Colt 1917

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by woettinger:
Picked up a new (to me) Colt 1917 45 revolver and was hoping that someone could provide me some history on it

Left side barrel has COLT DA 45
Under Barrel has UNITED STATES PROPERTY
Latest patent on the top was July 4, 1905
Frame serial 274077
Army Serial on bottom 120643

Bore is very shiny, almost mirror and from the pics you can see the finish is very worn.

TIA

Bill

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Bill, It looks like you have a nice old war horse there with lots of history attached to it! The Army made two contracts with Colt for revolvers during WW I. The first was for 100,000 revolvers and the second one, WAR ORD No. P-4813-1368SA, was for 28,000 revolvers. Your gun came from the second contract. The second contract was increased twice by the Army to a total of 206,000 revolvers, but the war ended and only 54,800 or this total were delivered. The final deliveries were made by Colt during February 1919. The Army paid $14.00 apiece for the revolvers with two sets of half-moon clips. The Model 1917 was used through WW II. My Dad recovered one on Bataan in the Philippine Islands during the fighting there. They are a great gun and are very collectible. Hope that helps!

Yes it does. Thanks you very much

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by COLTDAGUY:
Bill, It looks like you have a nice old war horse there with lots of history attached to it! The Army made two contracts with Colt for revolvers during WW I. The first was for 100,000 revolvers and the second one, WAR ORD No. P-4813-1368SA, was for 28,000 revolvers. Your gun came from the second contract. The second contract was increased twice by the Army to a total of 206,000 revolvers, but the war ended and only 54,800 or this total were delivered. The final deliveries were made by Colt during February 1919. The Army paid $14.00 apiece for the revolvers with two sets of half-moon clips. The Model 1917 was used through WW II. My Dad recovered one on Bataan in the Philippine Islands during the fighting there. They are a great gun and are very collectible. Hope that helps!

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Bill; very nice 1917,at a fair price-and-best of all -its ALL original! Original Colt 1917 New Services,are becoming scarce to find! Ive seen far more "modified" ones than original in the last 20 years.There were so many left over N.S. parts that Colt put on the market around 1960,combined with surplus 1917s going for $30.00 back then,that modifications were rampant(pardon the pun). Ive seen "bumper jobs),or chrome plating,cut down & longer bbls(Numrich made them),target sights etc. Probably the most offensive to me,is a high gloss re blue on a 1917s. The original Colt 1917s were not polished,and had a dull blue(the S & Ws-the other 1917) were much better finished on the outside. Some 1917s were arsenal refinished in WW Two era with a true parkerized finish. So in my humble opinion,"ya did good",to find an original,especially with a mirror bore,as many fired corrosive primed .45 acp ammo,that was very inexpensive in the 1960s as surplus,and many owners didnt know(or care) about the effects of the "salty residue". Bud