The Colt 'New Service' appreciation Thread

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Oyeboten

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These are just such wonderful Revolvers...I figured a Thread of their own would be fun.


Here's one in .45 Long Colt, a longer Barrel model...has the Lanyard Loop too as many did...made around 1912 if memory serve


There is something about .45 LC when you have the empty Cylinder open, and are about to load...those chambers...it's sobering in it's way.


I hope to be re-loading for it soon, and to chronograph various results.


A Pack of Camels for scale...these were pretty hefty Revolvers.


 
Very nice there C&L..!


The New Service, I believe were just a little larger than the S&W big Frames, or "N" Frames...so, between Colt and S&W, in those days, there was a kind of respective series of sizes to suit anyone well...Colts running just a little larger in their graduated sizes of Models, than those roughly co-responding ones of S&W.
 
I have an M1917 Colt in .45ACP, and it really is a nice gun. It looks more businesslike, less graceful somehow than the S&W M1917 (of which I also have an example). But I need to get the trigger lightened. It has a long trigger reach, and the military M1917 sometimes had a slightly heavier, grittier trigger than the commercial New Services. I have hands with short fingers, and I can't get the joint of my index finger, but only the pad on the New Service's trigger. This means I get less leverage on the trigger, so if it's heavy, it's harder for me to shoot. I submitted a request to Grant Cunningham, since he recently opened up his waiting list, after a long delay (unfortunately, he e-mailed back saying "sorry, tough luck, I opened up too many slots, I can't fill them all, and you're one of the guys I'm screwing out of a place on the list since I can't plan better [&+*@^*%#!!!]) so I'll have to get someone else to do the work. But even as it is, with a rather long, heavy double action trigger, the M1917 shoots very well, and I like it better than the S&W. In SA mode, it's a tack driver.
 
I have a New Service from 1919, in 45 Colt. They are quite the double action revolver. This one was originally sent to the Royal Northwest Mounted Police.

Rod

ColtNSDS.jpg

:)
 
Perhaps the most significant nearly lost information about New Service revolvers is from the endurance acceptance tests during the competition to replace the M1909 revolver with a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol. Among pistols the M1911 was the only one that completed the test without a malfunction. The only other handgun to achieve perfection was the control - a M1909 revolver.
 
Hi Naphtali,


I did not know this.


I do remember reading some of the details of the tests, and they were truly grueling...and one stands in awe that anything could make it through.


1994, I had a job for a week, working with a Contractor who was doing a Tree survey for the Dep't of the Interior, or maybe it was for some Nevada State Dep't, I forget, way up in the remote Mountain Valleys of rural Nevada. Lots of Hiking...locating specific Species Trees, taking Core Samples and measuring Trunk diameters and so on...

I carried a New Service 5 Inch Barrel, in .45 LC...two charged Speed Loaders in my Trouser Pocket, period Flap Holster, and a full box of Cartridges in my Muesette Bag.


Felt like the most natural and perfect Arm to have with.


There is definitely something about the remote out of doors, and, having a big bore New Service on one's hip.


I love the M1911 dearly...but, for some conditions, the election of what Arm to have, intuitive and reasoned both, has always seemed clear.


I had a few instances where an appreciation for the Lanyard Loop occured also....though none of these involved the Revolver falling out of the snug and protecting Flap Holster or anything, but, one can have close calls of somewhat partially slipping, tripping or sliding on steep terrain and or steep terrain and in steep loose rocky soils, and be glad nothing worse happened.

If one had been holding the Revolver in hand, of course, one could very eaily have dropped it, and seen it skitter down long embankments or other...ugh...Lol...
 
Maybe an even more interesting thread would be titled, The Model of 1917 Service Revolver Appreciation so as to include Colt's close rival as an interesting comparison treatise.
 
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