Today on Gus’ Gear, I have a Colt New Service revolver in .455 caliber. By 1915, Great Britain, like all the other belligerent countries, was experiencing shortages of weapons and approached arms manufacturers in the United States to help fill the gap. Both Smith & Wesson and Colt had revolver models that were very close to the Webley revolver in size, rechambering them to take the standard .455 Webley cartridge was very easy to do.
The most common caliber for the Colt New Service revolver was .45 ACP, it was an easy job to rechamber the weapon to .455 Webley. These revolvers are also often converted back to chamber .45 ACP by milling a few thousandths off the back of the cylinder. These revolvers are safe to use the more powerful cartridge, but the modification does reduce the value of the revolver. This example is still in the original configuration.
Colt was Great Britain’s largest foreign contractor, supplying approximately 60,000 revolvers during the Great War. The official nomenclature for the Colt New Service revolver in British service was Pistol, Colt, .455-inch 5.5-inch barrel Mk. I.
Along with the revolvers purchased by the government of Great Britain, many more were privately purchased by officers, particularly by officers from Canada.
The Colt revolvers fit well in the standard Webley holsters, this example is the issue, open top model holster that was manufactured in 1916. There is a pocket on the back of the holster to carry the brass cleaning rod shown here, cleaning after use was important due to the corrosive nature of the cartridge primers.
Colt New Service revolvers had lanyard rings in the butt of the grip, this example has had its lanyard ring removed for some reason. The holster has buckle straps on the back, which would allow the holster to be removed or added to the service belt without removing the belt. This photo of the back of the holster shows the cleaning rod stowed in its pocket.
This revolver has a six shot swing out cylinder, with the cylinder catch located on the left side just behind the cylinder. The ejector ejected all six round in one movement. Disassembly was not necessary with this revolver as it could be easily cleaned with the cylinder swung out.