Colt 455 Eley -> 45 Colt conversion question

[Clark]

Today I bought a Colt New Service for $475.
I knew it had been converted from 455 Eley to 45 Colt.

But the crane has no serial number, like they converted by swapping.
And the action works well and locks up tight.
If they swapped THOSE parts, they did something right.

The sights, not so much.

Who do you think did this work?
Factory, arsenal, gunsmith, or bubba?

Pics above same as links below.

 

[Clark]

Who do you think did this work?
Factory, arsenal, gunsmith, or bubba?

Pic above same as link below.

 

[Bob Wright]

From appearances, somewhere between gunsmith and Bubba, leaning toward Bubba.

Tag says "1917", no evidence of that. Screw heads burred on sight, screw head is not counterbored. Reboring from .455 to .45 Colt no big problem. Probably a pretty good casual shooter, but to me $500 seems a bit too high. Try $300 ~ $350.

Thats my take on the deal.

Bob Wright

 

[James K]

The front sight is beat up and appears to be brass(!), and the front of the barrel looks like it is not quite right. I suspect that a longer barrel might have been cut down and the sight re-located, possibly soldered on. The caliber conversion was probably done by a gunsmith; at least he had letter stamps of about the right size. (The factory would have used its regular stamp, "DA .45" without the word "Colt".)

As in many other cases, the gun would have more value if left alone. As it is, the gun may be a shooter, but it has no collector value except as an example of a poor conversion. IMHO, $500 is way too much; maybe half that if the mechanism is OK.

Jim

 

[Clark]

The 1920 New Service on top has been converted from 455 Eley to 45 Colt and has no serial number on the crane.
The 1916 New Service on the bottom remains 455 Eley and has the serial number on the crane.

This suggests to me that someone had a drop in crane and cylinder for the conversion on the 1920 revolver.

 

[Mike Irwin]

Shouldn't the standard barrel length on the .455 guns be 6"? I seem to recall reading that at one time.

No indications that it's a military gun that's been reworked?

 

[Clark]

One of those Eleys measures 5.48" and the other 5.47".

The one I got yesterday, I fired one round of 250 gr 1275 fps 45 Colt round ~ 23,000 psi. That was enough of that. The grip is not the forgiving SAA slipping curve. The new service is a palm masher.

Is that checkering stock? I have dozens of other Colts and I have never seen that before.

Pic above same as link below

 

[James K]

No, the checkering on the front and back straps is not standard and appears to be a gunsmith job.

The numbering on the crane was put there at the factory for the same reason as the assembly number was put on the frame and crane by S&W, so the crane could be fitted and then re-assembled to the frame after finishing. I don't know if Colt would have numbered the crane if it had rebuilt the gun, but there would have been no reason for the factory to replace the crane, they would just have replaced the cylinder.

But the Colt cylinder is not an easy replacement for DIY or even some gunsmiths, which is why the parts places sold the cylinder and crane as an assembly, needing only minor fitting. Those cranes and cylinders were un-numbered because they had never been on a gun.

It looks to me like someone converted the gun from .455 to .45 Colt by replacing the crane and cylinder with the same parts used to convert .45 ACP revolvers to .45 Colt. He didn't need to replace the cylinder, but possibly he didn't have a .45 Colt reamer and that was the easiest way to go. The ejector rod head does not look right, either, but Colt did make some variations at that time.

Jim