Colt M1917: Difference between revisions

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[[Category:Weapons]]
[[Category:Weapons of Vietnam]]
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|[[File:Flag_us_new.png|50px]]<br><strong>[[US]]</strong>|| [[File:M1917.png|512px]]<br><b> [[M1917]]</b> || [[File:Weapon m1917.svg|512px]] || [[Unused]] || 6 / 12
|[[File:Flag_us_new.png|50px]]<br><strong>[[US]]</strong>|| [[File:M1917.png|512px]]<br><b> [[Colt M1917]]</b> || [[File:Weapon m1917.svg|512px]] || [[File:Class_Gunner.png|50px]] <b>[[Gunner]]</b><br>[[File:Class_radioman.png|50px]] <b>[[Radioman]]</b><br> || 6 / 18
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! rowspan=2 | Reload Speed  
! rowspan=2 | Reload Speed  
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| 44||×3.7 = 162.8||×2.4 = 105.6||×2.3 = 101.2||×1.3 = 57.2||×0.95 = 41.8|| Seconds  
| 44||×3.7 = 162.8||×2.4 = 105.6||×2.3 = 101.2||×1.3 = 57.2||×0.95 = 41.8||2.66 Seconds  
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! rowspan=2 | [[Place of Origin]]
! rowspan=2 | [[Place of Origin]]
! rowspan=2 | [[Date]]
! rowspan=2 | [[Date]]
! rowspan=2 | [[Armory]]   
! rowspan=2 | [[Manufacturer]]   
! rowspan=2 | Barrel Length
! rowspan=2 | Barrel Length
! rowspan=2 | Total Length
! rowspan=2 | Total Length
! rowspan=2 | [[Weapon Script Name]]
! rowspan=2 | [[Weapon Script Name]]
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|Colt M1917 Revolver||.45ACP||[[USA]]||1917||Colt<br> Smith & Wesson||14 cm (5.5 in)||27 cm (10.8 in)||weapon_m1917
|Colt M1917 Revolver||.45ACP||[[USA]]||1917||Colt||14 cm (5.5 in)||27 cm (10.8 in)||weapon_m1917
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The last refinement on the tail end of the era of revolvers the M1917 saw not wide-spread usage but some usage among back or auxiliary forces who didn't always carry a primary firearm. It gained a reputation for being reliable and holding substantial firepower for a weapon that can be carried on the hip.
<hr>
The Colt M1917 is a U.S. double-action revolver chambered in [[.45 ACP]]. It was adopted during World War I as a wartime expedient to supplement shortages of the [[M1911A1|M1911]] pistol, using half-moon (and later full-moon) clips to fire the rimless cartridge and enable rapid reloading. The M1917 is best known for combining a large-caliber service cartridge with revolver reliability and for its distinctive use of moon clips.
=HISTORY=
When the United States entered World War I, demand for M1911 pistols outpaced production capacity, prompting the U.S. to procure .45-caliber revolvers from Colt and Smith & Wesson. Colt’s New Service revolver was adapted to accept .45 ACP using stamped steel half-moon clips that both provided proper headspacing and allowed fast extraction of spent cases. These revolvers were issued broadly to U.S. forces during the war and continued in various roles afterward, with many remaining in government stocks between the world wars.


=HISTORY=
In later decades, M1917 revolvers persisted through reissue, surplus sales, and limited secondary service, and the moon-clip concept they popularized remained influential. During the Vietnam era, U.S. forces generally issued semi-automatic pistols as standard sidearms, so any M1917s encountered would most likely have been legacy weapons in private hands, older police inventories, or rare holdovers rather than common frontline issue. Even so, the M1917 remains an iconic U.S. service revolver associated with wartime procurement and the practical solution of using .45 ACP in a revolver.
The M1917 Revolvers were six-shot, .45 ACP, large frame double action revolvers adopted by the United States Military in 1917, to supplement the standard [[M1911]] pistol during World War I. There were two variations of the M1917, one made by Colt and the other by Smith & Wesson. They used moon-clips to hold the cartridges in position, facilitate reloading, and to aid in extraction since revolvers had been designed to eject rimmed cartridges and .45 ACP rounds were rimless for use with the magazine-fed M1911. After World War I, they gained a strong following among civilian shooters. A commercial rimmed cartridge, the .45 Auto Rim, was also developed, so M1917 revolvers could eject cartridge cases without using moon-clips.
<br>[https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30029342 Imperial War Museums – Colt Model 1917 revolver (collection entry)]
<br>[https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_410403 Smithsonian (National Museum of American History) – Colt Model 1917 revolver (collection entry)]
<br>[https://royalarmouries.org/collection/object/object-12471 Royal Armouries – Colt Model 1917 revolver (collection entry)]
<br>Bruce N. Canfield, ''U.S. Infantry Weapons of World War I'' (Andrew Mowbray Publishers)
<hr>


During World War I, many U.S. civilian arms companies including Colt and Remington were producing [[M1911]] pistols under contract for the U.S. Army, but even with the additional production there was a shortage of sidearms to issue. The interim solution was to ask Colt and Smith & Wesson, the two major American producers of revolvers at the time, to adapt their heavy-frame civilian revolvers to the standard .45 ACP pistol cartridge. Both companies' revolvers utilized half-moon clips to extract the rimless .45 ACP cartridges. Daniel B. Wesson's son Joseph Wesson invented and patented the half-moon clip, which was assigned to Smith & Wesson, but at the request of the Army allowed Colt to also use the design free of charge in their own version of the M1917 revolver


Colt had previously produced a version of their .45 Long Colt caliber New Service model, designated the M1909, to replace their .38 Long Colt caliber M1892 revolvers that had demonstrated inadequate stopping power during the Philippine–American War. The Colt M1917 Revolver was essentially the same as the M1909, but with a cylinder bored to take the .45 ACP cartridge and the half-moon clips to hold the rimless cartridges in position. In early Colt production revolvers, attempting to fire the .45 ACP without the half-moon clips was unreliable at best, as the cartridge could slip forward into the cylinder and away from the firing pin. Later production Colt M1917 revolvers had headspacing machined into the cylinder chambers, just as the Smith & Wesson M1917 revolvers had from the start. Newer production Colts could be fired without the half-moon clips, but the empty cartridge cases had to be ejected with a device such as a cleaning rod or pencil, as the cylinder extractor and ejector would pass over the edge of the rimless cartridges. Firearms developer and writer Elmer Keith considered the Colt model "rough finished" and generally not as well made as the Smith and Wesson.
<br>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1917_Revolver source]
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File:US Colt 45 M1917 Revolver.jpg
File:581ddcd7528cc521a0f6a96c0d070b38.jpg| US Tunnel Rat
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Latest revision as of 07:03, 25 February 2026

Factions Weapon Icon Classes Ammo

US
Colt M1917		 Gunner
Radioman
 6 / 18
Damage Base Headshot × Chest × Stomach × Leg × Arm × Reload Speed
44 ×3.7 = 162.8 ×2.4 = 105.6 ×2.3 = 101.2 ×1.3 = 57.2 ×0.95 = 41.8 2.66 Seconds
Designation Weapon Type Fire Modes Fire Rate Bullet Spread ° Range Modifier Muzzle Velocity Projectile weight Weight
M1917 Revolvers Single+Double+Fanning 400 RPM 8.5° & 1.3° ADS 0.85 231 m/s 14.9g (229.9gr) 1 kg (2.2 lbs)
Full name Caliber Place of Origin Date Manufacturer Barrel Length Total Length Weapon Script Name
Colt M1917 Revolver .45ACP USA 1917 Colt 14 cm (5.5 in) 27 cm (10.8 in) weapon_m1917


The Colt M1917 is a U.S. double-action revolver chambered in .45 ACP. It was adopted during World War I as a wartime expedient to supplement shortages of the M1911 pistol, using half-moon (and later full-moon) clips to fire the rimless cartridge and enable rapid reloading. The M1917 is best known for combining a large-caliber service cartridge with revolver reliability and for its distinctive use of moon clips.

HISTORY

When the United States entered World War I, demand for M1911 pistols outpaced production capacity, prompting the U.S. to procure .45-caliber revolvers from Colt and Smith & Wesson. Colt’s New Service revolver was adapted to accept .45 ACP using stamped steel half-moon clips that both provided proper headspacing and allowed fast extraction of spent cases. These revolvers were issued broadly to U.S. forces during the war and continued in various roles afterward, with many remaining in government stocks between the world wars.

In later decades, M1917 revolvers persisted through reissue, surplus sales, and limited secondary service, and the moon-clip concept they popularized remained influential. During the Vietnam era, U.S. forces generally issued semi-automatic pistols as standard sidearms, so any M1917s encountered would most likely have been legacy weapons in private hands, older police inventories, or rare holdovers rather than common frontline issue. Even so, the M1917 remains an iconic U.S. service revolver associated with wartime procurement and the practical solution of using .45 ACP in a revolver.
Imperial War Museums – Colt Model 1917 revolver (collection entry)
Smithsonian (National Museum of American History) – Colt Model 1917 revolver (collection entry)
Royal Armouries – Colt Model 1917 revolver (collection entry)
Bruce N. Canfield, U.S. Infantry Weapons of World War I (Andrew Mowbray Publishers)




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