, but like you said - California.....

However, if it's a refinished and rechambered .455 I'd say the price is way too high, even for where you're at.
 
Before the 1950's, I think Colt .45 Colt and .455 barrels had the same bore dimensions. Modern factory .45 ammo has (I think) .453 bullets, as a compromise between the .455-.456 pre-war bores and modern ones. Cylinder throats may or may not match the bore diameter, and should be checked, especially before handloading.

I once owned a New Service .45 Colt made in the late 1930's, and it shot very well, especially with Remington ammo.

Mike Venturino goes into this subject in depth in his book on Colt Single-Action revolvers. What he says presumably also applies to New Service models. Keith also discussed it in, "Sixguns".

Smith & Wesson .455's have bores to .457" and shorter cylinders that need attention in developing .45 Colt loads when rechambered.

I always pull back the cylinder latch in closing Colt D.A. guns. Otherwise, it gets popped closed by the closing cylinder. For some reason, this doesn't bother me, and seems normal on S&W and Ruger arms, but I always "help" Colts and Webleys close.

Lone Star
 
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