Seem Awfully Thin

[The Wizard]

I was fondling my S&W Model of 1917 the other night and noticed that because the cylinder bolt notches are cut where the wall between the outside of the cylinder and the chambers are the thinnest there isn't much material between the bottom of the notches and the inside wall of the chambers. Does anyone know how thick the material is at those points? Is it enough to be safe? Did Colt have a better idea?

 

[scooter123]

I don't know anything about Colts better idea, however as you noted it is thin in that area. Measuring the depth of the stop notches on my 625 and subtracting that dimension from the measurement of the wall indicates a thickness of about 0.046 inch. That's thin enough I wouldn't want to shoot a load operating at Magnum pressures, however the 45 ACP is a low pressure caliber and I haven't seen any indications of failures in this area. So, it's a pretty safe bet that while it seems thin to you and me it's obviously strong enough to do the job. However, it does point out that trying to hot rod the 45ACP to Magnum pressure levels and performance would NOT be a good idea on one of these revolvers.

 

[2152hq]

They work well for what they were designed to do.
Colt off set the locking notches on their DA revolvers of all frame sizes to get them off of the dead center of the chambers & avoided the thinnest area to cut in to.

If you try to magnumize things I'm sure you can manage to damage the cylinder and it'll probably start to give way there.

Some Colt SAA cylinders in 45Colt have had problems with the locking notches bulging. Mostly on 3rd generation guns it seems which many were not the high point of Colt craftsmanship. Others were the just plain foolish loads put through them.

The 1917's have been around nearly 100yrs now.
Maintained well and used with the ammo intended for them, they'll be around for another 100.

 

[Art Doc]

This is the weak spot on S&Ws. With the .45" holes the metal under the bolt stop cut gets mighty thin. That's why I think guys hot rodding their M25-5s are asking for it.

 

[Oyeboteb]

Well, the Cylinder Index 'notch' is located where the Cartridge Case is pretty thick...so...no worries...

 

[Muley Gil]

I believe it was Major George Nonte Jr (USA ret) that had a couple of .45 Colt conversions done where the cylinder had such deep notches that the rechambered cylinder actually had a hole in it.

Reasoning that an arch is an extremely strong structure, he remotely fired the converted revolver with no ill effects. He then discarded the cylinder. He recommended checking the depth of the cylinder nothes before doing a .45 Colt conversion.

 

[BUFF]

In one of his more early articles, Skeeter Skelton wrote that he had broken a couple of S&W 1917 cylinders with handloads that were too hot. The 1917 had become known as "the poor man's Magnum" among some handloaders going too high pressure. He cautioned against it.

 

[Texas Star]

The N-frame cylinder was designed for the .44 Special, and Elmer Keith broke some cylinders in .45 Colt when trying for hot loads.

Frankly, I think the .45 N-frames are marginal with anything other than factory ammo pesssures. New steels and heat treatments on modern ones are better, but still, if you want hot ammo, get a .44 Magnum.

I think this is one reason why S&W was reluctant to offer many .45 guns, not just because they didn't want the Colt name on their barrels.

Keith went to the .44 Special for hot loads because the chambers were thicker at that critical place. I'm not guessing about that. He told me so, and I think mentioned it in his writing.

 

[The Wizard]

Just to make it perfectly clear I DO NOT INTEND TO SHOOT ANYTHING BUT FACTORY SPECIFICATION .45 ACP IN MY Smith and Wesson Model of 1917 revolver!!!!!!!!! My parents raised ugly kids not stupid ones.