Enfield mk1 no2 rcaf revolver
- Thread starter Ryan_m83
- Start date
Ryan:
With few exceptions, British handguns have not been standard issue to Canadian forces ... rather, our primary-issue military handguns have almost exclusively been American designs ....
One exception was the early RCAF (established 1920 as the Canadian Air Force, and receiving the "Royal" accolade in 1924) which, in 1935, bought 235 of the .380 Enfield revolvers recently adopted by Britain, followed by another 350 such revolvers in 1937. The RCAF was a pretty small service, of course, until the outbreak of WWII, but thereafter more such revolvers were acquired .... approximately 3,500 in total, according to Clive Law's "Canadian Military Handguns 1855-1985". (That is a small number, relatively speaking, when compared with the .38 S&W "Military & Police" revolver adopted for military issue in 1939 - almost 119,000 of which were acquired - and the Inglis-produced 9mm Browning High Power pistol adopted in late 1944 - totaling over 54,000.)
"RCAF" markings (rather than specific unit/squadron markings) were applied either by letter stamp or, as in the case of your revolver, by means of an electric engraver. In my collection of Canadian military handguns I have an example of a "stamped marking" RCAF Enfield revolver -
No. 2 Enfield revolvers generally don't tend to command particularly high prices - say in the range of $200 or $250 - but yours is in nice condition and, being the earlier "unbobbed" type with RCAF provenance, would command a premium. I would pay at least $350 to add such a revolver to my collection .... assuming it is fully functional.
(If you are interested in selling it, send me a PM ...)
With few exceptions, British handguns have not been standard issue to Canadian forces ... rather, our primary-issue military handguns have almost exclusively been American designs ....
One exception was the early RCAF (established 1920 as the Canadian Air Force, and receiving the "Royal" accolade in 1924) which, in 1935, bought 235 of the .380 Enfield revolvers recently adopted by Britain, followed by another 350 such revolvers in 1937. The RCAF was a pretty small service, of course, until the outbreak of WWII, but thereafter more such revolvers were acquired .... approximately 3,500 in total, according to Clive Law's "Canadian Military Handguns 1855-1985". (That is a small number, relatively speaking, when compared with the .38 S&W "Military & Police" revolver adopted for military issue in 1939 - almost 119,000 of which were acquired - and the Inglis-produced 9mm Browning High Power pistol adopted in late 1944 - totaling over 54,000.)
"RCAF" markings (rather than specific unit/squadron markings) were applied either by letter stamp or, as in the case of your revolver, by means of an electric engraver. In my collection of Canadian military handguns I have an example of a "stamped marking" RCAF Enfield revolver -
No. 2 Enfield revolvers generally don't tend to command particularly high prices - say in the range of $200 or $250 - but yours is in nice condition and, being the earlier "unbobbed" type with RCAF provenance, would command a premium. I would pay at least $350 to add such a revolver to my collection .... assuming it is fully functional.
(If you are interested in selling it, send me a PM ...)
