Colt New service: Today's Gun show report on my purchases

C

Clark

New member
I got:
1) Rem 700 gunstock $10
2) Colt pre woodsman $360
3) Colt New Service 455 $600 455 Eley, 5.5" barrel, 80% blue, perfect bore and chambers

The guy I got the revolver from told me that it had Royal Canadian Mounted Police proof marks. He said the revolver had belonged to an RCMP retiree, who bought the revolver after he retired. Then he passed on, and his family put it in the seller's hands.
 

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  • Colt New Service 455 Eley 1916 $600 Puyallup 11-23-2013.jpg
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IDK about Colt NS values, but I DO know you did very well indeed on the .22, and outrageously well on the stock.


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Love the New Service

A fantastic piece of history. It's on the old short list of things I must have.
Hope you load you own. Otherwise, it might be an expensive hobby.
 
Very handsome, and a good buy.
I don't see anything but generic British Commonwealth proofs, though.
From what I could find, the Mounties marked their revolvers RNWMP, RCMP, or just MP.

They bought both .455 and .45 Colt revolvers. The .455s were issued west of Ontario, the .45s in Ontario and eastward. There were only about 3000 total over 20 years.
 
Those marks are not Canadian, they are English. The crossed pennants on the barrel is the military proof mark, indicating that the gun was taken into British service. The others in the picture are commercial proofs, put on when the gun was sold out of British government stores, probably for export to the U.S.

Colt made about 55,000 New Service revolvers in .455 (aka .455 Eley) between 1914 and 1917, when production of the U.S. Model 1917 in .45 ACP took precedence. Serial numbers range from about 65000 to about 139000; the range included civilian production.

It seems likely that the Canadian gentleman bought the revolver, but it was probably not issued to him in the RCMP. Those revolvers were marked on the backstrap with the letters "N.W.M.P" or, later, R.N.W.M.P. (not R.C.M.P., since the organization was not called that until 1920, years after purchase of the New Service).

Jim
 
Thanks for identifying the proof marks.
Looking up the serial number on proofhouse says it was made in 1916.

I made a drawing of the chamber.

I have been making 455 Eley brass from 45 Colt brass.
I cut the rim from .055" thick down to .040" thick.
I cut the brass length from 1.275" long down to .885" long.

The stock:
I have been buying similar ADL long action 20 ounce foam core stocks for $250+ [wholesale] and then putting many hours into trimming the flash, sanding, replacing the epoxy pillars with Aluminum, mounting a recoil pad, and painting in a 90 degree oven.
 

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  • trim 45 Colt brass 1.275 in down to 0.885 in length to be 455 Eley brass 11-25-2013.jpg
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I am glad you chose to make ammo (though I think .455 is available) rather than alter the gun. A lot of those guns were reworked to .45 Colt by running a .45 Colt reamer into the chambers (IIRC, even the Colt factory did it at one time). Either the rear of the cylinder was faced off for the proper headspace or the reamer was run in a bit for a "recessed head". It worked but altered a piece of history.

Jim
 
The predecessor to the RCMP adopted the Colt New Service in .455 in 1901 or thereabouts.

In 1919 the predecessor adopted the New Service in .45 Colt as the standard side arm, which took the organization into the RCMP days and up to just after World War II.

I've been looking for a good condition New Service that won't cost me an arm and a leg.
 
I bought a 1943 New Service a year ago for $550.
I got it home and realized that the barrel was a different color and said, "New Service & 1917".
That was a Numrich barrel.
Everyone said it cannot be a collector, just a shooter.

So two days ago when I got a chance at an all original RCMP New Service, I jumped at it.

When I got home I found out how much trouble the "455 Eley" was going to be.
James K pointed out that the owner might have been RCMP, but his personal revolver was not.
But when I finally made a working trim die yesterday, I felt the stress go away.
 

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  • 1943 Colt New Service 34 Colt Dutch proof mark 11-17-2012.jpg
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Thanks Mike, you have given me info on my New Service.

It is a .45 Colt and the back of the grip is marked RNWMP with a rack number also. So it was sold to the Canadians roughly between 1919 and 1921, which I think is when the name changed to RCMP.

But that might have been 1920, not 1921. Either way, I pretty much now know when it went into service. Thanks.

Bart Noir
 
As far as I can determine, no New Service revolvers were made in .455 caliber after WWI, except for one custom order from a Canadian gentleman in 1936. Britain bought some NS revolvers from Colt c. 1940, but those were emergency purchases of "anything that would go bang", and in .38 Special and .357 Magnum. There were some RCMP purchases between the wars, but in .38 Special, not .455.

Jim
 
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