1917 barrels
- Thread starter sodacan
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No gun collection is complete without these two 1917's a Colt and an S&W, and you have two fine examples.It's getting harder and harder to find clean unmolested guns. Given that they are very different guns the S&W retains most of the characteristics of its pre-war counterparts despite the Government taking over production. Yes the Colt was a big, robust gun lacking the refinements of the S&W. They are iconic guns that you just gotta have.
In the 1960s Dave's House of Guns (Texas) sold the 1917s for $29.95 (mail order). I purchased numbers of both S&W and Colt. The Colts had nice bores but the S&Ws had pitted/poor bores. I assume that the S&Ws were fired a lot more with corrosive ammo ?
Could be a different steel alloy, making the Colt 1917's more resistant to corrosion.
Maybe the S&Ws weren't cleaned as often as they should have been?
SGT ROCK 11B
Member
Jimmy, I am thinking the S&W revolvers were not cleaned as well as the Colt revolvers. With corrosive ammo especially, the shooter has to be more diligent. Sarge
Hard to believe that S&Ws were not cleaned as well or often as Colts. a more likely explanation would be that S&Ws and Colts were stored at different facilities and sold at different times by different importers. I remember when they used to come to my city back in the 60s in batches. Colts were much more numerous than S&Ws . Maybe released sooner. Colts were priced a bit less than S&Ws at $22.50. I wish that I had bought a truckload. I have one of each, S&W and Colt. My colt is in better condition overall, not just the bore. I remember the ads for a "Buscadero" sp?, belt and holster set for $14.95 that included a "free" .45 Top Break Webley that had been converted to fire the .45 ACP with half moon clips. Those were the good old days for sure.
Having both, I decided my first choice for actual trench warfare would have to be the Colt. If you ran out of ammo, the Colt would be a MUCH better club 
!!
!!Tijeras_Slim
Member
The first handgun I fired was a Colt 1917 that had been issued to my Great Grandfather, a Captain in the AEF. I didn't do that well being 12 and of small frame. He was not a big man, but very tough, having been a civil engineer all over the world. His name was also very German, but he never "Americanized" it. My guess was that anyone who might have said something got his butt handed to him.
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I had a 1917 Colt for awhile way back in the 60s when they were readily available and cheap. Didn't appreciate it, thought it was a bit clunky and foolishly sold it after a short time. A few years later I decided I wanted a 1917 S&W and couldn't find one anywhere. For whatever the reason they were not nearly as common back then as the Colts. It would be a long time before I ever got my somewhat rough shooter grade 1917 S&W. Some sold, some reconditioned and used in WW2. All 1917s were not treated the same so it follows that there are differences in condition between Colts and S&Ws.
