Perhaps Mack and some others know Mr. Jinks personally, and they believe I would just be another wannabe wasting his time. I don't know Mr. Jinks, and unless he told me that I would be wasting his time himself, I would have no way of confirming it; anyone else's opinion of his duties would be heresay. I simply didn't want to get into a discussion on who's revolvers are worth gaining letters for and who's aren't.

The only reason I have any interest in finding out information on my Model 1917 is because I found it in a shop that deals with high quality used firearms here in Germany. While you can often find Brazilians here, I have not heard of or seen a US issue, non-Brazilian, Model 1917 over here before (you can often find issue M1911A1s) and so was very excited when I found this one, and amazingly at a decent price. Interestingly, it came with commercial gold emblem grips, meaning it had been re-gripped at some time. It was made in 1919, so it can have no WWI history, at least in Germany. I think that it must be an interesting story as to how it came to Germany, although it appears that there may be some others that wouldn't be interested in this information. It is difficult to legally own handguns in Germany, and one must make a serious choice; a hunter may only own two, and a sport shooter may only own two. I possess both licenses (which are expensive, and must be maintained and require quite a bit of time, effort and money to possess) so you can guess how many handguns I own, and this Model 1917 uses up a slot. It has no real use as a hunter's side arm (usually used mostly for finishing shots, or defense from charging boar) or as a sport shooting weapon (used exclusivley for range use), but it meant enough to me to "use" up a slot to acquire it (you cannot possess a firearm for self defense in Germany). It is now back in American hands, and it will stay there, and while it's no great beauty (but a pretty fair shooter), it has the unique feature of being the only one that I can legally own right now.

It is my hope I didn't waste anyone's time or bother anyone with this information. I had really only intended on congratulating Lobo on his fine looking and now lettered S&Ws. I'm especially interested in other's 1917s, both in photos, information and history, as I have developed quite an interest in them, and have learned much about them from others on the forum.