doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com .476 Eley and .455 Eley

I have done a bit more digging, both in White & Munhall (1950) and in Erlmeier & Brandt (1980). W&M say that the barrels for "the Enfield revolver", caliber not mentioned, were made at Enfield with the same machinery used to make Martini-Henry barrels. Production of these revolvers was apparently 1880 to 1888. E&B report "There exist 3 versions of the so-called "Enfield Cartridge". .455 Enfield Mark I: The original round, apparently only manufactured in small lots in India in September 1880. .455 Enfield Mark II: Manufacture began in England in November 1880. The bullet was longer than the Mark 1 bullet. .476 Enfield Mark III: Production began in December 1881." The .455 Enfield cartridge had bullets of .450" -.455" diameter, with the idea that the cartridges could be used in the Enfield revolver and also in older revolvers. The diameter of the cartridge case was nominally .477". The length of the loaded cartridge was 1.445" to 1.490". The inside diameter of most Martini-Henry barrels ran about .468". The combination of a .455" bullet fired from a cylinder with a chamber diameter in excess of .477" into a barrel with a diameter of .468" would not be very accurate. The .476 Mk III cartridge had a bullet diameter of .474" to .477", with the hollow base and clay plug. The bullet was a heel design, made to fit into a cartridge case that was nominally .477" in diameter. The loaded .476 Mk. III cartridge was 1.481" to 1.490" long.

W&M report that "Many British Service Revolvers will be found marked on the frame just ahead of the cylinder ".455/.476" This indicates that they will chamber the .455 Enfield, the .476 Enfield, and the later .455 British service cartridges." Apparently, Colt produced revolvers to fit the .476 Enfield Mark III cartridge. It seems logical that the Single Action and the 1889 revolver were produced in small numbers for the .476 cartridge. The .476 cartridge would have been in production, so why turn down sales? But the .476 went out of production in 1892, years before the New Service Colts appeared.

The later .455 British Service Revolver cartridges had cartridge case diameters of .478" or .479", but loaded lengths of 1.429" to 1.448", a bit shorter than the "Enfield cartridges". E&B report the existence of a .476 Enfield Short cartridge, headstamped "KYNOCH 476 C" with a loaded length of 1.264". They say "This was to be fired in .455 caliber revolvers for which the .476 Enfield Mk III was too long". So MP is correct. The .476 may or may not chamber in your .455. It depends on cylinder length.