1917 British contract .455 Colt Government Model pistol

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varifleman

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Here for your perusal is British Government Contract 1917 .455 Eley Colt Government Model Pistol No. W 92124 which was 1 of 300 shipped to the London Armoury Company on March 30, 1917. Photos show British Military Crossed Pennants and Broad Arrow property and proof marks.



close up of various British acceptance and property marks (broad arrow)


.455 Eley magazine




.455 Eley barrel showing notch to accept the .455 auto round


 
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This thread deserves much more attention that it's getting. That's a very sought after pistol you've posted. Thank you for taking the time to show it to us! Although the reply count doesn't reflect it, I'm sure there are a number of people who really appreciate seeing rare and interesting milsurps such as this.

As a side note, I don't understand why things like this fly under the radar while threads regarding $150 sporterized Lee Enfields get 20+ replies...:confused:

- Chris
 
student of history said:
This thread deserves much more attention that it's getting. That's a very sought after pistol you've posted. Thank you for taking the time to show it to us! Although the reply count doesn't reflect it, I'm sure there are a number of people who really appreciate seeing rare and interesting milsurps such as this.

As a side note, I don't understand why things like this fly under the radar while threads regarding $150 sporterized Lee Enfields get 20+ replies...:confused:

- Chris
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Thanks Chris; all remarks/replies appreciated. Can you own such a pistol in Canada or is it "prohibited" under your gun laws? I've shot this pistol with a magazine of the 1917/1918 head stamp Royal navy issue .455 self-loading ammo shown in the Webley & Scott Model 1913 .455 Royal Navy Pistol and 6 of the 7 still went bang; not bad for almost 100-yr old ammo!
 
varifleman said:
Thanks Chris; all remarks/replies appreciated. Can you own such a pistol in Canada or is it "prohibited" under your gun laws? I've shot this pistol with a magazine of the 1917/1918 head stamp Royal navy issue .455 self-loading ammo shown in the Webley & Scott Model 1913 .455 Royal Navy Pistol and 6 of the 7 still went bang; not bad for almost 100-yr old ammo!
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Thankfully, all standard military 1911/A1 pistols are legal to own here in Canada. They fall into the "restricted" classification which essentially just means that we need to register them with our federal gov't.

If however, the barrel length of a pistol is 105mm (4.13 inches) or less, it falls into the 12.6 "prohibited" category which means that the average person cannot own it. Most military pistols are restricted rather than prohibited but unfortunately a number of them do fall into the prohibited category. A standard WWI/WWII P08 Luger is an example of a 12.6 prohibited class firearm while its partner in crime, the P38 is completely legal... due to a slightly longer barrel.

Anyways, nice pistol, thanks for showing it off and please keep posting interesting pieces for your friendly northern neighbours to admire!

P.S. That ammo is actually pretty collectible these days so if you've got anymore of it stashed away maybe hold off on firing it. :p

- Chris
 
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Nice pistol! very hard to come by, I've bought the only two that I've seen for sale in Canada. One is from the second shipment in 1916 with JJ goodbody and British acceptance proofs, and the other is a from 1918 with no acceptance proof which is ok with these pistols, some got them some didn't.
 
Hi CGNregular: I was able to get about 250 rounds of the .455 auto ammo in mostly the 7-round packets and loose rounds a few years ago and thus will keep most of them as collector ammo and fire a few rounds every now and then.



 
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Very nice Colt. Most of the .455 1911's that ended up in the U.S. were switched over to .45ACP many years ago. My buddy bought several .455 barrels, slides and mags on eBAY back in the good old days to rectify ones he found up here. Due to health reasons he was forced to sell everything which included 8 or 9 .455 1911's.
 
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