Colt M1909 .45 cal ejector rod screw

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bing495

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I have a 1909 DA colt revolver and i have seem to have lost the screw that goes on the end of the ejector rod. I would like to replace this does anyone know where I could find one of these? The gun is in great shape otherwise it has all the markings and the lanyard and the original wood grips. The gun also fires great for a 98 year old firearm. Well any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
Finding an original ejector rod head for a Colt model 1909 would be difficult - but possible. You have a better chance getting one for a 1917 model (which will fit) or an early New Service model. The model 1909 was, except for the walnut stocks and government markings, a commercial New Service revolver.

www.e-gunparts.com
 
bing495, I had a colt 1909 Army. It was a decnet revolver with tight lockup. The only problem I had was the extractor on these guns was designed and cut for a .45 with an oversized rim. The Army had special ammo for this revolver. I thought mine was defective and got rid of it before I found out nothing was wrong with it.
 
When I get the time I have a history of the Model 1909 in the works. It was, and is an interesting gun. It was the last revolver adopted as out military's official sidearm. Other later revolvers were "substitute standard."

The special cartridge, manufactured at Frankfort Arsenal, had an oversized rim because there had been trouble extracting the old .45 "Short" (Schofield size) rounds the Army still had in inventory. However the revolver will chamber and shoot regular .45 Colt cartridges without any problems.

In fact, the 1909 is nothing more nor less then a regular commercial Colt .45 New Service with plain walnut stocks (made slimmer at the Army's request) and the usual military property markings. Uncle Sam seldom paid out extra money for handguns with high-polish commercial finishes, but this was an exception because of an ongoing emergency situation.

But that another story... :evil:
 
Try here.
It won't be cheap but they should be able to make up a suitable reproduction for your 1909.
http://www.jackfirstgun.com

I guess it would be a lot more helpful if I actually added the link the first time around,,,,,,,
 
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Hi, Fuff,

I hope you are successful with the book; that is a very underrated and almost unknown gun.

I got into a discussion on another site with a very knowledgeable gentleman who claims the Model 1909 was never adopted by the Army, only purchased, and that adoption would have required extensive testing which was not done.

My argument is that the Army had it marked "Model 1909", they had holsters made for it, they made special ammo for it, and they tested the new auto pistols against it as the current service revolver. My feeling is that if that is not "adoption" I don't know what is.

The ammo situation is interesting. As you say, the then current .45 government ammunition (S&W length, Colt rim size) gave extraction problems as the cases "jumped" the extractor. (There had been no problems with its use in the SAA as it uses a rod extractor.) So the Army had ammo made that was identical to the .45 Colt, but with a larger rim. Since the longer .45 Colt round gave fewer extraction problems, Colt continued to list the NS as in .45 Colt and never took official notice of what the Army was doing. Further, no commercial ammo equivalent of the Model 1909 cartridge was ever made. All of that ammo came from Frankford Arsenal; it was not even made on contract.

A sidelight is that the Model 1909 cartridge will not fit in the SAA unless only every other chamber is loaded, making a "six shooter" into a "three shooter." That was no concern to the Army, of course, as they considered the SAA obsolete by 1909.

Jim
 
The Army had a long history of buying (usually) small numbers of commercial handguns. A good example is the ,32 and .380 Colt Pocket Model pistols purchased during World War Two. Both had stock numbers for inventory purposes, but neither was marked with a model number/date.

Another example are the Victory Model .38 Smith & Wesson revolvers that were purchased at the same time, and again the butt is not marked with a Model number.

The Colt and S&W Model 1917 .45 revolvers were assigned a model number - and so stamped on the butt. But they were designated as substitute standard. During the 1930's S&W desperately tried to sell the Army more 1917 revolvers, but they declined - saying that they had no money at the time to buy more handguns, but if they did they'd be obligated to buy 1911A1 pistols because they were the official service handgun.

Your friend is all wet. :uhoh:
 
Very interesting!

Jim Keenan - -

I'm glad you posted that information. I'd heard about the 1909 cartridges with the wider rim, and also the thing about it making an SAA into a "Three Shooter." I had NOT known, though, that the 1909 cartridge was of the shorter length.

I recently acquired a 1909 U.S. Army revolver. I was gratified to find how well it shoots my .45 Colt handloads. I guess I need to shop around and locate a few rounds of the 1909 ammo, just to have with it.

Best regards,
Johnny
 
The 1909 cartridge was the same length as today's .45 Colt. What the Army legthened was the S&W Schofield-length cartridge they used from about 1876 into the early 20th century. Few people realize that the Army didn't normally use the regular .45 Colt cartridge in their model 1873 Single Actions.

I too wanted to pick up some sample 1909 cartridges, and bid on a lot of 10 rounds at a resent auction. They went for over $140.00... :what:

No, I didn't get them... :(
 
Hi, Johhny and Fuff,

Sorry for my poor wording on the cartridge lengths. The .45 1909 cartridge is the same length as the .45 Colt; the only dimensional difference is the rim diameter. The cartridge I call the .45 Government (for lack of a better name) was a compromise round, short enough to fit the S&W Schofield, yet having the same rim diameter as the .45 Colt, so it fitted both the Schofield and the SAA.

When the M1909 was adopted, the Army's intent was to be able to use that .45 Government in it. But in a revolver having that type of extractor, a shorter cartridge has less support as it comes out of the chamber, and a greater tendency to jump the extractor. (Think .22 Short in a K-22 vice .22 LR.) Both the .45 Government and .45 Colt gave problems, though not as many for the latter, due to the longer case.

So the Army decided to make its own cartridges with a larger rim than that of the .45 Colt and .45 Gov't. The result was the .45 Revolver Cartridge, Model of 1909, and that was the cartridge always issued with the Model 1909 revolver. It was never made commercially, and Colt never acknowledged it in any advertising for the New Service.

In the picture, the top rounds are a .45 Colt on the left and a .45 M1909 on the right. The bottom rounds are a .45 Government (Benet primed) on the left and a .45 M1909 on the right. I think the larger rim of the M1909 can be seen fairly easily, and its length compared with the .45 Government. FWIW, the M1909 cartridges are headstamped FA 11 11 and FA 12 13.

Jim
 

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This is wandering further off topic, but permit me one more comment.

I got an e-mail asking if there were any commercial cartridges made for the S&W Schofield or any commercial ".45 Government" cartridges. The answer is yes. Even though few (some 685 between the two models) Schofields were sold commercially, and there were no ammunition contracts from the government, the ".45 Government" cartridge was made commercially. UMC production was usually headstamped "45 S&W". Some REM-UMC, was, confusingly, headstamped ".45 Colt". Peters ammo was headstamped ".45 C GOVT." Government made standard center fire ammo was headstamed "R F" (Revolver, Frankford) and the date or just "F" and the date. Benet primed cases were not headstamped.

The Schofield was the only .45 S&W revolver made prior to 1914, S&W always favoring the .44 caliber. In the WWI era, they made .455 revolvers for the British and Canadians and the Model 1917 in .45 ACP for the U.S. Army.

Jim
 
I have seen schofield or S&W length cartridges with colt sized rims marked .45 Colt. They had no extractor grooves, and were balloon head. They were also nickel plated, and had what I supposed were 230gr bullets that looked like standard .45 Colt, small flat nose.
 
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