Recently, a discussion on this very forum occurred which required many more posts than was conceivably necessary in order to determine if a British Contract Triple Lock is still chambered in .455 Webley or has been rechambered to .45 Colt. The wrong conclusion was initially asserted before further research enabled the proper, and less desirable outcome, resulted. Prior to this, it seemed pretty cut & dry. There would be markings on the barrel that indicated conversion. In the unlikely situation that there were no markings on the barrel, simply attempting to chamber a .45 Colt round and succeeding in chambering the round, or failing to do so, was indicative of retooling to .45 Colt, or not.
However, the revolver that led to my creation of this thread recently surfaced. The barrel of this revolver lacked any markings indicating modifications. Because of this, there are likely others that lack barrel markings indicating a retooling. The purpose of this essay is to create a foolproof methodology of determining retooling when the situation might arise in which a seller has no idea as to what they have, and your hard-earned money is on the line. An attempt is to provide methodology using mostly photographs that the seller might provide, if the case is that the seller lacks much technical knowledge and access to calipers. Dimensions will be provided, but the photographs are all that should be necessary. Amazingly enough the seller was a fairly significant gun shop, but they lacked technical knowledge with regards to some of the older stuff. This revolver had an opening bid of $1195 on Gunbroker. You may not agree with me, but the only bargains on Gunbroker are misidentified firearms, which this had the potential to be. If this remained in .455 Webley, it would have been fairly priced up until the $1600 to $1750 range. Being in .45 Colt, it wasn't worth much more than $850. Being that 4 individuals bid on this gun, which was overpriced even at the opening bid, it suggests there might be some misconceptions out there.
For the purpose of this essay, I have referenced two revolvers in my collection, the top one being in its original .455 Webley configuration #2703, the lower one being converted to .45 Colt. (Please reference the first photograph). I have the liberty of referencing these two at home, you probably are not so fortunate.
One should note that the condition of the revolver in .455 Webley is superior to the one in .45 Colt. By no means, condition would
not be a way to determine if a particular revolver has been converted to .45 Colt or not, but it stands to reason that revolvers chambered in .45 Colt would have a tendency to be in lesser condition than one's chambered in .455 Webley due to the fact that conversion to a more popular calibre in the States would allow for more intense usage than one remaining in the less popular .455 Webley configuration.
As alluded to previously, a reasonable way to conclude if a particular revolver has been converted to .45 Colt is to examine the left side of the barrel for markings indicating such. If the barrel is so marked,
one has a conversion and need not proceed further. If not marked in such a manner, then one would need to proceed further to determine if this is one of the uncommon instances where a revolver has been converted but the barrel has not been so marked.
Please refer to the second photograph. The original revolver is at the top; the conversion at the bottom has been marked 45 AR. Regardless of the barrel markings, if one values one's revolver and digits, one should stick to
only .45 Long Colt!!! More powerful rounds are detrimental to one's physical well being.
So, let's say you have a barrel on a revolver not so marked and you still are unable to determine if your revolver is chambered in .455 Webley or .45 Colt. Simply attempting to chamber a .45 Colt revolver and
succeeding in doing so means that one's revolver is chambered in .45 Colt. There is no need to proceed further. Failure to
not chamber a .45 Colt round, up until this point, meant one has a .455 Webley. However, the revolver that prompted this thread was reported to be able to chamber a .45 Colt with gentle pressure. Let's see what happens if I apply gentle pressure to chamber .45 Colt in a .455 Webley. Gentle pressure, and not so gentle pressure, fails to chamber the round. It is
impossible to chamber any further than having less than about .30" protruding. Conversely, a .45 Colt round chambers quite freely in a converted Triple Lock. Pretty cut and dry. But let's hypothesize that one may not have a .45 Colt round readily available. One can, if one has pin calipers and "control" revolvers of each configuration, measure the chamber mouths of each. I did not have pin calipers available, but my regular calipers did measure a mouth diameter of .445" in the .455 Webley and .450" in the conversion. This is fairly unofficial data. A more reliable method might be to look for retooling marks in a rebored revolver, and the absence thereof, in an unconverted revolver. Please refer to the fourth photograph. The conversion is to the left and retooling marks create a shadow. The original revolver lacks such marks. However, although almost being evident when side by side, trust me when I say that it often is not so evident independently due to lighting and optical illusions.
It might be, at this point, helpful to understand the three common ways of converting cylinders and frames from .455 Webley to .45 Colt, to accommodate the thicker rim of the latter. My calipers obtained a rim thickness of .054" for .45 Colt and .035" for .455 Webley. In any event, three commonly used methods are boring laterally and deeply the chambers to accommodate the rim of the .45 Colt round; shaving the face of the cylinder, thereby obliterating the cylinder serial number; and, usually in conjunction with #2, shaving the interior face of the recoil shield, thereby eliminating, fully or partially, the circular interface of the hammer-nose bushing, which surrounds the opening where the firing pin would strike a primer. Please refer to the fifth photograph, which demonstrates the crisp hammer-nose bushing junction on the right, in the original .455 Webley revolver. On the left, in addition to the lack of a prominent and consistent hammer-nose bushing junction, there has been also some filing of the interior of the recoil shield. Lack of such filing would not be a reliable way to determine originality, as it is probable many revolvers out there have had cold gluing applied to the interior of the recoil shield and the alteration is not so prominent.
Is my Triple Lock .455 Webley or .45 Colt? A Photographic Essay
Linear Mode
