Any thoughts on the 1917 .45 Colt/S&W revolvers?

[Vern Humphrey]

You've got me on that one. I wasn't in the Army and I never heard of dummy rifles. I was in the Coast Guard, we didn't get bayonet training. But I did learn how to deliver a baby.

jn

In the 19th Century, the Army used "fencing muskets" for bayonet training. Later on, for serious bayonet training we simply left the scabbards on the blades, or use pugil sticks.

[Allen]

You've got me on that one. I wasn't in the Army and I never heard of dummy rifles. I was in the Coast Guard, we didn't get bayonet training. But I did learn how to deliver a baby.

jn

Somewhere at my Mother's house we have a dummy 1903 Springfield. It was there at the house when I was a kid. It has a wood stock and steel barrel and other hardware. No parts, including the stock will interchange with the real guns. It looks a little like a Hollywood prop gun but cheaper looking/not detailed much.

I think it is a 03 rifle but it would pass for any rifle as far as training goes.

I believe it was intended to look fake enough to not be confused with a real rifle. You couldn't take this gun into a bank and expect to rob it unless the bank clerk was very dumb, blind, or just wanted to be robbed.

[Vern Humphrey]

Somewhere at my Mother's house we have a dummy 1903 Springfield. It was there at the house when I was a kid. It has a wood stock and steel barrel and other hardware. No parts, including the stock will interchange with the real guns. It looks a little like a Hollywood prop gun but cheaper looking/not detailed much.

I think it is a 03 rifle but it would pass for any rifle as far as training goes.

I believe it was intended to look fake enough to not be confused with a real rifle. You couldn't take this gun into a bank and expect to rob it unless the bank clerk was very dumb, blind, or just wanted to be robbed.

I'd have to see it to be sure -- but when I was a kid, you could buy those as a toy. One of the giveaways was the cocking knob was made of wood.

[JimF]

Somewhere at my Mother's house we have a dummy 1903 Springfield. It was there at the house when I was a kid. It has a wood stock and steel barrel and other hardware. No parts, including the stock will interchange with the real guns. It looks a little like a Hollywood prop gun but cheaper looking/not detailed much.

I think it is a 03 rifle but it would pass for any rifle as far as training goes.

I believe it was intended to look fake enough to not be confused with a real rifle. You couldn't take this gun into a bank and expect to rob it unless the bank clerk was very dumb, blind, or just wanted to be robbed.

I believe you are talking about the “Paris-Dunn” training rifle.

Pop bought me one back in 1950 (or thereabouts.)
The local Army/Navy store had them in a wooden barrel . . . . .$4 per piece.

I still have it!

[Allen]

I haven't seen it in decades. I remember neither me nor my brother played with it. It wouldn't fire live rounds, blanks, BB's, nor caps and you couldn't toss lit firecrackers down the barrel so what good was it to us?

[Art]

I saw a nice S&W Model 1950 military (civilian version of the M1917) in a pawn shop the other day. I had to enlighten the pawn broker on the actual caliber and the need for half moon or moon clips to make it extract properly. It was a 5 screw without an ejector rod shroud and if it hadn't been for a couple of spots where it had been exposed to moisture that caused some light pitting in two small spots would probably have had 90% of the original finish. Really nice gun but at $1,400.00 a fair price but not cheap.

[Vern Humphrey]

I bought a Colt M1917 for about $10 around 1960 and gave it to a girlfriend who used to go riding in the woods alone. She eventually passed it on to her youngest son, who never fired it. When I found out about that last year, I loaded up 500 rounds of .45 Auto Rim for him.