Checking Out An Old Classic: The Colt Model 1917

In their own, tragic way Philippine islanders forced the US Army to adopt this large-caliber handgun. They had fought their Spanish masters for years in a quest for independence. That dream was crushed when the Treaty of Paris of 1898 ended the Spanish-American war and handed the islands over to the Unites States. The Filipino dream of independence refused to die. The major battles they’d waged and lost against the Spaniards resumed — and were lost — against their new enemy: Us.

Thereafter, the Filipino warriors adopted tactics employed by what is considered the greatest light cavalry to ever take up arms — the Native American Indians — and turned to guerrilla warfare. The approximate year of this transformation was 1899. Between then and the eventual end of hos tilities (1901), U. S. field commanders in general and combat troops in particular painfully discovered the .38-caliber revolver cartridge they’d been issued was all but useless.

It had little or no effect on turning back a charge by natives hell-bent on gaining their freedom whose fervor was heightened by no one knows what. They got hit and just kept on coming, or faded into the bush to strike again when least expected. It was obvious. A larger caliber and a handgun to fire it were needed. The gun chosen was an improvement on Samuel Colts’ Model 1889 and later entitled The Army Model 1917.

It was designed to discharge .45ACP ball ammunition by using half moon clips that held three cartridges each. In this configuration, it would not chamber the .45 Long Colt without alteration or replacement of cylinder. It still won’t. The Model 1917 has a 5-1/2-inch, 1-in-16 twist barrel and weighs in at 2-1/2-pounds empty. Its as-issued single-action trigger pull falls between 5 and 6-1/2-pounds. Manual Inspection Good maintenance procedure demands safe handling.

Keeping the muzzle pointed in a safe direction and fingers clear of the trigger, pull back on the cylinder release and unlatch the cylinder. Once opened, visually and physically confirm that all chambers are empty before proceeding. Having cleared the revolver, close the cylinder and cycle the action several times to check for smoothness. Examine the frame for S. Army Model 1917 featured here. cracks, then examine it more closely where the barrel joins up with it. Is the barrel tight or loose?

What shape are the grips, grip screws and front sight in? Pull the hammer back slowly. Does the cylinder bolt engage a cylinder recess? No? This usually indicates the cylinder is out of alignment with the bore due to a bent crane, or there’s something amiss with the hand/cylinder ratchet relationship and the cylinder isn’t rotating into its full lock-up position. As a result of the latter, the revolver is suffering a timing problem. Cylinders also get out of alignment when their crane has been bent.

Cranes can be straightened and cylinders realigned by swinging them out and rapping them with a lead bab bitt or leather mallet as follows. If misaligned left, strike downward or

The two components are installed as a unit in reassembly. close the cylinder and strike right. If misaligned low, strike through the frame to raise it. For a high misalignment, open the cylinder, invert the gun and strike downward. Correcting timing isn’t this easy. For that you may need parts you can refit. Ah, there’s the rub! Inspect the area where the trigger enters the frame. If you spot any reddish-brown deposit there (also known as rust) you can be reasonably assured more of the same is hiding inside.

Open the cylinder and spin it with your fingers. If it wobbles in any direction a bent ejector rod may be the reason. Confirm this suspicion by pressing the rod to the rear and releasing it smartly. If it doesn’t return just as smartly it could indicate a weak spring. More than likely it’s binding because it’s bent. Bent rods are like bent cranes. You can fix them. Here’s how. Lock the head of the rod between padded vise jaws and depress the cylinder to clear the ejector and ratchet from their re cesses.

Carefully unscrew the rod from the ejector, then remove the cylinder, ejector spring and ejector rod from the crane. You must use a true surface for the next steps. Place the rod on the surface and give it a push in any direction. Keep your eyes peeled. The rod will wobble up and down where it’s bent. Mentally or otherwise mark that spot. Wherever it’s located, you can tap it on its high side with a small hammer, retry the true surface roll bit, and tap some more if needed. Keep this up until the wobble disappears.

But please, be careful of your true surface. They can be quite expensive to replace. Me? I’ve used a 12×12-inch However, it still serves as a guide and shows check points for service. square piece of half-inch thick plate glass for years. Close the cylinder. Does it latch into the frame crisply without additional pressure being applied in any direction? If not, check the thumb latch for smoothness of operation. Any sluggishness can be attributed to a weak latch spring, dirt or burrs on the latch,or its frame slot.

In the Model 1917, the safety is attached to the trigger via the safety lever (see inset of the sectional drawing.) In single or double action, this requires the operator to hold the trigger to the rear while the hammer falls. When the trigger is released before the hammer closes in on the cartridge the safety will re-engage and prevent impact upon the primer. Most if not all revolvers, rifles, and single-shot handguns and shotguns made today include their own versions of this hammerblocking device.

Maintain the gun in its unloaded condition and close the cylinder. Cock the hammer. Hold it back, press the trigger and allow the hammer about 1/4-inch of forward movement. Release the hammer. Does the firing pin stick out at the rear of the frame? It does? The safety is faulty. Leave the hammer down and try to rotate the cylinder. If it turns more than 1/64-inch the cylinder bolt has a problem and needs replacement.

This and all other drawings appearing in this article were reproduced from Technical Manual 9-1295, courtesy of The Rock Island Arsenal Museum. Detailed Disassembly 1. Remove the crane lock screw and crane lock from frame right. 2. Push latch to the rear, cylinder to the left and remove cylinder/ crane assembly to the front. 3. Use wooden or plastic mallet to tap side of frame opposite the side plate to loosen plate and lift it free (Beware of sharp edges.) 4. Remove the latch and its spring from the side plate. 5.

Squeeze upper mainspring together with long-nose pliers. 6. Disengage mainspring from the hammer stirrup and remove spring from frame. 7. Remove the hand. 8. Drift the rebound lever pin to the right and remove the pin. 9. Lift the trigger off its pin. 10. Draw the hammer fully to the rear and lift it out. 11. Drift out the hammer stirrup pin to remove the stirrup, safety lever, safety and latch pin. 12. Back out the bolt screw to free the bolt and bolt spring. 13.

Disassemble the cylinder/ejector assembly from the crane as previously described. 14. Drift out its retaining pin to remove the firing pin. NOTE: Only remove the hammer and trigger pins if they must be replaced. These in addition to the stock and swivel pins are riveted and demand re-riveting when reinstalled. Inspection Nothing out of sight when the side plate was on the revolver should be rusty, show signs of wear or appear to be damaged. No roughness should be present on latch surfaces.

The ratchet, ejector rod and crane must be clear of burrs. Check the ejector and latch springs for damage. Be certain the cylinder bears no rust, fouling or pitting. Do any smoothing up with an Arkansas stone and remove as little metal as possible. Pitfalls The Model 1917 went out of production in 1944. You know that means problems with parts availability. For sure, Colt has none available. What parts are to be found will exist in the aftermarket.

Gun Parts and Jack First are good places to start and Brownells free list of sources for out-of-production guns names some specializing in long-gone Colts. Even when you locate what’s needed in the first few phone calls, some Model 1917 parts must not be considered "drop-in" replacements. Specifically, but not exclusively in this category, are the crane, cylinder and side plate. These, and others, were expertly fitted to the revolver when it was being built originally.

To fit correctly and function with another Model 1917 the original fit (Continued on page 21)

ting process has to be repeated. The only detailed guide providing information for duplicating the work previously accomplished as far as I know would be an Arsenal Repair Manual for revolver, M1917. The odds against locating one of those are as tronomical. And what do you think the chances are of finding an old pro that has worked and reworked these Philippine Insurrection warhorses for years and turning the job over to him? A little less than astronomi cal…maybe.

On the brighter side, there are members of the American Pistolsmiths Guild who have been there and done that. You can make an initial contact with them on the web: The Dark Side There’s a fair to very good chance a given owner of a Model 1917 will grow displeased with its trigger pull. As a result, the revolver has been handed to someone, perhaps a buddy, for a trigger job. Neither know for sure how to go about it and botch the job. More often than less, whatever was done was overdone.

The firing system has been so mangled the revolver no longer touches off around with any reliability. A little heavy but dependable has been reduced to "it only shoots one in awhile," and you’ve been handed the gun to set it right. OK, at least you can talk a decent game. The usual suspects in these too-light-to-work trigger pull situations area weakened mainspring, a worn trigger, a worn hammer-cocking notch or any combination of those three. Please look at the drawing of the trigger mechanism.

Compare the engagement angles at A, Band Cto the same angles in the 1917 brought in for you to fix. If they’re only slightly dissimilar to the drawing you may be able to correct the damage done with some fine stoning to re-conform and polish them. If they are too far gone, you have to go back to the previous paragraphs you read on "Pitfalls" and begin at least thinking about hunting for parts. Maybe a mainspring. Maybe a trigger. Maybe a hammer. Maybe all three.

If these were still the times when repairing a Model 1917 amounted to "junk the old and put in the new" because parts of all description were plentiful your encounter with a Model 1917 would be a snap to resolve. Class, them days is gone forever. AG