Original Items: Only One Set Available. This is a very appealing U.S. WWI M1917 revolver belt rig, consisting of a 1918 dated Graton & Knight leather holster for the Colt or Smith & Wesson M1917 .45 ACP revolver, an original M1910 pistol belt, and the distinctive three pocket ammunition pouch designed to carry the revolver's three round “half moon” clips. All of the important markings remain visible, and the combination makes an excellent display of the field equipment developed when the U.S. Army urgently supplemented the M1911 automatic pistol with large frame .45 ACP revolvers during WWI.

The M1917 Revolvers were six-shot, .45 ACP, large frame revolvers adopted by the United States Military in 1917, to supplement the standard M1911 pistol during World War I. There were two variations of the M1917, one made by Colt and the other by Smith & Wesson. They used moon-clips to hold the cartridges in position, facilitate reloading, and to aid in extraction since revolvers had been designed to eject rimmed cartridges and .45 ACP rounds were rimless for use with the magazine-fed M1911.

A moon clip is a ring-shaped or star-shaped piece of metal designed to hold multiple cartridges together as a unit, for simultaneous insertion and extraction from a revolver cylinder. Moon clips may either hold an entire cylinder's worth of cartridges together (full moon clip), half a cylinder (half moon clip), or just two neighboring cartridges.

The modern moon clip was devised shortly before World War I in 1908. The device then became widespread during the war, when the relatively new M1911 semi-automatic pistol could not be manufactured fast enough for the war effort. The U.S. War Department asked Smith & Wesson and Colt to devise ways to use the M1911's .45 ACP rimless cartridge in their revolvers. The result was the M1917 revolver, employing moon clips to chamber the military-issue .45 ACP ammunition. Smith & Wesson invented and patented the half-moon clip, but at the request of the Army allowed Colt to also use the design free of charge in their own version of the M1917 revolver.

The set consists of the following:

- Original WWI issue M1917 Revolver Holster: The holster is in fair shape, with heavy overall wear, crazing to the leather and some minor tearing in the belt loop. The leather is slightly stiff from age and is missing the bottom cap with a ring. The reverse is marked G.& K. / 1918 / A.G., for 1918 manufacture by Graton & Knight.

- Original WWI issue M1910 Pistol Belt: The belt is not stamped that we can see, but is not by Mills. The Belt is in good field-used condition, with the webbing not exhibiting any signs of dry rot, tears, or unsightly damage. The brass hardware has verdigris as shown.

- “Half Moon” Revolver Clips Ammunition Pouch: The half moon pouch would hold two 3 round half moon clips in each pouch, totaling 6 clips, 18 rounds in total. The pouch is not maker-marked but has a WWII laundry number stamped on the back.

The appeal of this rig lies in the way its three components illustrate the complete support system developed for the Colt and Smith & Wesson M1917 revolvers. The 1918 dated G.& K. leather holster, sound M1910 pistol belt, and specialized 18 round half moon clip pouch create a much stronger display than any of the pieces individually. The holster's heavy crazing, missing bottom cap and ring, verdigris on the belt hardware, and later laundry marking on the pouch are all important condition details, but the set retains an excellent WWI field used appearance. It would display especially well in a collection focused on American WWI sidearms, Doughboy equipment, Colt or Smith & Wesson M1917 revolvers, the M1911 and its wartime substitutes, or U.S. web and leather equipment.