New service mix-up

Guns Magazine, Jan, 2007 by Jeff John

Q: My friend has a Colt .44 New Service revolver and he needs a new cylinder. The gun is mismatched and has a .45 cylinder. We figure it was swapped out when the gun was re-nickled. Can the .45 cylinder be sleeved to .44? He just wants to shoot .44 Specials in it. There is probably a .45 out there somewhere with a .44 cylinder in it....

Les Heaton

via e-mail

A: Unfortunately, sleeving the cylinder is the least viable option. There just isn't enough meat in the cylinder to make it safe and the sleeve walls will be quite thin, too, although the real problem will be getting the extractor to work.

The cheapest way is to rebarrel or rebore the barrel to .45. Try Bowen Classic Arms, P. O. Box 67 Louisville, TN 37777, (865) 984-3583, www.bowenclassicarms.com. The New Service is a fairly straightforward rebarrel job because there is minimal contouring. The second is to search out a new cylinder somewhere, not always an easy task for guns discontinued as long as the New Service.

My suggestion would be to look for a cylinder in .44 Special, .38 Special or .357 Mag. The smaller caliber cylinders could be rebored to .44 Special easily. If you'll broaden your horizon a bit, you can look for a .44-40 cylinder, too. Colt made a lot more New Services in .44-40 than .44 Special and you'll save the cost of reboring.

A good source for pre-war Colt parts is: Colt Parts, Circle C X Antique's, P.O. Box 2197, Fernley, Nevada 89408, (775) 575-6205, www.coltparts.com.