35 Whelen
Member
For some reason I have an insatiable desire to buy one of these old 45 ACP revolvers. Anyone have any experiences with them?
35W
35W
I should have mentioned the sights! The 1917 has the usual set of patented S&W Completely Invisible Sights™ that all their revolvers before about 1940 had. Modern .45's are a great improvement in that regard.I also opted for the 625, being pretty much the same revolver, but with nice big adjustable sights.
As I understand it was only early Colt 1917's that had straight thru chambers. It was done initially just to meet war demand and only initially. They did later starting using proper chamber reamers. I have a buddy that has a Colt 1917 that will head space correctly without the moonclips.Nice guns. I have an updated version, the 625.
Biggest difference between the Colt & the S&W is you can shoot the S&W without the moonclips if you want/need. The Colts the rounds just go right through the Chambers.
I should have mentioned the sights! The 1917 has the usual set of patented S&W Completely Invisible Sights™ that all their revolvers before about 1940 had. Modern .45's are a great improvement in that regard.
I'm with ya (62). It's mostly just that the front sight is really narrow. Slapping some fluorescent paint on the back of it would help, but the one I shot is my dad's gun, so I didn't. All my older S&W revolvers do have the paint. On a couple of them, you can't even see the front sight if the hammer is down. I've been wondering if maybe people just didn't use sights for a few decades there.Yep, the small sights are a bit of a concern since I'm now on the far side of 55.
35W
The
Cool gun. Looks like the barrel was cut to my eyes and the sight moved back.I've got a Colt 1917 Army.
I don't know if the barrel was original or if someone replaced it with the shorty, but it shoots pretty good.
I can load and shoot this one without moon clips, but moon clips are easier and faster to load and unload.