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Enfield revolver

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Enfield Mk II Revolver
TypeService pistol
Place of originUnited Kingdom
Service history
In service1880–1905
Used byUnited Kingdom & Colonies, Northwest Mounted Police
WarsBritish colonial conflicts
Production history
DesignerRSAF Enfield
Designed1879
ManufacturerRSAF Enfield
Produced1880–1889
Specifications
Length11.5in. (292mm)
Barrel length5.75in. (458mm)
Cartridge.476" Revolver Mk II
Caliber.476 Enfield
ActionDouble Action revolver
Rate of fire18 rounds/minute
Muzzle velocity600ft/sec
Effective firing range25yds
Maximum firing range200yds
Feed system6-round cylinder
Sightsfixed front post and rear notch

Enfield Revolver is the name applied to two totally separate models of self-extracting British handgun designed and manufactured at the government-owned Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield; initially the .476 calibre Enfield Mk I/Mk II revolvers (from 1880–1889), and later the .38/200 calibre Enfield No. 2 Mk I (from 1923–1957).

The .476 calibre Enfield Mk I and Mk II revolvers were the official sidearm of both the British Army and the Northwest Mounted Police—as well as being issued to many other Colonial units throughout the British Empire—and the later model .38/200 Enfield No. 2 Mk I revolver was the standard British/Commonwealth sidearm in the Second World War, alongside the Webley Mk IV and Smith & Wesson Victory Model revolvers chambered in the same calibre. It should be noted that the term "Enfield Revolver" is not applied to Webley Mk VI revolvers built by RSAF Enfield between 1923 and 1926.

Enfield Mk I & Mk II Revolvers

The first models of Enfield revolver—the Mark I and Mark II—were official British military sidearms from 1880 through 1887, and issue sidearms of the Northwest Mounted Police in Canada from 1883 until 1911,[1] when they had been completely phased out replaced with the .45 calibre Colt New Service revolver. By this time, 1079 Enfield revolvers had been delivered to the NWMP.[2]

The .476 Enfield cartridge that the Enfield Mk I/Mk II were chambered for fired a 265gr lead bullet, loaded with 18gr of black powder.[3] The cartridge was, however, found to be somewhat underpowered during the Afghan Wars and other contemporary Colonial conflicts, lacking the stopping power believed necessary for military use at the time.

Unlike most other self-extracting revolvers (such as the Webley service revolvers or the Smith & Wesson No. 3 Revolver), the Enfield Mk I/Mk II was somewhat complicated to unload, having an Owen Jones selective extraction/ejection system which was supposed to allow the firer to eject spent cartridges, whilst retaining live rounds in the cylinder. The Enfield Mk I/Mk II had a hinged frame, and when the barrel was unlatched, the cylinder would move forward, operating the extraction system and allowing the spent cartridges to simply fall out. The idea was that the cylinder moved forward far enough to permit fired cases to be completely extracted (and ejected by gravity), but not far enough to permit live cartridges (ie, those with projectiles still present, and thus longer in overall length) from being removed in the same manner.

The system was obsolete as soon as the Enfield Mk I was introduced, especially as it required reloading one round at a time via a gate in the side (much like the Colt Single Action Army or the Nagant M1895 revolvers). Combined with the somewhat cumbersome nature of the revolver, and a tendency for the action to foul or jam when extracting cartridges, the Enfield Mk I/Mk II revolvers were never popular and eventually replaced in 1889 by the .455 calibre Webley Mk I revolver.

Enfield No. 2 Mk I Revolver

Enfield No 2 Mk I Revolver
File:Revolver Enfield No2 Mk I.jpg
TypeService pistol
Place of originUnited Kingdom
Service history
In service1932–1963
Used byUnited Kingdom & Colonies, British Commonwealth,
WarsWorld War II, Korean War, British colonial conflicts, numerous others
Production history
DesignerRSAF Enfield, Webley & Scott
Designed1928
ManufacturerRSAF Enfield
Produced1932–1957
No. builtapprox 270,000
VariantsEnfield No 2 Mk I*, Enfield No 2 Mk I**
Specifications
Mass1.7lb (765g), unloaded
Length10.25in. (260 mm)
Cartridge.380" Revolver Mk IIz
Caliber.38/200
ActionDouble Action revolver (Mk I* and Mk I** Double Action Only)
Rate of fire20–30 rounds/minute
Muzzle velocity570ft/s (170m/s)
Effective firing range15yds
Maximum firing range200yds
Feed system6-round cylinder
Sightsfixed front post and rear notch

After the First World War, it was decided by the British Government that a .38 calibre (9.65 mm) pistol firing a 200 grain (13 g) bullet would be as effective as the .455 calibre (11.6 mm) round.[4][5] There is some doubt as to how true this actually was, as the .38/200 round gives comparable performance to the modern .38 Special cartridge—which is not nearly as powerful as the .455 Webley round.

File:Webley Military Mark IV 1793.jpg
Webley Mk IV .38/200 revolver. The similarities between the Webley and Enfield designs are rather obvious.

Nonetheless, the British firm of Webley & Scott tendered their Webley Mk IV revolver in .38/200 calibre.[6] Rather than adopting it, the British authorities took the design to the Government-run Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield, and the Enfield factory came up with a revolver that was very similar to the Webley Mk IV .38, but internally slightly different. The Enfield-designed pistol was quickly accepted under the designation Revolver, No 2 Mk I, and was adopted in 1932,[7] followed in 1938 by the Mk I* (spurless hammer, double action only),[8] and finally the Mk I** (simplified for wartime production) in 1942.[9]

Webley sued the British Government for £2,250, being "costs involved in the research and design" of the revolver. Their action was contested by Enfield, who stated that the Enfield No 2 Mk I was actually designed by Captain Boys (the Assistant Superintendent of Design, famous for the Boys Rifle) with assistance from Webley & Scott, and not the other way around—accordingly, their claim was denied. By way of compensation, however, the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors awarded Webley & Scott £1,250.[10]

Variants

There were two main variants of the Enfield No 2 Mk I revolver- the Mk I*, which had a spurless hammer and was double action only, meaning that the hammer could not be thumb-cocked by the shooter for each shot, and the Mk I**, which was a variant of the Mk I* simplified for wartime production in 1942, but discontinued shortly thereafter as a result of safety concerns over some of the introduced modifications.

The vast majority of Enfield No 2 Mk I revolvers were modified to Mk I* during WWII, generally as they came in for repair or general maintenance;[11] the official explanation of the change to the Mk I* version was that the Tank Corps had complained the spur on the hammer was catching on protrusions inside tanks, but most historians nowadays believe that the real reason was that the Mk I* version was cheaper and faster to manufacture.[12] The No 2 Mk I* is at least as accurate as any other service pistol of its time in normal short-range combat situations, because of the relatively light double action trigger pull. It is not, however, the best choice for precision shooting—the double action pull will throw the most competent shooter's aim off enough to noticeably affect accuracy at ranges of more than 15 yards or so.[13] Some unit Armourers are known to have retrofitted the Enfield No 2 Mk I* back to the Mk I variant, but this was never an official policy and appears to have been done on an individual basis. Despite officially being declared obsolete at the end of WWII, the Enfield (and Webley revolvers) were not completely phased out in favour of the Browning Hi-Power until April 1969.[14]

The Enfield No 2 is very fast to reload—as are all British top-break revolvers—because of its automatic ejector, which simultaneously removes all six cases from the cylinder. A modern speedloader designed for Smith & Wesson K-Frame revolvers will function with any of the British .38/200 top-break revolvers, further speeding reloading.
British combat experience during WWII with the .38/200 Enfield revolvers during WWII seemed to confirm that, for the average soldier, the Enfield No. 2 Mk I could be used far more effectively than the bulkier and heavier .455 calibre Webley revolvers that had been issued during WWI.[15] Despite this, the Enfield No. 2 Mk I* revolvers were not popular with troops, many of whom took the first available opportunity to dump them in favour of Smith & Wesson, Colt, or Webley revolvers.[16]

Other manufacturers

The vast majority of Enfield No 2 revolvers were made by RSAF (Royal Small Arms Factory) Enfield, but wartime necessities meant that numbers were produced elsewhere. Albion Motors in Scotland made the Enfield No 2 Mk I* from 1941–1943, whereupon the contract for production was passed onto Coventry Gauge & Tool Co. By 1945, 24,000[17] Enfield No 2 Mk I* and Mk I** revolvers had been produced by Albion/CG&T. The Howard Auto Cultivator Company (HAC) in New South Wales, Australia tooled up and began manufacturing the Enfield No 2 Mk I* and I** revolvers in 1941, but the production run was very limited (estimated at around 350 or so revolvers in total), and the revolvers produced were criticised for being non-interchangeable, even with other HAC-produced revolvers. Very few HAC revolvers are known to exist, and it is thought by many collectors that most of the HAC revolvers may have been destroyed in the various Australian Gun Amnesties and "Buy-Backs".

Notes

  1. ^ Maze, Robert J: "Howdah to High Power", page 37. Excalibur Publications, 2002
  2. ^ Maze, Robert J: "Howdah to High Power", page 37. Excalibur Publications, 2002
  3. ^ Maze, Robert J: "Howdah to High Power", page 32. Excalibur Publications, 2002
  4. ^ Stamps, Mark, and Ian Skennerton, .380 Enfield Revolver No. 2, page 9.
  5. ^ Smith, W.H.B, 1943 Basic Manual of Military Small Arms (facsimile), page 11.
  6. ^ Maze, Robert J., Howdah to High Power, page 103.
  7. ^ § A6862, LoC
  8. ^ § B2289, LoC
  9. ^ § B6712, LoC
  10. ^ Stamps, Mark, and Ian Skennerton, .380 Enfield Revolver No. 2, page 12.
  11. ^ § B2289, LoC
  12. ^ Wilson, Royce, "A Tale of Two Collectables", Australian Shooter magazine, March 2006.
  13. ^ Smith, W.H.B, 1943 Basic Manual of Military Small Arms (facsimile), page 11.
  14. ^ Stamps, Mark, and Ian Skennerton, .380 Enfield Revolver No. 2, page 118
  15. ^ Smith, W.H.B, 1943 Basic Manual of Military Small Arms (facsimile), page 11.
  16. ^ Stamps, Mark, and Ian Skennerton, .380 Enfield Revolver No. 2, page 79
  17. ^ Hogg, Ian V., and John Walter.Pistols of the World, 4th Ed.

References

  • Hogg, Ian V., and John Walter.Pistols of the World, 4th Ed. Iola, Wisconsin: Krause Publications, 2004. ISBN 0873494601.
  • Maze, Robert J. Howdah to High Power. Tucson, Arizona: Excalibur Publications, 2002. ISBN 1-880677-17-2.
  • Smith, W.H.B. 1943 Basic Manual of Military Small Arms (facsimile). Harrisburg, Penn.: Stackpole Books, 1979. ISBN 0-8117-1699-6.
  • Stamps, Mark, and Ian Skennerton. .380 Enfield Revolver No 2. London: Greenhill Books, 1993. ISBN 1-85367-139-8.
  • Wilson, Royce. "A Tale of Two Collectables". Australian Shooter magazine, March 2006.
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