My uncle and a lot of other hillbillies used to call a Smith and Wesson a "Smith and Western."

I've piddled with just about every basic handgun caliber and this past weekend I went to the National Gun Day gun show at Louisville KY. I sold an Enfield NO.1 MIII, a Colt 1927 Sistema, and a 6-inch M&P from the 1930's. I was looking for a 1917 Colt or Smith. A shooter not a looker. My budget out of principal was around $800. Found a few that were too good and too high in price. Found a few Brazilians that weren't worth what they wanted and looked rough.

I had plenty of spending money with me, but I'm a tightwad in my later years and it was looking like I was going to talk myself out of buying a 45 revolver when I saw a shiny one back in a display case. Timing was excellent. Lock up was perfect. The bore was gobbed off with copper from hardball, but I could see really good rifling only as usual very shallow.

I took this one home with me. 1937 Brazilian contract. Been absorbing all I can about reloading for it. I used a .454 plug gage that I had, and it fits snugly in each chamber. So it looks like I'll need .454 boolits. I powder coated some Lee .452 200 Gr. RNFP and got them close to throat diameter. I have them loaded in auto rim cases over 5.6 grains of 231. Tomorow I'll load a few .452 255 grain RNFP Lee bullets over 6 grains of Unique and try them out. I used NO.2 alloy. I'll take a variety of ammo to the range in a day or two and see what this revolver is capable of. I just hope it's not one of those projects that I always going back to the drawing board. LOL

Bob

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Sincerely,

Hobie

Excellent! I always loved the Smith 45’s. I have one on the way right now. The pictures weren’t great so I took a stab at it and came out as the top bidder. It’s definitely more worn than yours but hopefully it’ll be a decent shooter.

While the WWI guns are neater due to the history, the 1937’s had a better sight picture.

I have that same 200gr RNFP mold and shoot a lot of them out of 45 acp and 45 S&W brass in my 45 Colts. Hope it shoots well for you!

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Very nice looking .45 ACP/AR, I sure wish to find a 1917 S&W . I have 4 S&W 45ACP`s The oldest is a Model 25, with .454 Throats, the other`s I can run .452 bullets in them . A few years ago I bought a thousand auto rim case`s from Starline , and about a hundred 6 round clips . so I`am set for awhile . Make sure to post how your new gun shoot`s , best regards Frank from Lowell Mi.

Weather not cooperating this week. I did mold out some Lee RNFP 255 grain bullets and low and behold they won't push through the cylinder throats. At least not easy like all the rest. So, I loaded up 20 over 6 grains of Unique to try. I don't have a .454 sizing die, so I used LLA on them.

Back in the mid 1990's I acquired a Colt 1917 that was my first .45ACP revolver... about 20 years ago I had to let it go to pay some medical bills and had wanted another .45ACP revolver to replace it... I found a S&W 625 (Model of 1988) but again in 2011 I had to let it go...

I've been wanting another one ever since... So to bring us up to current date, I found a S&W 1917 in .45ACP this last year for about 5 and a half bills so I snatched it up... it's not original in that sometime in it's past life it had been nickel plated and it looks like all the "U.S. Government) markings were removed however the "S&W DA .45" on the left side of the barrel is still crisp and clear ... but for what I paid, I figure I could live with that in that it'll be a shooter and not a safe-queen... I did replace the cracked and worn grip panels with a set of Jay Scott panels and installed a T-Grip adapter to fill the gap between the trigger housing and the grip frame... one thing I did find interesting is that the serial number 147X puts the manufacture date in early 1917 according to S&W web site... the serial number matched on the bottom of the barrel and on the edge of the crane ahead of the cylinder... unfortunately there were no serial number stamp on the back of the cylinder (probably removed during polishing to nickel plate the revolver)... it is a sweet shooting revolver and I was able to hit a coffee can repeatedly at 25 yards with it...

Sorry about the pictures... the camera doesn't focus as well as I liked so some of the detail is not easy to see...

here's the other side

Back in '84 I stopped in Melbourne, FL on my way back from the Amazon Basin to study up in MO. A couple of young ladies had purchased a car and their dad didn't want them traveling alone, so would I stop in and travel with them? Sure. But schedules worked out that I stayed at their place for a few days while one of them finished up her last days of work. In the meantime I met some of their friends and one of them invited me out into the swamps to shoot guns. One of them was an old 1917, the first I ever saw. Have had the urge to get one ever since, just not the opportunity. Anyway, looks like you got a great example for a shooter!

Mine came in today! It shows a lot of wear on the exterior but the bore and chambers are in pretty good shape. It was packed pretty full of grease or cosmoline. I got the barrel and cylinder cleaned and doused the guts with oil until I have time to tear it apart and clean it for real. Looking forward to shooting it soon.

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Character in spades.

I’d say it’s been around! Always curious on the life these old guns have seen. This one, not being a military issue revolver makes me even more curious.

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Odd how two of us six-shooters were looking for the same thing at the same time?

I will try to get to the range today and shoot a variety of loads through my 1937 and report back as to what it likes and doesn't like. I have a .454 sizing die coming as my throats are about .4535. (My .454 plug gage is a .454 minus). Most of my bullets are too small for the throats but all are hard. From what I have been reading a .452 bullet might tilt somewhat after exiting the case as it is traveling though the throat as being the reason regular 45 acp bullets might not shoot well.

One would think that with the firing process occurring at such fast speeds by the time the bullet enters the forcing cone and down the barrel everything would equalize and swage the bullet true through the barrel. I'll find out.

I've read a lot of what may or may not be gibberish about jacketed bullets wearing the rifling out of 45 ACP hand ejectors that I am wondering if it is people just repeating things, they have read about this occurrence without any firsthand experience.

I can see someone who thinks he is an expert looking into the bore of one of these revolvers at a gunshop and see the shallow rifling and say to himself, "looks like they wore down the rifling shooting too much hardball". When he unknowingly didn't realize the rifling was shallow to start with because it was designed to shoot with hardball. Then he repeats what he saw elsewhere, and it snowballs over a period of years.

But maybe I'm wrong about this?

It’s funny because I wasn’t really looking for one, already having a few various .45 Smtihs. This one was at auction a couple weeks back and the price seemed awfully low so I I threw a fairly low bid at it and ended up winning!

As to the long held beliefs, I agree with you on those points. I have read many times that they had fairly shallow rifling from
The factory. I have also read and heard they will not shoot cast bullets well, but I have seen just the opposite several times. I don’t have a set of plug gauges and haven’t measured mine at all yet, butninfigurenill give it a try with my standard 200gr lead reload and some factory 230 fmj. Mr Taffin has some good, warmer loads for 255-ish cast bullets in the acp that brings it right up to factory.45 Colt levels of performance and they have worked well for me in a couple different revolvers. It looks like I will be off work Friday and if the rain and high of 40° doesn’t big me too much I may go give it a quick try at the range!

Hope yours does well!

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I made it to the range for a bit today, but didn’t have the greatest results…

My Smith shot decent for the most part but not amazing. Fist sized groups or smaller for the most part. Everything shot to the left for me off of a rear but standing and plinking at the plates, I did pretty decently. I short a mix of handloads already on hand, some Lee 200 gr RNFP’s over 5.5 gr of 231 and some 210 swc’s over 5.5 of unique. Also shot a few some factory 230 hardball. The 210’s shot the best but of course I don’t have any more of those bullets. I do have a couple of 200-ish gr SWC molds so I may have to cast some more up and give it another try. I think mine has larger throats like yours so I may try shooting some ‘as-cast’ bullets either powder coated or Lee liquid alox and see how they do.

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