A transitional December....1917 & Heavy Duty

[bengal fan]

I have stumbled upon two fairly rare transitional Smith's in the last couple of weeks!

First one I found at a local gun shop is a 1917 Commercial with out a S prefix. When I bought the gun I assumed it was a prewar with newer magna stocks on it. Needless to say I was surprised to see the stocks numbered to the gun when I got home. After looking at my Standard Catalog I learned it was one of less than 1000. As you can see it's not a safe queen however it was priced accordingly & the bore is good and mechanics are perfect. It is missing it's lanyard ring though. I'm looking forward to shooting this one soon, I've never shot a 45 in a revolver.

Next is 5" 38/44 Heavy Duty I found on GB. It has all matching numbers including the stocks & has not been bored out. According to Mr. Jinks it shipped May 1948. It's in nice original condition & mechanics are perfect.

Any additional info or opinions are welcomed, thanks for looking!
Paul

 

[DCWilson]

Sweet scores both! Congratulations. There is a lot of good range time to be enjoyed with those revolvers.

 

[Kinman]

Got yourself a couple of winners as far as I'm concerned.
I just got bit by the .45acp revolver bug about six months ago when I got my first revolver chambered for that caliber. Mines a Brazilian model 1937, you will truly enjoy shooting .45acp in a heavy framed revolver. Target loads are very pleasant to shoot, I was amazed at how well they shoot.
I have changed over to .45 Auto Rim and do not fool around with moon clips anymore. I have found that when shooting .45acp it is just about as easy to poke the empties out with a pencil. I found that unless you want to take the time to assure that all of your moon clips are perfectly flat and not bent they are more trouble than they are worth. You can use a nice flat piece of glass to check for any bends and straighten accordingly. Then lay a fine piece of emery cloth on the glass and make sure there are no burrs or high points on clips. If you look at them one side is slightly rounded the other flat, lay the flat side on the emery cloth and slide to remove any burrs or high points. I found that with repeated use or allowing others to load and unload will usually result in a few bends that make chambering a loaded clip a hassle. .45AR solves this problem completely...

 

[hardscrabble]

SN 210159 (below) shipped 8-5-1946.
SN S210485 shipped 2-24-1948.

1917 Commercials didn't exactly fly out of the vault.

 

[stu1ritter]

Here is 210151 and it came along with modified sights. A real pleasure to shoot. Came without a lanyard ring also. According to the catalog, the "S" serial is hit and miss through the series of 991(+-) made. The value of these 1917 Army (Postwar-Transitional) seems to be climbing nicely.

 

[Memphis]

I've got S210763. Glad to see another one surface!
Very nice guns. Both of them. Thanks for showing.

Roger

 

[stu1ritter]

210763, that's just 19 from the end of production at 210782.......

 

[spad124]

My 1917 is a military model. Like Kinman I've gone to .45AR. I find that .45AR is much more accurate than ACP for some reason.

 

[sodacan]

My S&W model 1917 was my first 45acp revolver. It put me on a slippery slope toward wheel guns in that caliber that hopefully has come to end with my last purchase. They are fun to shoot, and you'll begin to wonder why all revolvers don't use moon cliips. 45 auto rim way too expensive unless you roll your own. Enjoy that gun.

 

[Kinman]

I'm having so much fun shooting .45acp/.45auto rim through my Brazilian 1917 model and a pre-number 25 model of 1955 that I have surpassed my ability to keep up with shooting while reloading with an old single action Rock Chucker. I'm considering the purchase of a Dillion progressive to keep up my new found appetite. I have no idea how I completely by-passed .45acp in a wheelgun, I've owned a number of 1911s and own a couple HK semi-autos in .45acp but never got introduced to the revolver side of the game. I really don't have much interest in shooting any of the other revolvers I own other than my 5-screw K-22. .45acp in a large bodied revolver frame is such a *****-cat, especially with target loads.