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Even during The Great Depression, Colt was producing milestone guns, with accuracy suitable for the shooting games that shortly followed.
October 11, 2013
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For the first half of the 20th Century, one of the bread and butter mainstays of the revolver line was the New Service. A double-action sixgun of generous size, the New Service was big enough to take all of the big cartridges of the day—.476 Eley, .455, .45 Colt, .44-40, etc.—as well as .38 Spl. and other milder calibers. Made from just before the turn of the century until the beginning of World War II, the New Service was used primarily by police and military personnel. Variations included adjustable-sighte “Target” models, as well as the legendary Shooting Master of the 1930s. The gun's greatest use was in World War I, when the government bought a total of 151,800 5 1/2-inch barreled 1917s, all chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge. That was the most numerous variation of the many New Service models. It is a big, rugged gun that could (and often did) take a lot of abuse. But, for reasons I have never understood, the New Service has never drawn the same interest as other contemporary handguns.
October 14, 2011
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When Colt cast about for a name for their latest big revolver and came up with “New Service,” it was just before the turn of the 19th Century.
March 11, 2010
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