I recently purchased a 1909 New Service, serial number indicates 1913 vintage. I sent the gun off to have a tune up, timing issue, and the gunsmith(knowlegable about old colts) said that the cylinder was 45 ACP. As I understand, and all the info I could find indicates that the 1909 army (which mine is) were all 45 long colt. The gunsmith says that the cylinder does not match the serial which strongly suggests that someone along the way changed it. I missed the cylinder number when evaluating the gun, but too late now. The cylinder finish is not different than the rest of the gun, which suggests to me that the change was done early in the life of the gun. So, I guess my questions are, was the 1909 army new service ever made in 45 acp or was there an order made by the Army to convert them to 45 acp after WWI or did some bozo decide that ACP was better for that gun than long colt. And finally how will the accuracy be with ACP using a .452 bullet be in a .454 barrell?
Sorry for the long post but this inquiring mind is clueless and needs some help.
Sorry for the long post but this inquiring mind is clueless and needs some help.