doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com of 1917....is it worth owning?

When I was a salesmen for Navy Arms back in the late 80's they imported a boatload of those Brazilian 1917's.I can recall being very careful when you reached in the crate to grab one to show a customer,tarantulas and all that.Neat guns I think they went for 350 then and the half moon clips where 2 bucks.
That one you have might have the "NA Company Ridgefield NJ" on it,if not I think they split the cache with some company in Calif.

I've seen re-arsenaled guns done, I think at Atlanta Arsenal and then re-issued for WWII that had a greenish Parkerized finish. Sort of green-gray; not actually that unattractive. USFA .357 Magnums can be ordered in a similar finish, I see.

Dave;
This one is marked as best I can make out "CAI ST AIR VT" (the R copuld be a B). I had an FFL at the time & as I recall got it for about $130.00. Late 80's would have been about the time frame. I can recall back prior to the 68 gun law when both the Colts & S&Ws were selling on the surplus market for $29.95 & I didn't get one. When these came on the market at what was actually a lower price proportinate to what I was earning I said I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. These of course are not as collectible as the ones without the Brazillian crest, but they are essentially the same gun & just as much fun. Mine has a 1937 date beneath the Crest. I have seen these Brazillian models both with & without the extra safety mechanism built in the firing mechanism, mine has it. I think S&W added it about this time.
Thanks for getting the Tarantulas off.

Dave:
I just dug one of these Brazilian examples out that I own. The Importers mark is a partial overstamp of the serial # on the bottom of the barrel under the crane. All I can make out is "Co SAC CA" as the rest is obscured so I don't know exactly who imported it. I've shot it some in the past and,as I said previously, these are fun to shoot.
2 Piper:
That mark indicates that your example was imported by Century Arms which was then located in St Albans,VT
Jim

Jim,
I think yours is "IA Co SAC CA" which is InterAmerican Company, Sacramento, California.

Miller's gun is Century Arms,which was in St Albans VT as Jim correctly posted.

Here is a thread on the ones that Val brought in;
http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1570377

Neat guns, and I should have bought one then but I was lucky if I brought home any of my paycheck back then while working in the true "kid in a candy store" job.

Jagermeister:

I've owned a number of .45 ACP revolvers over the years, including the Colt and S&W 1917s (two different S&Ws) and the S&W 625 (two different ones - one pre-safety, the current one is post-safety). In my experience, both the Colt and S&W 1917s have real issues with accuracy, particularly because the cylinder throats tend not to be sized correctly for the bore diameter. In my S&W 1917s, they tended to run tight so the bullet was squeezed down, then hit the forcing cone and expanded and then was squeezed down again. The Colt I had had terrible accuracy issues, even though it had a King full length rib with adjustable sights. I don't know if the cylinder was slightly out of time or what.

On the other hand, both of the S&W 625s were tack-drivers. The throats seem consistent and run (by my measurement) right at 0.453 inches, about perfect for the cast bullets I shoot. On those (very) rare occasions when I'm on, the revolver will chew the center ring out of a 50-foot slow fire pistol target. The groups will be so tight you can't really score the 10-shot string.

If you're buying a shooter rather than a collector, I'd highly recommend the S&W 625 over the 1917s of either flavor.

I had a 1917 Colt and couldn't reach the trigger properly for double action shooting. Even custom grips didn't help much.
Auto rim cases would eliminate half moon clips.

Century Arms International is certainly right. I went totally blank & couldn't recall what the abbreviation was. The AIR? would be ALB, the bottom of these letters didn't geyt a full stamp so the lower part of the L & B were missing. I was supicious the R was actually a b as I mentioned, but the I being an L din't hit me.
For the price I got mine I simply could not have got anything even remotely close. I am not rally a big time pistol shooter & would never have dug deep enough to buy a 625. On the other hand I have thoriughly enjoyed having this one. I did get some Auto-Rim brass once but the regular ACP brass can be picked up so much cheaper I seldom use anything else. I just think of the clips as my "Original Speed-Loaders" & have fun with it.
throat sizes on mine are quite consistent at about .454". I am sure it is not quite the tack-driver as your 625 but entirely adequate for my purposes at a mere fraction of the cost.
I don't recall production numbers prior to the change but as I recall most of the Colts didn't have "Throats" as such at all but were simply bored straight through to brass dia. I would expect accuarcy from one of these to be very mediocre.
Bottom line as to whether its worth owning is up to how much you can get it for & what you expect of it. I have no regrets at all to owning my S&W.

thanks. the finish is quite pleasing for military arm. i will look over it again if it's still for sale.

Back in the 50's, S&W model 1917's and Colt New Service guns could be bought at Krasnes Hardware in San Diego for about 15 bucks. Krasnes had nail kegs full of them, u pick. We bought them, butchered them by bobbing the hammers, cutting off the bbls, sometimes cutting out the front of the trigger guards. Many of them went to Tijuana, traded to Mexican cops for whatever. We shot against them in "peace officer matches" about once a month. I still have one 1917, untouched...they are neat guns...