My First 1917, a Shooter

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Stopped my buddy's to take a look at a commercial 1917. It was one of several that he picked up at a local auction.

It's definitely been refinished and suffers from push off. If the rest of the gun looked anything like what I found under the grips, it would explain the heavy polishing, which removed most of the roll marks. All numbers match.

Despite its flaw's, it's actually not a bad gun, especially for free.99. I replaced the replica grips with a pair of Ken's stags.



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Please let us know how the push off repairs go.

I had that problem with an old .22 Outdoorsman with a hump back hammer I was buying and returned the gun. I had no idea what would be involved fixing it and it also had firing pin marks on the cylinder face, so decided not to mess with it.

I probably could have fixed it with a different trigger and/or a fine stone.
 
Like it. Interesting about the pitting on the frame under the stocks. My Commercial 1917 was refinished by a previous owner (I bought it at a local auction) and had the same issue. Roll marks on mine are still pretty good. Mine is tight and a great shooter. Regarding your stocks. They could be original. Per SCSW 4th, from 1900-1929 stock numbers were penciled on the back. They returned to stamping numbers in 1929. Picture of my stocks with stamped numbers. Pretty cool to be able to shoot a nearly 100 year old revolver.IMG_0700.webpIMG_0422.webpIMG_0424.webpIMG_0421.webpIMG_0423.webp
 
Stopped my buddy's to take a look at a commercial 1917. It was one of several that he picked up at a local auction.

It's definitely been refinished and suffers from push off. If the rest of the gun looked anything like what I found under the grips, it would explain the heavy polishing, which removed most of the roll marks. All numbers match.

Despite its flaw's, it's actually not a bad gun, especially for free.99. I replaced the replica grips with a pair of Ken's stags.



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I've got one of those😜

Someone went totally maniacal with the buffing wheel on mine, but they did a pretty decent job of blueing. It was cheap and purty, with matching numbers, so I couldn't pass it up. I also went with a set of Ken's exquisite stags on it as well. IMG_8327.webpIMG_8326.webp
 
Looks great. My only 'safe queen' is a M1917 with a ship date of early 1918. It is pristine, and possibly never issued.
So, to solve this dilemma, I searched for a 'stand-in shooter' (any reason, right?) and ran upon a M1937 Brazilian that at some point had been Parkerized. Tight action and smooth after a clean-up. Put some repro M1917 grips on it.
It has made a fine woods gun with zero worries about getting beat up a little.
I load mostly .45 AR rounds for it and can get pretty close to .45 Colt performance from it with 255 gr LSWC bullets.
 

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Here is one of my 1917s, it was pretty worn so I had it bead blasted and blued - cut it back myself and soldered a micro front sight and base to the barrel and widened the rear sight.

It was a 1937 Argentine contract gun. I made the stocks out of an elk anter I picked up in CO.

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Riposte
 
Here is one of my 1917s, it was pretty worn so I had it bead blasted and blued - cut it back myself and soldered a micro front sight and base to the barrel and widened the rear sight.

It was a 1937 Argentine contract gun. I made the stocks out of an elk anter I picked up in CO.

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Riposte
Looks like you may have an original pair of Melvin Tyler T-Grips. If so, they are worth a pretty penny by themselves.
 
Here is one of my 1917s, it was pretty worn so I had it bead blasted and blued - cut it back myself and soldered a micro front sight and base to the barrel and widened the rear sight.

It was a 1937 Argentine contract gun. I made the stocks out of an elk anter I picked up in CO.

Riposte
Argentine? There was a contract in 1937 from Brazil. I am not aware of any going to Argentina.

Kevin
 
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