Gun Digest 2011. Dan Shideler
such as the M1861 Springfield. And I doubt there is a gun fancier in the world who does not connect the settling of America’s western frontier with the Winchester lever action carbine and Colt SAA revolver.
As a historian and gun collector, I find the period most interesting to be that thirty-year stretch between 1884 and 1914. During this time we saw the invention of smokeless gunpowder and small bore Rifle cartridges, the perfection of bolt action repeating Rifles, semiautomatic pistols and fully automatic firearms. From the groundbreaking 8mm Lebel cartridge and Mauser’s Gewehr 98 Rifle to the Colt 1911 pistol and Maxim machine gun, many of the greatest advances in firearms technoltechnology occurred during this three-decade time span.
But another firearm was perfected during this era that has garnered little of the attention lavished upon its contemporaries: the double action (DA) revolver. While DA revolvers were nothing new, having been around since the 1850s, in the 1890-1910 period the newly perfected swing-out cylinder unloading/reloading system was combined with improved DA trigger mechanisms to produce the modern revolver as we know it today. In fact, I believe I’m on firm ground when I state that except for magnum cartridges and the use of high tech metals, there is little about the modern DA revolver that a firearms engineer from 1900 would find remarkable.
And of all the revolvers developed during this time, none of them is more interesting than the heavy-caliber, largeframe wheelguns from the Springfield, Massachusetts, firm of Smith & Wesson.
Smith & Wesson introduced their first large frame (referred to as the N-frame), swing-out cylinder, DA revolver, the .44 Hand Ejector - also known as the ‘Triple Lock” or “New Century” - in 1907 to compete with Colt’s New Service revolver. Up until this time all of S&W’s large-caliber revolvers had been of the hinged-frame, top-break variety, and, while popular, they were never viewed as quite rugged enough or chambered for powerful enough cartridges to be a real threat to Colt’s predominance in the American military and civilian markets.
S&W brought out their first swing-out cylinder revolver, the .32 Hand Ejector, in 1896 followed by the 38-caliber Military & Police revolver in 1899. The .44 Hand Ejector used the same basic mechanism as these smaller caliber revolvers. The cylinder was locked by a rod that passed through the ejector system and latched into a recess on the face of the breech while a second lock was provided by a spring loaded stud in a lug underneath the barrel that snapped into the forward end of the ejector rod. But S&W felt that a stronger system would be required with the powerful cartridges they intended to use, so additional locking was provided by a bolt housed in the ejector rod shroud that locked into a mortise on the cylinder yoke.
The .44 Hand Ejector could be ordered with 4-, 5-, 6- or 6.5-inch barrels, with wooden or hard rubber grips and a choice of blue or nickel finish.
S&W also introduced a new cartridge that was to become as famous, if not more so, than the revolver itself: the .44 S&W Special. This was based upon their popular .44 Russian but used a case 0.2 inch (5mm) longer and loaded a 246-gr. lead bullet moving at 755 fps. In addition to becoming popular for law enforcement and self defense, it quickly earned a reputation for accuracy and preempted the .44 Russian as the dominant target shooting cartridge of the day. While .44 Special guns accounted for the majority of sales, the Triple Lock revolver was also offered chambered for the .44-40, .45 Colt and, for the British market, .450 Boxer and .455 Webley.
The .38-44 Heavy Duty was designed for serious police work and fired a special heavy-duty .38 Special loads that came close to equaling the .357 Magnum.
When World War I broke out in 1914, the British government placed large orders with S&W for revolvers. In addition to producing purpose-built .455 revolvers, many 44-caliber guns were retrofitted with .455 cylinders and barrels to supply the anxious British. But in the brutal conditions of trench warfare it became obvious that the Triple Lock was far too finely made a revolver: the third lock and the ejector rod shroud often became clogged with mud or debris, preventing the cylinder from closing.
S&W rectified these problems by the simple expedient of removing the offending parts. The Modified revolver, dubbed the .455 Hand Ejector, Second Model or .455 Hand Ejector, Mark II, went into production in 1915. All British issue Mark IIs had 6.5-inch barrels and boasted a commercial-grade blued finish. The big Smith proved popular and by 1918 more than 68,000 had been supplied to British and Canadian forces.
S&W pioneered the “half-moon” clip with their famed .45 caliber M1917 revolver (right). The new Performance Center M625 revolver continues this tradition with “full-moon” clip loading.
As it became obvious that the United States would soon be entering the conflict on the Allied side, the U.S. Army began casting about for additional adverse to using revolvers they insisted upon one precondition: any substitute standard handgun MUST use the issue .45 ACP cartridge! This presented a problem as the rimless ACP cartridge would not function with the standard revolver ejector system. Working in conjunction with Springfield Armory, S&W’s engineers developed what has become known as the “half moon clip,” a semicircular piece of flat stamped steel with cutouts into which three rimless .45 weapons and while they were committed to the 1911 Colt pistol, it soon became obvious that not enough could be produced to meet demand. In 1916, the Army approached S&W about a “substitute standard” handgun and were offered the Hand Ejector, Second Model. But while the Army was not ACP cartridges could be snapped. This allowed the rimless cases to be ejected by the extractor bearing on the clip and had the secondary advantage of allowing very fast reloading.
The only modifications required to the design were a shorter cylinder to provide clearance for the half moon clips and wider cylinder stop stud to keep the cylinder in place when swung open. When the U.S. declared war on April 2, 1917, S&W began production and delivered the first Smith & Wesson Revolver, Caliber .45, Model 1917 on September 6, 1917.
While the Army’s original intention was to issue these revolvers to rear echelon and support troops, shortly after the first M1917s reached France, they began appearing in the trenches. It proved to be a rugged, powerful fighting handgun capable of standing up the vile conditions of trench warfare with aplomb and were soon much in demand by American doughboys. By the time contracts were canceled in 1918, S&W had delivered 163,476 Model 1917 revolvers to the U.S. Army,
S&W continued to produce the Second Model after World War I. Once again, the most popular caliber was the .44 Special with the .45 ACP a distant runner up while smaller numbers were produced in .38-40, .44-40, .45 Long Colt and .455 Webley. Another variation, the .44 Hand Ejector, Third Model was produced in 1926 on special order from the Wolf & Klar Company, a firearms distributor in Fort Worth, Texas. It was basically a .44 Special caliber Second Model with an ejector rod shroud and proved popular enough that limited numbers were produced up until 1950.
In 1937 the Brazilian government placed an order for 25,000 Second Models in .45 ACP. Known as the Modelo 1937 they were - except for the fact that some were fitted with checkered rather then smooth grip panels - identical to U.S. issue M1917s.
During World War II the army and USMC issued M1917s once again. While primarily used by military police and support troops, quite a few turned up in combat where they again gave a good account of themselves. In addition, large numbers were supplied to our British and Chinese allies.
The Performance Center Model 625 took honors for handling and accuracy.
France, 1944. 1st. Lt. John Upchurch covers a group of surrendering Germans with a S&W M1917 revolver. (Photo courtesy of Bruce Canfield)