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