Talk:Colt New Service

A couple of points. From what I know, the Colt M1909 was a version of Colt's large frame revolver designed to replace their .38 special revolvers, for the U.S. Military. The M1909 was chambered for .45 LONG colt. When the U.S. military adopted the M1911 auto loading pistol, their logistical chain required a supplemental pistol that fired the same round. Colt's initial offering to the US Armed forces, the M1909 was not suitable, so they rechambered the basic design into .45 acp and renamed it the Model 1917 (as well as Smith and wesson offering their own Second Model .44 Hand Ejector as their own M1917). The wording on this page is a little confusing. the other calibers were only offered in the commercial models. the U.S. military was only ever interested in a stop gap handgun that could chamber their officially adopted .45 acp. round.

The Colt new service model was not named that as a result of being adopted by the U.S. Military. It was the Colt commercial name for the revolver adopted to the new caliber. Only when adopted by the U.S. does it get a "M" designation.

Also the .45 long colt was not rejected because it would cost too much to bring into production. It was rejected because it was an antiquated black powder round that lacked the potential of the new smokeless powder ammunitions.

MPM2008

Couple of points - I removed the picture of the M1898 Army because it's a completely different gun than the New Service, it has different lockwork and is significantly smaller. Also, the revolver tagged as an M1909 has commercial hard rubber grips, whereas an M1909 should have smooth wood grips like all US Army - issued revolvers, and likely an inspectors mark on the left fame under the hammer. That said, you can't be sure without seeing the bottom of the grip.

Also, the M1909 had nothing to do with the M1917. It was a stopgap measure to replace the various .38 revolvers which weren't successful in the field. The reason it was temporary is that the trials on a .45 automatic has already started, and in fact the 1909-type Colt automatic (http://www.coltautos.com/1909ci_sn7.htm) already had the basic design finalized. The M1917 was meant to supplement the M1911 when they couldn't make enough during WW1 - something not yet predicted when the M1909 was briefly used.

Also, when the .45 Colt was re-introduced with the M1909, it wasn't the original round. It was actually loaded with smokeless powder and had a wider rim for more positive ejection with the star-type ejector, vice the rod on the M1873.