Greetings and a Merry Christmas to all of you. As usual, I'm seeking to pick your brains of the S&W knowledge you have stored there. I have a S&W Model 1917 commercial and have a question about the grips. When I got it, many years ago when they wern't worth much,it had a set of "magna" grips on it. I have since changed them with the older style grips (newly Mfg"d) by S&W. My question is this: When did S&W go to the Magna style grips. I have a letter from Mr. Roy Jinks stating that this gun (Serial # 1738XX) was shipped from the factory in 1921. It also states it was shipped with checkered walnut grips. I saw one a while back on Guns America's web site, with a serial # not too much higher than mine with Magna grips and the seller stated that it was 100% original. Both, of course, are checkered grips and the pictures I sent to Mr. Jinks were not commented upon. So whatdoyathink??????? Thanks for any and all input.
SOUPY in Tennessee

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I am gonna go out on a limb here and say I highly doubt even commercial 1917's were shipped with Magnas. I believe the commercial guns were probably shipped with checkered service type grips with medallions.

Magna grips predate WW2 by a few years, but there is a noticable difference between the pre-war variation and the post war grips on your gun. Below is a picture of a set of pre-war magnas.



Hope this helps

Curtis,
Thanks for the information.
SOUPY

are these guns safe to fire with modern 45 acp

"are these guns safe to fire with modern 45 acp "

Of course. The ballistics of the WWI .45 ACP military cartridge is essentially the same as the standard .45 ACP cartridge made today. I suppose some handloads could be made up hot enough to avoid using them in a M1917. The M1917s had heat-treated cylinders for maximum strength. The Army required it.

Welcome to the forum.

Just a tip to a new member. You are better served starting your own thread if you need information. This is an old thread from 2009. FWIW

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James Redfield
LM #497