M1917 revolver
The
M1917 Revolver (formally United States Revolver, Caliber .45, M1917) was a US six shot
revolver of
.45 ACP caliber. It was adopted by the
US Army in 1917 supplement the standard
M1911 .45 ACP
semi-automatic pistol during WWI. Afterwards it was primarily used by secondary and non-deployed troops. There were two subvariations of the M1917, one from Colt and one from S&W.
US civilian arms companies of
Colt and
Remington as well as other companies were producing M1911 pistols under contract for the US Army but even with the additonal production there existed a shortage of M1911's. The interim solution was to ask the two major producers of revolvers to adapt their heavy frame civilian revolvers to the standard
.45 ACP pistol
cartridge.
Colt had until recently produced a revolver for the US Army called the
M1909, a version of their heavy frame (45 caliber)
New Service model version in
.45 Long Colt to supplement and replace a range of 1890's era
.38 Long Colt Colt and
Smith & Wesson revolvers that had demonstrated inadequate
stopping power during the
Philippine-American War. The M1917 Revolver was essentially the same as the M1909 with a cylinder bored to take the .45 ACP cartridge and the full-moon clips necessary to hold the rimless autopistol round in position. Attempting to fire the .45 ACP without the half moon clips was unreliable at best as the cartridge could slip forward into the cylinder away from the firing pin.
Smith & Wesson had recently (c. 1915-16) produced a rugged service revolver on their heavy .44 caliber frame for the British Army in
.455 Webley caliber due to a shortage in British production facilities for their standard-issue
Webley Mk VI top-break revolver. The conversion was similar to the Colt modification, except the cylinder was machined to headspace the cartridge. In the Smith and Wesson, the .45 ACP could be fired with or without the half moon clips.
A rimmed variation of the .45 ACP cartridge was later developed for these weapons to allow both weapons to be reliably fired without half-moon clips.
The M1917 remained in service through WWII and was still in use as late as the Vietnam War with some reserve units.
The PC Game
Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault features the M1917 Revolver as one of the side-arms available to the player.
