Shortly after my previous Wheelgun Wednesday article went live, I received an email from Michael about his interesting conversion of an M1917 revolver.  The famous .45 ACP revolver is getting plenty of attention right out of the gate with TFB’s Wheelgun Wednesdays.  However, considering that the M1917 was designed over one hundred years ago, specifically to supplement the U.S. military’s supply of M1911 of all things, it seems worthy of some love.

Photo of a standard M1917 for comparison. Image from Wikipedia.org

Michael’s version of the M1917 had been optimized for concealed carry.  Working over a large framed Smith & Wesson revolver for concealed carry sounds like quite a task to complete (let alone actually concealing it), but whoever completed the work knew what they were doing.  Below is Michael’s explanation of how he came to own his M1917 and the work that’s been put into it:

A local gun store took this gun in trade because he knew I would buy it, which I did. It’s a 1917 with the barrel cut down and the grip reworked to an N-frame round butt configuration. The sights are custom and dead on with ball; the barrel has been re-roll marked with everything appropriately centered;” the hammer’s bobbed and the action was so light it would only run with moon clips (I actually sprung it up a bit for .45 [Auto Rim]). It also had a set of Fishpaw grips numbered to the gun.

As the owner of a bunch of custom guns, somebody put some work and money into this on, and I was never able to find anything else about it. It came as a trade in from a Wyoming cowboy who threw it in with a couple of beat-up Ruger [Single Actions].

I had it NP3’ed at the late, lamented ROBAR, and it’s one of the best big bore snubs I’ve ever carried.

I’ve not yet had the chance to attempt concealing an N framed S&W revolver (I have one coming for a review soon), but the smith that worked on Michael’s gun took all the right steps.  The bobbed hammer should deter any snagging on clothing, while the smaller, rounded grips should reduce the printability under clothing.  The new ramped front sight looks to be contrasted enough against the lighter coated rear sight notch.  The re-rolled markings were a nice added touch that didn’t have to be done, but shows a desire for quality.

What do you think of Michael’s concealed carry conversion of an M1917?  Are there any TFB readers out there that have seen a similar conversion done with the old warhorse?  Feel free to shoot us an email if you have something interesting you’d like us to cover for Wheelgun Wednesdays.