.455 Colt Eley New Service

[Grapeshot]

Anyone out there know how to lighten up the DA trigger pull on an Old Colt New Service?

[MtGun44]

Lighter mainspring, polishing and some other tricks. These old Colts are not for
the faint of heart to fiddle on the innards. Lots to mess up and not as many
folks out there to fix it back up if you make a hash of it. Kunhausen's book is
good, but if you aren't pretty handy, I don't recommend much changing other
than replacing the mainspring or modifying the original, assuming you might get
a replacement if needed.

Bill

[Dutchman]

Had one of these beasts for a time. Had a .45 Colt chambering reamer run into the cylinder. Functioned fine that way. Was mfg about 1915 and came back from UK pre-1955 ascertained by the proofmarks. Basically these have a Webley lockwork. This one had a trigger over-travel stop soldered on the backside of the trigger. Worked real good, too. I'm a Smith & Wesson man. I don't miss this boat anchor ;-).

http://images42.fotki.com/v663/photos/4/28344/9895637/DSC00157x-vi.jpg

[ddixie884]

If the trigger is really hard in double action, Skeeter Skelton said you could take the grips off, and put a round screwdriver blade between between the leaves of the V-shaped mainspring and cock the hammer and release it a few times. I have done this and it works. Mainsprings on these wartime revolvers were very strong for trench warfare. Parts are hard to get for these guns so don't overdo it.

[smkummer]

Yes, you can insert a small awl or nail between the V mainspring and then cock the hammer. If you make it too light, it will still fire in single action but might start mis firing in double action. This works for all V mainspring Colts. The new service may be more forgiving than a small detective special when lightning the mainspring. I would try the smallest first and see if that is enough. the parts are the same for the more common 1917 army but are getting harder and harder to find. I also have the same gun as pictured above that was converted to 45 Colt and its a fun shooter. Even with a pachmayr grip adapter its very hard for me to shoot it in double action and is almost always shot in single action. Of course if I were getting over run in the trenches, I would have plenty of strength to empty the revolver in double action.

[Dutchman]

Even with a pachmayr grip adapter its very hard for me to shoot it in double action and is almost always shot in single action. Of course if I were getting over run in the trenches, I would have plenty of strength to empty the revolver in double action.

Pachmayr Presentation grips are available for the New Service. I had a new set on the pictured Colt. Huge difference in how you could handle this monster.

The New Service is not a "war time" revolver. They are commercial off-the-shelf guns.

Dutch

[David LaPell]

This is my old New Service from 1934 which was one of 1,000 apparently made up of 1909 Colt barrels and 1917 Colt frames, which is why it has the straight barrel so late in the series. As much as I am a Smith guy, I like this gun I really do although I always wanted a New Service in .38-40 more but could never find a nice one I could afford and this one fell in my lap. One thing you can do is try and find a Pachmayr grip adapter like I did (I actually had about 2 dozen of them when I found a stash of more than 60 but they are all gone now). This made a big difference in the way the gun felt and shot. I personally would not mess with the trigger since the Colt action is nothing I want to mess with, Smiths are easier. But its a fun shooter it really is and I would like nothing more than a whitetail to wander in front of this old timer, with the right bullet it would be no problem at 25-30 yards.

http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/ss57/Smith29-2/newservicestump.jpg

[ddixie884]

If it has British proof marks on it it was sent to britain for WW1................