I sure wasn't looking for this, but my eye fell on it in the consignment case when I dropped in at my FFL to arrange the transfer of a different gun I just bought on Gunbroker. I couldn't even make sense of what I was looking at until I got it out from under glass and noticed all the modifications. But the mods seemed well handled, and the refinish, conversion and adjustable sight installation seemed competently done. In a couple of minutes my curiosity won out over my initial inclination to leave it alone.
This started life as a .455 Hand Ejector, Second Model. The S/N is 73778, making it one of the last .455s produced under the WWI British contract. I'm sure I will find that it shipped in 1916.
But it is a .455 no longer. It has been converted to .45 Colt. The rim thickness problem was solved not by counterboring the chambers a bit or planing the entire back of the cylinder, but by planing a few thousandths of an inch off the face of the recoil shield. (The original serial number remains intact on the back of the cylinder.)
The new chambering (CAL. 45 S.W., which perhaps someone can explain to me) was stamped on the barrel above and back from the rollmark that identifies the original chambering.
It has also been converted from a fixed sight revolver to one with adjustable sights. "Micro" brand front and rear sight components are now installed. The rear unit looks solid and reliable; the front sight looks like the conning tower on a submarine.
The gun has been refinished. A few scattered points on the gun reveal where pits were too deep to be removed completely, but they are almost invisible. The polish was not a high polish undertaking, but rather a military grade polish in which striations are still visible under the somewhat thin satin blue job. But screw holes are not dished and the sideplate edges are not rounded. The polish was very professionally done. The fact that the roll marks are still crisp shows how sensitive the refinisher was.
One refinishing oddity is that the hammer and trigger were blued, then the sides of the hammer were polished back to bright steel -- almost as if the refinisher were following a Colt protocol.
British proof stamps, if shallow, may have been buffed away. On the gun now I find only the crossed penants (I think) at the rearmost point of the frame on the left side, and the Crown/30 stamp on the butt. EDITED 9/9/10 TO ADD: I now think the mark I called "crossed penants" is in fact two facing broad arrows, a completely different British mark.
The serial number is still quite legible, too.
All parts are numbered alike. No pieces have been swapped in from other guns.
The action is silky smooth and the trigger pull is light, almost as if the gun has had an action job. I have not yet pulled the sideplate to look at the works, but probably will this evening or in the course of tomorrow. There is just a bit of end play in the cylinder, but a shim will fix that. There is no push off problem. Bore and chambers are excellent.
The impression I get from the gun is that a serious shooter wanted a .45 Colt target revolver and built one from an available .455/Second, which he refinished as part of the conversion process. The rubber grips are just this side of horrible, but there's no denying that they make a comfortable handful for targeting. I'm really looking forward to trying this one out at the range.
This gun has lost all appeal to purist collectors because of the modifications. Ordinarily I would walk by something like this without a second look. But something about it said, "Take me seriously," so I did. And then I took it home.
This started life as a .455 Hand Ejector, Second Model. The S/N is 73778, making it one of the last .455s produced under the WWI British contract. I'm sure I will find that it shipped in 1916.
But it is a .455 no longer. It has been converted to .45 Colt. The rim thickness problem was solved not by counterboring the chambers a bit or planing the entire back of the cylinder, but by planing a few thousandths of an inch off the face of the recoil shield. (The original serial number remains intact on the back of the cylinder.)
The new chambering (CAL. 45 S.W., which perhaps someone can explain to me) was stamped on the barrel above and back from the rollmark that identifies the original chambering.
It has also been converted from a fixed sight revolver to one with adjustable sights. "Micro" brand front and rear sight components are now installed. The rear unit looks solid and reliable; the front sight looks like the conning tower on a submarine.
The gun has been refinished. A few scattered points on the gun reveal where pits were too deep to be removed completely, but they are almost invisible. The polish was not a high polish undertaking, but rather a military grade polish in which striations are still visible under the somewhat thin satin blue job. But screw holes are not dished and the sideplate edges are not rounded. The polish was very professionally done. The fact that the roll marks are still crisp shows how sensitive the refinisher was.
One refinishing oddity is that the hammer and trigger were blued, then the sides of the hammer were polished back to bright steel -- almost as if the refinisher were following a Colt protocol.
British proof stamps, if shallow, may have been buffed away. On the gun now I find only the crossed penants (I think) at the rearmost point of the frame on the left side, and the Crown/30 stamp on the butt. EDITED 9/9/10 TO ADD: I now think the mark I called "crossed penants" is in fact two facing broad arrows, a completely different British mark.
The serial number is still quite legible, too.
All parts are numbered alike. No pieces have been swapped in from other guns.
The action is silky smooth and the trigger pull is light, almost as if the gun has had an action job. I have not yet pulled the sideplate to look at the works, but probably will this evening or in the course of tomorrow. There is just a bit of end play in the cylinder, but a shim will fix that. There is no push off problem. Bore and chambers are excellent.
The impression I get from the gun is that a serious shooter wanted a .45 Colt target revolver and built one from an available .455/Second, which he refinished as part of the conversion process. The rubber grips are just this side of horrible, but there's no denying that they make a comfortable handful for targeting. I'm really looking forward to trying this one out at the range.
This gun has lost all appeal to purist collectors because of the modifications. Ordinarily I would walk by something like this without a second look. But something about it said, "Take me seriously," so I did. And then I took it home.
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