In 1873 the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) was created. The .450 Adams revolver was the original sidearm, ex- British Army guns, shipped over “packed in a valise” (a reference to why so many were found damaged upon arrival from England and not useable. Period photos show Adams in a cross-draw leather belt holster. I'm not aware that the Colt SAA was ever used by the NWMP.)
1904 'Royal' was bestowed upon the NWMP and they became the RNWMP. The Colt New Service was 1st ordered, and they were chambered in .455 Eley & re-ordered 3 more times thru 1914.
1918 they switched to the .45 Colt chambered NS. This is the period that 724 S&W “455 Mk II Hand Ejector - 2nd Models” chambered in 45 Colt were ordered by the RNWMP. No serial # list known, Pg 203 H of S&W. But a # range has been reported*.
1920 RNWMP merged w/the Dominion Police Force to become a Canadian wide force, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
1920 thru 1942 45 Colt NS revolvers were re-ordered exclusively except for 1932 when the last batch of 455 Eleys (MK II) was ordered. To solve the issue of two different cartridges, all 45 Colt chambered guns were moved to eastern Canada and all 455 Eleys to west of Thunder Bay in Northwest Ontario.
1954 all .45 caliber revolvers were retired and the S&W .38 Spl Military and Police (Pre mod 10) was adopted (thought to be 5 ½” barrels).
1964 retired .45 caliber revolvers were first offered to Force members for $12 ea. Then the remainder were sold to the general public.
Revolvers were usually stamped with variations of the RCMP letters. Of the 3,195 Colt NS revolvers, only 2800 were actually stamped with an issue number. Mostly MP marked Colt New Service revolvers have been observed.
*Most of the 724 are in the 70K range, though there are some earlier... in the 40K range... that didn't go to Canada. #74301 is one that did, a Canadian-shipped .455 HE 2nd Mod. in .45 Colt.
Post #13 has an interesting story of one here:
RCMP .455 SECOND MODEL
Forum member Jim Fisher has one in the 40K range that was found a few years back; there are 14 others mfg. (if my recall is correct) at the same time.
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