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The author often totes this 1917 Smith and Wesson when hiking or simply spelunking.

This photograph illustrates the three types of .45 ACP/AR headspacing. The cartridges at the top are .45 ACP rounds, held by a two-round moon clip. On the bottom left are two .45 ACP cartridges simply loaded in the chamber, and finally two .45 AR cartridges. The author feels the .45 AR solution makes the most sense.

This Smith and Wesson 1917 is fast handling and powerful. The revolver has been Meta Life plated and fitted with Ajax stag grips. Carried in a Tucker belt slide, this is as good as it gets in a defensive revolver.

After the war, many 1917s were sold as surplus. Some went to bank guards, others went to the fledging US Border Patrol, and quite a few were used by outdoorsmen. After all, here was a good double action big bore revolver at a modest price.

Most of the shooting public, however, did not care for moon clips. They were seen as a nuisance at best. Since the .45 ACP cartridge headpaced on the case mouth and not on the rim, the 1917-pattern revolvers could be fired without the clips, but the cases had to be picked out one at a time, a tedious process. Remington introduced a solution in 1920: the .45 Auto Rim. The .45 Auto Rim is basically a rimmed .45 ACP, with a rather thick head in relation to the short case. It is not interchangeable with the dimensionally similar .45 Schofield. Enterprising handloaders (is there any other type?) learned the .45 AR offered a couple of advantages over the .45 ACP, other than the obvious simplicity of chambering without the aid of moon clips: the case head is stronger and offers more support, allowing heavier loads, and the .45 AR is well-suited to lead bullet loads, something that could not always be said of the .45 ACP round as fired from the 1911. The original .45 AR factory loading produced 830 fps with a 230-grain round nose lead bullet. Today, to the best of my knowledge, the .45 Auto Rim is loaded by Georgia Arms on a standard basis and is available from custom maker Quality Cartridge as well. (Note that as of this writing, most ammunition makers are experiencing heavy delays and backorders.) The tried-and-true Remington loading has, regrettably, disappeared from Big Green’s catalog, and it is doubtful whether it will ever reappear.