S&W M1917 Birth Date

[BigBoy99]

We are in the middle of a move and all my reference books are packed. I don't know in which box contains my S&W books so I have to ask the question. What is the approximate production date for a S&W M1917 with number 340XX? Thanks.

[Wiregrassguy]

March 1918. You can look up manufacturing dates for the 1917's here:

U.S. Military Dates of Manufacture

[BigBoy99]

Originally Posted by Wiregrassguy

March 1918. You can look up manufacturing dates for the 1917's here:

U.S. Military Dates of Manufacture

When I tried to open the site, all I got was a page with the title and nothing else. Just a blank page with a title at the top.

[LLOYD17]

Try this one:

U.S. Military Dates of Manufacture

[DWalt]

Nearly all WWI S&W military M1917s (except for the first 5000 or so) shipped during 1918.

[Jack Flash]

It looks like M1917s were completed and shipped to the Army in 1919, as well.

Here's a quote from Charles Pate:
"S&W was taken over by the National Operating Company, a government backed corporation on September 13, 1918. Management of the factory was overseen by NOC until returning control on January 31, 1919."

So the NOC was managing S&W for at least a month in 1919. It's hard to believe that they allowed the workers to just sit there and do nothing.

Per the website below, using the last s/n in the M1917 run,
"The year of manufacture for serial number 169959 is February, 1919."
So according to that website, S&W was still delivering M1917s to the US Government as late as February, 1919.
U.S. Military Dates of Manufacture

I just thought this was interesting. Does anyone have (or know of) an M1917 that letters to 1919?

If you're interested, here's an extended version of the above quote:
"S&W was taken over by the National Operating Company, a government backed corporation on September 13, 1918. Management of the factory was overseen by NOC until returning control on January 31, 1919. The Army wanted S&W to take back all of the leftover parts and frames but the company refused as they were still bitter over the NOC taking over control in 1918.

Approximately 7300 revolvers were delivered partially completed and are not counted in the 163,635 that is listed as the total number delivered during the war. It is not known if the Army completed any of these revolvers, however, they were looking into costing out the completion from these parts prior to WWII.

It appears from correspondence dated November 1, 1919 that this may have turned around and bit S&W in the butt as they wrote to the Ordnance Department looking to see if they would be willing to sell these parts and frames back to the company as they were receiving daily requests from the civilian market and had exhausted their supply.