The .476 Enfield, also known as the .476 Eley, .476 Revolver, and occasionally .455/476,Barnes, p.175, ".476 Ely/.476 Enfield Mk-3". is a British centrefire

black powder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). Th ...

revolver A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating handgun that has at least one barrel and uses a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold up to six ro ...

cartridge. The Enfield name derives from the location of the

Royal Small Arms Factory The Royal Small Arms Factory (RSAF) was a UK government-owned rifle factory in Enfield (though some parts were in Waltham Abbey), adjoining the Lee Navigation in the Lea Valley. The factory produced British military rifles, muskets and swords ...

Enfield Lock Enfield Lock is an area in the London Borough of Enfield, north London. It is approximately located east of the Hertford Road between Turkey Street and the Holmesdale Tunnel overpass, and extends to the River Lee Navigation, including the E ...

, the

armoury An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostl ...

where British military small arms were produced, while Eley was a British commercial brand. Used in the Enfield Mk II revolver, the Mk III variant was introduced by the British Army in 1881, supplanting the earlier .476 Enfield Mark I and II cartridges, which in turn had replaced the .450 Adams cartridges, all of which also used black powder propellant.

History

British service use

The .476 Enfield cartridge was only in British service for a comparatively short period before it was replaced by the black powder-loaded .455 Webley Mark I in 1887 and then by the

smokeless powder Finnish smokeless powderSmokeless powder is a type of propellant used in firearms and artillery that produces less smoke and less fouling when fired compared to gunpowder ("black powder"). The combustion products are mainly gaseous, compared to ...

-loaded .455 Webley Mark II in September 1897. Just over 1,000Maze, p.32. Enfield Mark IIs were issued to the

North-West Mounted Police The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) was a Canadian para-military police force, established in 1873, to maintain order in the new Canadian North-West Territories (NWT) following the 1870 transfer of Rupert’s Land and North-Western Territo ...

, and these remained in service until 1911, when the last Enfields were phased out in favour of more modern (and reliable) .45 Colt New Service revolvers.

Interchangeability

Using the same

bullet A bullet is a kinetic projectile, a component of firearm ammunition that is shot from a gun barrel. Bullets are made of a variety of materials, such as copper, lead, steel, polymer, rubber and even wax. Bullets are made in various shapes and con ...

as the .455 (11.6mm) Webley Mark I, the .476 casing is 0.05 mm (0.002 in) longer and carries a charge of 18 gr (1.17 g) of black powder, compared to 6.5 gr (0.42 g) of

cordite Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in the United Kingdom since 1889 to replace black powder as a military propellant. Like modern gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burn ...

in the .455 Mark I. While the .476 Enfield cartridge could be used in any British-manufactured .455 Webley calibre service revolver, there were issues with the later-production Colt or Smith & Wesson .455 Revolver models, which were liable to have slightly smaller bore diameters. Despite the difference in designation, the .476 readily interchanged with the earlier .450 Adams and .455 Webley rounds (the latter in black powder Mark I and smokeless Marks II through VI), as well as the .455 Colt (a U.S. commercial brand for the same .455 Webley round, with slightly different ballistics),Barnes, p.174, ".455 Revolver MK-1/.455 Colt". which all use the same .455 in (11.6mm) bullet, the distinction being which diameter was measured. Officially, .450 Adams, .476 Enfield, and .455 Webley cartridges can all be fired in the Webley Mark III British Government Model revolver;Geoffrey Boothroyd, ''The Handgun'' (Crown Publishers, 1970). although case length, bullet weight and shape, and powder charge differ, all three cartridges feature a case diameter of .476 inch with a bullet diameter of .455 inch, which can be fired in a barrel of .450 inch bore.

Notes

References

*Barnes, Frank C., ed. by John T. Amber. ".476 Ely/.476 Enfield Mk-3", in ''Cartridges of the World'', pp. 175 & 178. Northfield, IL: DBI Books, 1972. . *Barnes, Frank C., ed. by John T. Amber. ".455 Revolver MK-1/.455 Colt", in ''Cartridges of the World'', p. 174. Northfield, IL: DBI Books, 1972. . *Maze, Robert J. ''Howdah to High Power''. Tucson, AZ: Excalibur Publications, 2002. . {{DEFAULTSORT:476 Enfield Pistol and rifle cartridges Military equipment of the United Kingdom Military cartridges Police weapons British firearm cartridges

History

British service use

Interchangeability

See also

Notes

References