I don't feel it was a chambering error on Colt's part with regards to their early style cylinders requiring the use of moonclips.

With regards to the cylinders possibly being reamed for .455.......the .455 Webley case is considerably shorter than the .45acp case so I would feel that the tapered shoulder for .455 Webley ammo would be too shallow to allow a .45acp round to go in as far as they do in my early Colt M1917. Now the .455 Colt Dominion case is closer in length to the .45acp case but unfortunately I do not have any .455 Webley or .455 Colt Dominion ammo to see if their slightly larger diameters will even fit into the early Colt M1917 chambers. (Just do a Google Images search of ".45 acp vs .455 Webley" and you will see what I mean.)

I have read where some folks speculate that Colt may have simply used .45Colt cylinders in their early M1917 revolvers. I feel this to not be the case as one can clearly see that the much longer .45Colt rounds will not chamber properly in my all-original early Colt M1917 example......not by a longshot.

I feel Colt simply knew the .45acp M1917 revolver ammo was going to be issued on moonclips and made sure the chambering method used on their early examples would allow for ample room for the .45acp rounds to chamber under the worst of wartime conditions.

I also feel the U.S. government (and possibly even Colt) may have seen the benefit of S&W's M1917 style cylinder that allowed the use of .45acp ammo both with and without moonclips and steered Colt in that direction. IIRC the government may have even asked S&W politely to allow Colt to do something similar with regards to their cylinders. Since the U.S. government had federalized S&W at some point later on in M1917 production this may have also helped with S&W's "decision" to allow such.

Maybe someone has access to actual U.S. government, Colt, or S&W documents that provide more info as to the decision making process at Colt and possible needed permissions from S&W?

Dale

Dale,

If you are referring to the seizure of the S&W factory by the US Government, that occurred in Sept of 1918 and went until January 1919.

Kevin

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