THE MODEL 1917 HAND EJECTOR
Smith & Wesson’s Model 1917 revolver can perhaps best be described as an expedient that actually worked. When President Woodrow Wilson addressed Congress on April 2, 1917, requesting a declaration of war against Germany, the official side arm of the United States Military was the semiautomatic Colt Model 1911 pistol. Much like their Commonwealth allies, American forces were faced with a severe shortage of handguns as they entered the conflict. Furthermore, the Colt factory was unable to produce Model 1911s in anywhere near the numbers sought by the military. To bolster production, Remington-UMC was awarded a contract for manufacture of the pistols. The U.S. Army’s Springfield Armory also undertook the job of producing Model 1911s. But tooling up for such a project was no small task, and neither source was able to build the guns fast enough in the quantities needed.
Procuring revolvers to supplement the semiauto pistols seemed a reasonable solution to the handgun deficit. However, the Army’s requirement that revolvers submitted for testing use the same rimless .45 ACP ammunition as the Model 1911 posed an engineering challenge. Smith & Wesson had been working on a Hand Ejector capable of firing the .45 ACP round and submitted samples to the Army for evaluation. The problem of extracting the rimless cartridges from a revolver cylinder was solved by means of a three-round “half-moon” clip, the design of which has been credited to Smith & Wesson President Joseph Wesson.
Following tests conducted in early June of 1917, the Army found Smith &Wesson’s submission to be satisfactory for military use. The company was initially awarded a contract for 100,000 model 1917s, but according to Army records, Smith & Wesson ultimately delivered 163,634 of the revolvers to the U.S. Government between 1917 and 1919.
Utilizing the half-moon clips developed by Smith & Wesson, Colt Firearms adapted their New Service revolver to fire the .45 ACP round as well. After testing, it too was deemed an acceptable alternative to the Model 1911 pistol, and Colt was also awarded a Government contract. Like Smith & Wesson’s Hand Ejector, Colt’s New Service revolver was labeled the Model 1917. While there is some difference of opinion among firearms historians regarding the exact total, At least 154,802 Colt Model 1917 revolvers were delivered to the U.S. Government during the course of World War I.
Smith & Wesson’s Model 1917 revolver was essentially a Modified version of the .455 Second Model Hand Ejector that the company had built in large numbers for the Commonwealth nations. In addition to chambering the revolver for the .45 ACP round, modifications to the gun included shortening the barrel to 5-1/2 inches and slightly reducing bore size to better fit the .451" diameter .45 ACP bullet. Other changes were mainly cosmetic. Gone was the commercial grade finish of the .455, replaced by a faster, more utilitarian soft blue. Instead of being finely checkered, the walnut stocks of the Model 1917 were left smooth, another concession to increased production speed.
Those measures taken to expedite manufacture of the Model 1917 didn’t diminish the gun’s functional qualities. It proved to be a rugged, reliable substitute for the 1911. Packing the same ballistic punch as its semi-auto counterpart, and quickly re-loadable by means of the half-moon clips, Smith & Wesson’s service revolver apparently was the side arm of choice for some U.S. troops. In the December 1999 issue of the NRA periodical Man At Arms, firearms historian Charles Pate presents a detailed study of the Smith & Wesson Model 1917. Author Pate writes that Military Police units reportedly preferred the Model 1917 revolver to the 1911 pistol.
In his article, Pate also discusses distribution and usage of the Smith &Wesson revolver, saying, “World War I use of the M1917 was fairly extensive, but primarily by combat support and combat services support troops rather than infantrymen or the cavalry…many thousands were shipped directly to ports of embarkation for subsequent shipment to Europe, and the revolvers clearly played a significant role in the war.”
Background research on the Model 1917 in my collection shows that it was shipped from the Smith & Wesson Factory to the Springfield Armory on June 8, 1918. The gun has the standard stampings of “UNITED STATES PROPERTY” on the underside of the barrel and “U.S. ARMY MODEL 1917” on the bottom of the grip frame behind the lanyard ring. It bears the usual Government inspector’s markings. These include a small provisional acceptance stamp on the left side of the frame behind the trigger, as well as the Ordnance insignia final acceptance stamp (a flaming bomb) on the left side of the frame in front of the hammer. Although this Model 1917 has obviously seen use, the overall condition of the gun is excellent. Regrettably, other than the information obtained from Smith &Wesson factory records, little is known about the history of this particular firearm. What role this revolver may have played in the War effort will probably forever remain a mystery.
RANGE TESTING THE GUNS
Even though the three World War I-era revolvers presented in this article are in great shape, none of them can be described as “mint.” In this writer’s opinion that makes them all eminently shootable. As well as being an enjoyable diversion, a range session with these three Hand Ejectors, using ammunition that replicates the performance of the original military rounds, should also provide some practical insight into the power and accuracy of the handguns used by Allied forces in the Great War.
Finding modern .45 ACP ammunition that duplicates the load used by the American doughboys is not a problem. The classic loading of a 230-grain round nose, jacketed bullet, propelled at a muzzle velocity of approximately 800 fps, is still produced by several ammo makers.
Obtaining modern .455 Webley Mark II ammunition is a little more problematic. Due to low consumer demand in the U.S., for many years this archaic round was not offered by any domestic manufacturer. The Italian firm Fiocchi was about the only commercial source of new, non-corrosive .455 Mark II ammo. Bullet weight of the Fiocchi loading is 262 grains, rather than the nominal 265 grains of the original round, but such a slight weight difference should be of no consequence.
Hornady recently added .455 Mark II ammunition to their product line. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first American company to catalog the old British chambering in well over half a century.
In years past, the British firm Kynoch also marketed .455 Mark II ammunition. However, their present website lists only centerfire rifle rounds for sale, and it is unclear if they currently make handgun ammunition in any caliber.
At one time, Canadian Industries Limited (CIL) loaded .455 Colt ammunition under their Dominion label. Although this cartridge is approximately one tenth of an inch longer than the .455 Webley Mark II case and its muzzle velocity is over 150 fps faster than the Mark II load, .455 Colt ammo can safely be used in First and Second Model Hand Ejectors. This is because like Webley &Scott, Smith & Wesson also bored the chambers of their .455 revolvers deep enough to accept the greater case length of the original .455 Mark I black powder round. Case dimensions of the .455 Colt are similar to those of the .455 Mark I. But from what I can determine, .455 Colt ammunition is no longer made.
While World War I military surplus .455 Mark II ammunition is quite rare, occasionally quantities of surplus .455 Mark VI ammo from the Second World War are encountered. Unfortunately, World War II military surplus .455 ammunition has also become quite collectable and using it for recreational shooting is not really cost effective.
Inventorying the .455 Mark II ammunition I have accumulated over time yielded usable amounts of Fiocchi, Hornady, and Kynoch brands, as well as a handfull of World War II Mark VI Canadian surplus ammo. Modern, commercial .455 Mark II ammo is loaded with hollow base, lead bullets, much like the original military ammunition. A sample bullet was pulled from each of the three brands of .455 Mark II ammo to be used for the range tests, along with a World War II Mark VI jacketed round. The diameter of each bullet was measured with a micrometer, and each bullet was weighed. The following data was obtained:
| Manufacturer | Type |