M1917 revolver
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| M1917 Revolver | |
|---|---|
 Colt M1917 |
|
| Type | Revolver |
| Place of origin | U.S. |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1917 - c. 1954 |
| Used by | U.S. |
| Wars | World War I, World War II,Korean War and Vietnam War{reportably} |
| Production history | |
| Designer | 1917 |
| Produced | 1917-1918 |
| Number built | c. 300,000 total (c. 150,000 per manufacturer) |
| Variants | Slightly differing versions of the M1917 were made by Colt (shown above) and Smith & Wesson |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 2.5 pounds (Colt) 2.25 lbs (S&W) |
| Length | 10.8 in |
| Barrel length | 140 mm (5.5 inch) |
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|
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| Cartridge | .45 ACP |
| Action | double action, solid frame with swing-out cylinder |
| Effective range | 50 yards |
| Feed system | six-round cylinder, loaded singly or with 2 three-round half-moon clips |
| Sights | blade front sight, notched rear sight |
The M1917 Revolver (formally United States Revolver, Caliber .45, M1917) was a U.S. six-shot revolver of .45 ACP caliber. It was adopted by the U.S. Army in 1917 to supplement the standard M1911 .45 ACP semi-automatic pistol during WWI. Afterwards, it was primarily used by secondary and non-deployed troops. There were two subvariations of the M1917, one from Colt and one from S&W.
Contents |
[edit] Background
U.S. civilian arms companies of Colt and Remington as well as other companies were producing M1911 pistols under contract for the U.S. Army, but even with the additional production there existed a shortage of M1911s. The interim solution was to ask the two major producers of revolvers to adapt their heavy-frame civilian revolvers to the standard .45 ACP pistol cartridge.
[edit] Colt M1917 revolver
Colt had until recently produced a revolver for the U.S. Army called the M1909, a version of their heavy-frame, .45-caliber, New Service model in .45 Long Colt to supplement and replace a range of 1890s-era .38 Long Colt Colt and Smith & Wesson revolvers that had demonstrated inadequate stopping power during the Philippine-American War. The Colt M1917 Revolver was essentially the same as the M1909 with a cylinder bored to take the .45 ACP cartridge and the half-moon clips to hold the rimless autopistol rounds in position. In the early Colt production revolvers, attempting to fire the .45 ACP without the half-moon clips was unreliable at best, as the cartridge could slip forward into the cylinder and away from the firing pin. The later production Colt M1917 revolvers had headspacing machined into the cylinder chambers, just as the Smith & Wesson M1917 revolvers had from the start. The later versions of the Colt production could be fired without the half-moon clips, but the empty cartridge cases had to be ejected with a device such as a cleaning rod or pencil, as the cylinder extractor and ejector would pass over the rims of the rimless cartridges.
[edit] Smith & Wesson M1917 revolver
Smith & Wesson recently (c. 1915-16) had produced a rugged service revolver on their heavy .44 caliber frame for the British Army in .455 Webley caliber, due to shortages in British production facilities of standard-issue Webley Mk VI top-break revolvers. The S&W conversion was similar to the Colt modification, except the cylinder was machined to headspace the cartridge. In the Smith and Wesson, the .45 ACP could be fired with or without the half-moon clips.
[edit] Later Use
A rimmed variation of the .45 ACP cartridge later was developed for these handguns to allow both versions to be reliably fired without half-moon clips.
The M1917 remained in service through WWII and was still in use with some reserve units as late as the Vietnam War[citation needed].
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Smith, W.H.B: "1943 Basic Manual of Military Small Arms" (Facsimile). Stackpole Books, Harrisburg PA (USA), 1979. ISBN 0-8117-1699-6
- Field Manual 23-35 Pistols and Revolvers, 26 February 1953
| United States infantry weapons of World War II and Korea |
|---|
| Side arms |
| Colt M1911/A1 | M1917 revolver | Smith & Wesson "Victory" revolver |
| Rifles & carbines |
| Springfield M1903 | M1 Garand | M1 Carbine | M1941 Johnson | Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) |
| Submachine guns |
| Thompson ("Tommy Gun") M1928/M1/A1 | M3 "Grease Gun" | Reising M50/M55 | United Defense M42 |
| Machine guns & other larger weapons |
| Browning M1917 | Browning M1919 | Johnson LMG | Browning M2 HMG | Bazooka | M2 flamethrower |
| Cartridges used during World War II and the Korean War |
| .45 ACP | .38 Special | .30-06 Springfield | .30 Carbine | 9 mm Luger | .50 BMG |
