[Mike Irwin]

Hi, Raimundo,

Unfortunately, the intervening 8 years since this was originally discussed haven't resulted in a lot of new information (at least for me) regarding the 1917 revolvers, and I can only speculate...

"If it was made in 1919 was it around the factory all that time?"

It's possible.

As I noted in one of my earlier posts, I believe that when WW I ended and the US Army returned control of S&W to the company that it took all finished frames, but there were many other frames in various stages of completion.

It's very possible that S&W finished and serialized frames and other parts and then warehoused them to be used as orders came in so that they could return production lines to other, more popular models.

This wouldn't be unprecedented.

During the boom times of the 1920s S&W was producing frames I and K frames hand over fist, and then the Great Depression hit and sales came screeching to a halt.

S&W warehoused a LOT of parts -- frames, cylinders, etc., and slowly drew them out of stock while they shuttered some production lines.

When S&W started providing firearms to Britain in the early days of WW II some of those guns were manufactured using frames that had been made in the 1920s and then warehoused.

That was one of the reasons why S&W was able to survived the Light Rifle debacle -- they could say to the British "well, we can't give you your $1 million Light Rifle funds back, and we obviously can't make you a Light Rifle that works, but we can give you a lot of revolvers chambered for the .380-200 cartridge, and we can give them to you fast."

The British were in desperate need of firearms, especially after Dunkirk, so they agreed.

S&W cleared its warehouses and started putting its people back to work and went on to provide millions of handguns for the US and its allies during the War.