The Colt New Service was a dominant player in the large-caliber revolver market for four decades. The New Service was loaded by swinging out the cylinder to the left and inserting six cartridges. Pushing in on the ejector rod extracted all six cases at once. Photo by Nathan Reynolds.

In 1888, Colt employee Carl Ehbets patented a swing-out-cylinder revolver whose cylinder was locked in position by an internal pin that engaged a depression in the center of the rotating ratchet at the rear of the cylinder. The pin was attached to an external latch on the right side of the frame that, when pulled to the rear, disengaged the pin and allowed the cylinder to be swung out to the left where the cartridge cases were ejected by pushing on a rod that passed through the cylinder pin and was attached to a star-shaped ejector. All subsequent Colt swing-out-cylinder revolvers have been based upon that design.

The following year, the U.S. Navy adopted the new Colt revolver chambered for the .38 Long Colt cartridge, and three years later, the Army followed suit. The new Colt .38 revolvers saw their first large-scale combat use during the Spanish-American War (1898), but during the postwar pacification campaign in the Philippines, fighting against the fanatical Muslim Moros showed the shortcomings of the .38 revolver. Juramentado suicide warriors often soaked up multiple .38 projectiles and kept on coming with their kris knives swinging. A more authoritative sidearm was needed, and as it had in the past, the Army looked to Colt.

In 1898, Colt had introduced its first large-caliber, swing-out-cylinder revolver. Called the New Service, it was an up-sized and strengthened variant of the .38 Colt revolver, and it was offered chambered for the popular big-bore revolver cartridges of the day: .38-40, .44-40, .44 Russian, .44 Special, .45 Colt, .450 Boxer (rare), .455 Webley, and .476 Enfield (rare). Options included barrel lengths of 4, 4½, 5, 5½, 6, and 7½ inches; wood or hard rubber grips; and blue or nickel finishes.

The Army purchased several thousand New Service revolvers. Known as the Model of 1909, they were chambered for a variation of the .45 Colt that used a wider rim for more positive ejection. The U.S. Marine Corps obtained a small number that had slightly different shaped grips.

In that same year, Colt improved the New Service's mechanism, replacing a number of leaf springs with coil springs that strengthened the lockwork and reduced parts breakage. The "Colt Positive Lock" was also included in the design. It interposed a steel bar between the hammer and the frame, and that bar prevented the revolver from firing if the hammer was inadvertently released while cocking or if the revolver was dropped on its hammer.

The large-caliber Colt wheelgun proved to be popular with American outdoorsmen and law enforcement. Over the years, the .45-caliber Colt New Service was used by the New York State Police and the highway patrols of Georgia, Utah, and Montana. Michigan State troopers were issued .44-40 New Service revolvers prior to World War I.

The New Service was also popular outside the U.S. Numbers were purchased by British officers for use during the Boer War in South Africa. In 1904, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police adopted the New Service in .455 Webley, and beginning in 1919, they used .45 Colt New Service revolvers. The Cuban government purchased .45 Colt New Services before and after World War I for issue to their army and the Guardia Rurales.

With the outbreak of World War I, the British purchased .455 revolvers from Colt and S&W. As it became obvious that the United States would soon be drawn into the conflict, the Army approached S&W in 1916 about a substitute standard handgun and was offered the .45 Hand Ejector, Second Model revolver. But the Army insisted that any substitute standard handgun had to use the issue pistol cartridge, and the rimless .45 ACP would not function with the S&W revolver's ejector system.