Tinker Pearce
New member
Recently I was thinking about ballistics from the S&W Custom Shop Model 625 with a 2" barrel. One came up on another page and people were very down on the concept, expecting it would have very poor velocity.
I had a Brazilian-contract M1917 in the safe doing nothing in particular, so after making certain I could source a replacement barrel I cut and re-crowned mine at 2" to do a chronograph test.
My defensive load in .45 ACP uses a 200gr. JHP, and it gets 920 fps. from my full-length gun and 848 fps. from my 3-1/2" Detonics Combat Master. Fired through 4 layers of denim into Clear Ballistics gel from the shorter gun this yields 14" of penetration and expands to an average of .640". Since I had a good baseline using this load for the test seemed like a good idea.
How did it do from the cut-down M1917? Average 841 fps. This is less surprising to me than you might think; SA pistols barrel length is measured from the muzzle to the breech-face. Measuring the revolver from the breech face rather than the front of the cylinder gives a length a hair over 3-1/2".
When Ballistics By The Inch ran a series of tests to determine the effect of the cylinder gap on velocity they discovered it really doesn't make as much difference as you might think. Being familiar with their work I was rather expecting a result like this.
I actually liked the look of the gun with the stubby barrel, so I made and installed a new front sight, did a light trigger job (mostly just smoothing things up,) Bobbed the hammer and cut 40 LPI checkering so it can still be easily thumb-cocked, and touched up the finish. I also made antler grips and an American Holly grip adapter for it.
Miraculously the gun shoots to point-of-aim at seven yards, and while recoil is a thing it's manageable for me.
In some respects I suppose it's a rather silly gun, but I love it. Yes, I'll probably carry it occasionally once I make a holster for it. I knwo that my defensive load works in it, I can put hits on target in a hurry and with Moon Clips the reload is decently quick. Even if I never carry it and it's somewhat impractical it puts a smile on my face when I look at it, and big ol' grin when I shoot it. Sometimes that's all a gun needs to do.
I had a Brazilian-contract M1917 in the safe doing nothing in particular, so after making certain I could source a replacement barrel I cut and re-crowned mine at 2" to do a chronograph test.
My defensive load in .45 ACP uses a 200gr. JHP, and it gets 920 fps. from my full-length gun and 848 fps. from my 3-1/2" Detonics Combat Master. Fired through 4 layers of denim into Clear Ballistics gel from the shorter gun this yields 14" of penetration and expands to an average of .640". Since I had a good baseline using this load for the test seemed like a good idea.
How did it do from the cut-down M1917? Average 841 fps. This is less surprising to me than you might think; SA pistols barrel length is measured from the muzzle to the breech-face. Measuring the revolver from the breech face rather than the front of the cylinder gives a length a hair over 3-1/2".
When Ballistics By The Inch ran a series of tests to determine the effect of the cylinder gap on velocity they discovered it really doesn't make as much difference as you might think. Being familiar with their work I was rather expecting a result like this.
I actually liked the look of the gun with the stubby barrel, so I made and installed a new front sight, did a light trigger job (mostly just smoothing things up,) Bobbed the hammer and cut 40 LPI checkering so it can still be easily thumb-cocked, and touched up the finish. I also made antler grips and an American Holly grip adapter for it.
Miraculously the gun shoots to point-of-aim at seven yards, and while recoil is a thing it's manageable for me.
In some respects I suppose it's a rather silly gun, but I love it. Yes, I'll probably carry it occasionally once I make a holster for it. I knwo that my defensive load works in it, I can put hits on target in a hurry and with Moon Clips the reload is decently quick. Even if I never carry it and it's somewhat impractical it puts a smile on my face when I look at it, and big ol' grin when I shoot it. Sometimes that's all a gun needs to do.
