The British may have been the first nation to understand the utility of gunpowder in theory, but sometimes the execution of that theory left something to be desired. Of course, England is home to some of the world's premier gun manufacturers, like Holland & Holland and Webley & Scott. Enfield firearms have also earned their seat of honor in the annals of excellence in firearms ... but there were exceptions to that rule, and today's Throwback Thursday highlights one of them, the British Enfield .476-caliber revolver.
You may be wondering just what could possibly have been wrong enough with this handgun for the British government to abandon it after a mere seven years in service. After all, revolvers are widely known for their reliability, which is more or less built-in to the platform ... right? Yes and no. American-made wheelguns of the time were, in fact, quite reliable, hardy and accurate.
"The British Enfields, the Mark I and Mark II, are an interesting chapter in English history," NRA National Firearms Museum Director Phil Schreier said." Here we have the English kind of arriving late to the game with self-contained metallic cartridges. And they've got Colt and Smith & Wesson as leaders in the field to look up to, take notice of what they've already developed in the 1870s and how to improve on that. And yet they don't really follow any of the lessons learned."
Furthermore, later British-made revolvers eventually did catch up to their Colonial brethren. But in this great video from our friends at American Rifleman, you'll learn the fascinating story behind this broken branch in the revolver's family tree.
