This Mark II was originally issued to the North West Mounted Police, as indicated by this grip stamp. Markings include the NWMP mark, "CANADA" and the issue number.

On today's collector market, Mark Is are certainly scarcer than Mark IIs, though the latter are also elusive. I've been lucky enough to have a Mark I in my collection for a number of years and just recently purchased a Mark II that is listed as having been featured in "Dracula," "The Phantom" and "Mighty Joe Young," but I know it was also used by Preston Foster in the 1940 Cecil B. DeMille epic "North West Mounted Police" and by John Cleese in "Silverado" (actually at my suggestion when the movie was being made.)

The real plus, though, is that it was an actual Mountie revolver, and though the stamping is worn, the grips still have an NWMP/CANADA marking, along with the gun's issue number. While showing use, it was still very serviceable, and despite having been fired with blanks, the bore was quite good. It was dated 1884 and exhibits the double-broad arrow "sale" mark, indicating it was officially and properly released from government stores. Having been sent to Canada early in its career, this Mark II escaped being fitted with the upgraded safety.

I took the revolver to the Angeles Range in Lakeview Terrace, California, (angelesranges.com) along with some of my own black powder handloads that were concocted from .455 Colt brass, FFFg black powder and 290-grain hollow-based .451 pure lead bullets, as well as with some smokeless Dominion 265-grain .455 Colt factory ammo for a control.

Our Mark II was first loaded with the handloads, the "shield" properly freeing the cylinder when opened. The gun could be loaded as quickly as any Single Action Army that I've tried and has the slight advantage that the cylinder can be rotated when the hammer is down, in the rebound position.

First groups were fired from a rest at 25 yards. The wide, paddle-shaped hammer spur allowed the gun to be easily thumb-cocked against a pretty serious mainspring tension. While on the paper and hitting pretty much at point of aim, groups with either type of ammunition were somewhat disappointing. As the bore mikes out at .457, frankly it's amazing the piece shot as well as it did.

The single-action trigger pull was crisp enough, coming in at seven pounds, followed by a lengthy return trigger action, caused by the double-action hammer rebounding mechanism. This also was not conducive to good accuracy. The double-action is hefty, requires a long pull, and is by no means as smooth as that of the earlier Adamses or later Webleys. It certainly appeared to be rugged enough, though I can't imagine these guns ever being tack-drivers, even with the proper .476 load (currently unobtainable except as collector ammo.)

Mark II Enfield revolvers were stamped on their frames with the "VR" (("Victoria Regina") sovereign cipher, date and place of manufacture. Mark Is did not have this.

Extraction of the spent cases presented little problem, but the Colt cases are slightly shorter than the original .476s, and just about every time the bottom case had to be shaken free from the frame. After several cylinders of black powder loads, the action bogged down to a noticeable degree, though it still kept on working.

Overall, my general impressions of the Mark II was good. Because of the Enfield's unorthodox appearance, it has gotten something of a bad reputation over the years, and it was replaced by one of the finest military revolvers ever: the Webley stirrup-latch top break.

Civilian versions of the Enfield were never manufactured and this, to some minds, might constitute a vote of no-confidence. Still, Enfields continued to be used well into the 20th century, and perhaps this hard, long service life explains their relative scarcity today.