Anyone heard of a US Marshals issue Bisley that was modified from 38/40(for the light weight and size for cracking heads) to 45 for knockdown power. Family story(???) goes that it was retrived from Marshal shot in the back(has hole and blood? stain in rear center of belt) Is marked 38 WCF on barrel and all serial #'s match. Barrel bore and cylinder is sized for 45 cal. I suppose one could bore out the barrel to 45, but there seems to be plenty of thickness to the barrel and the cylinder. A larger bore in the cylinder might leave the walls a little on the thin side. Colt says it was shipped 3/26/03 to Simmons Hdwr in St Louis and my GGdad lived in the Missouri/OK/IT area. Have used resources on this site and links to narrow down Marshals and Deputies killed after '03. A lot of 'em shot but none I can find in the back, might've come in the other way(you know how family stories are sometimes)
Have read all discussions and don't see much mention of weapons issued if any actually were.
Great site!!!
Thanx in advance,
Dave

I can't say that I've heard of sidearms being issued to deputy U.S. marshals. Not saying they couldn't have been...I've just never seen documentation of such during this time period. As for the Bisley...that's a fairly rare sidearm to find in any context especially one with a family story.

Regarding the 38/40 to 45 Long Colt - not saying it couldn't be done, but it would seem more likely that they would have bored it out from .38/40 to .44/40 as I believe the diameter of the cartridge case is the same in both.

Any idea what the name of the deputy reputed to have owned it was?

Good luck! Great story!