My new S&W 1917 - Also, looking to trade grips for grips

[Trebor]

I turned 45 this year and decided to get a .45 caliber handgun to celebrate. Since I already have a couple 1911's the logical choice was one of the variants of the S&W 1917/HE2. Besides being an Indy fan I'm a military small arms buff and WWI era guns are way underepresented in my collection, so this works for both interests.

This is a military issue 1917 with most of it's original bluing. Many, if not most, were Parkerized during arsenal rebuilds between the wars. I added the lanyard hardware, but could only find Parkerized hardware.

I was going to cut down the barrel to make a Indy gun, but I've decided it's in too nice a shape so I'm leaving it as-is. I'm not a fan of swapping out barrels as these Smiths really weren't designed for barrel changes, only permament barrel replacement, so I won't be doing that either.

I may hunt up a second revolver sometime that's not as nice and do an Indy conversion on that gun. I'm keeping an eye out.

Since I'm keeping this one original I do want a set of military 1917 smooth grips. If anyone has a set I'll trade these commercial, and Indy correct, S&W grips straight up for a decent set of military S&W grips. Send me a PM.

I'll have a range report up soon (-ish).

[Trebor]

I got the S&W to the range today. I set up a plate rack at about 12 yards. First two runs were six for six, double action for all shots. I dropped a shot on the third run trying to hurry. It turns out the box of .45 ACP I grabbed was only about half full so it was an abbreviated test.

The action is a little stiff which I think is due to 90 years of dried up lube. I plan to flush out the guts by squirting some solvent in through the hammer and trigger recesses and then following up with a squire of some more modern lube. I don't want to take the sideplate off as I'm likely to bugger it up, so hopefully that will do it.

Later I was giving some handgun instruction to a friend's 12 year old son. He did great with the .22 Ruger so I showed him the Smith at the end. He was amazed that I'd shoot a 95 year old gun and was impressed by the heft. I'll probably let him try it out at some future range session. (It was a little much for him right now, for his first pistol session).

[ShanghaiJack]

That is one gorgeus gun! It is great that it has most of the original bluing to it, and that you decided not to cut the barrel down. Put up some more photos of it once you get the military grips.

Regards,

SJ

[Trebor]

That is one gorgeus gun! It is great that it has most of the original bluing to it, and that you decided not to cut the barrel down. Put up some more photos of it once you get the military grips.

Regards,

SJ

Will do. The mil grips are proving hard to find. I'm hoping someone here has a 1917 that they plan to convert and would like to trade my commercial, Indy style, grips for their military grips.

[Trebor]

That is one gorgeus gun! It is great that it has most of the original bluing to it, and that you decided not to cut the barrel down. Put up some more photos of it once you get the military grips.

Regards,

SJ

Will do. The mil grips are proving hard to find. I'm hoping someone here has a 1917 that they plan to convert and would like to trade my commercial, Indy style, grips for their military grips.

[Trebor]

That is one gorgeus gun! It is great that it has most of the original bluing to it, and that you decided not to cut the barrel down. Put up some more photos of it once you get the military grips.

Regards,

SJ

Will do. The mil grips are proving hard to find. I'm hoping someone here has a 1917 that they plan to convert and would like to trade my commercial, Indy style, grips for their military grips.

[Trebor]

I finally got a chance to shoot the S&W at some paper. I thought this was decent, especially considering the tiny sights.

This was single-action, two handed, standing at 25 yards.


The plate on the right was double-action, standing, at 25 yards. Not much different than the single action.

[Michaelson]

Considering these old war horses were made to be man stoppers and not paper punchers, that's a dang good spread, considering its age.

Regard! Michaelson

[xd9fan]

God knows I have enough but getting a 1917 would have an extra kind of cool attached to it.
Stop with the photos you will make my wallet shrink......I thought in LC indy had a pistol that did not have the regular swing out to the side wheel but was a "break action"?

[Dragonlady Jones]

Oh my.

Looky here.

[kwad]

Beautiful S&W!

Numrich has smooth service stocks for sale here.... https://www.gunpartscorp.com/Products/979460.htm

They also have the checkered stocks with medallions (like the Bapty wore in Raiders) located here.. https://www.gunpartscorp.com/Products/979450.htm
For some reason, the picture of this style isn't showing up on their website.

[Mountaineer]

Alternative listing for the Numerich grips via Amazon:



Full Link: http://www.amazon.com/Smith-Wesson-Chec ... B008AKJRYC" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Side note: I recently bought another 1917 from misfit and he had included 4 extra sets of grips with the revolver. One was a set of magna grips like you show on your revolver, Trebor.
Another set of grips included in the deal were the 1917-1929 style grips like you see here:


While they fit my hand great, they were a little thin, and didn't meet up flush with the sharp edge of the backstrap; so it could dig into the web of your hand while firing. I couldn't find any in decent shape that weren't over $60+ bucks, and I flirted with the idea of buying a set of smooth grips and checkering them myself. Then I thought about how I wasn't really happy with the included magnas. They were much too square and thick to be comfortable, so I took to modifying them.

I worked with a Dremel cutting wheel, cut the extra wood off the tops, thinned them down on the backsides with a vibration sander (a belt sander would have been faster) and finally shaped the profiles with a block and various grits (100 to 1500) of sandpaper. When I was done sanding I used a little gun oil to blend in the sanding.
End result, a close-enough set of the desired grips, that better fit the revolver and my hand.

[Cajunkraut]

Trebor,

PM sent.

[Michaelson]

I hope he sees your message. This grip search took place back in 2012.

Regards! Michaelson

[Trebor]

I hope he sees your message. This grip search took place back in 2012.

Regards! Michaelson

I was still looking! And we did connect and make a deal. Be nice to have the mil grips on my gun.

And, I've got a lead on a FANTASTIC commercial S&W that is just dying for an Indy conversion. It's one of those guns that normally would be "too nice" to modify, except it was already Mag Na Ported so cutting the barrel won't ruin the value.

If I snag it I'll post before and after pics.

[Michaelson]

[Cajunkraut]

I hope he sees your message. This grip search took place back in 2012.

Regards! Michaelson

Yep, there was an entire 'thread' about this going on via PM. But thanks for your enduring vigilance.

[Michaelson]

That's why we're here.