Quote:
Originally Posted by Driftwood Johnson
Ed: Never heard that before about Triple Locks being submitted to the Army chambered for 45 S&W. 45 Schofield?
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THE VERY FIRST PROTOTYPE TRIPLE LOCKS WERE CHAMBERED IN THE 45 S&W SPECIAL
The .45 S&W Special began life as the .45 Frankford or "Cal. .45 Ball, Model of 1906" developed in late 1905 by Frankford Arsenal for use in testing revolvers submitted for the Army trials that began in 1906. The case was rimmed, 0.923" in length, and was loaded with a 230-grain cupro-nickel jacketed round-nose bullet over 7.2 grains of Bullseye smokeless powder. The muzzle velocity was 800 fps. S&W had high hopes for a lucrative military contract, but it wasn't to be. As is well known, the military chose the Model 1911 Colt 45 Semi Auto Pistol and its ne 45 ACP round.
In 1908 or 1909 [S&W] seriously considered introducing a model that was to be called the "45 Special." This cartridge was designed for use in what became the 44 Hand Ejector 1st Model [New Century] or Triple Lock. The cartridge was a revolver cartridge developed for military use at the Frankford Arsenal. Smith's anticipation of their 45 Spl (45 FA) chambered TLs for military and commercial success caused them to order a large quantity of boxes. So when their gun/cartridge was not adopted by the Army, it was never commercially sold. They were stuck with a huge pile of boxes labeled 45 Special inside the cover and on the end label.
As we all know, S&W never threw anything anyway. Therefore when the British came thru with a huge contract for 455 Mk II chambered Hand Ejector service revolvers for WW I, guess where the boxes went? Yep, British contract guns were packed in them and shipped across the big pond!
These boxes are usually found with a new 455 label glued over the 45 Spl end label. I can picture the British armorers unpacking the ~ 79,000+ 455 contract revolvers and once inspected, stamped, and issued to the military, a huge pile of these boxes stacked in the trash!
The boxes:
455 SN# 53541 Shipped June 9, 1916 in a 45 Special box from 1908 w/pasted over end label.
