I was thinking I'll need to go home and take a picture of my New Services and then I remembered they have already made the move to my retirement house in Texas, just waiting for me to join them. Three were made in 1911, 1 in 1914, 1 in 1915, 1 in 1916 and the last two in 1919, all in .45 Colt (3) or ACP (5). Only 4 of them began life as U.S. issue, 2 1909's and 2 1917's. One began life as a .455 but a previous owner sent it to Gary Reeder and now it's a very pretty .45 Colt. One had been nickel plated at some time in it's life but is being restored to it's original blue finish. All of them began life with 5.5 inch barrels, two were cut down when I got them. One had been cut down to 4 inches and the other had been cut back to about 3 inches and the front sight was never reinstalled. I knew when I bought the 3 inch gun what I planned to do with it, I sent it to Run N Iron to return one day as a full blown Fitz Special.
It's funny, I saw my first NS in a gun shop in Kansas when I was attending an annual match. I didn't buy it but the following year there it sat on the rack waiting patiently for me to return. This frame size has become one of my favorites, right behind the Single Action Army. After I bought this first NS they seam to haunt me like zombies, I see them every where. Most of them people want too much for, I've never paid over $650 for any of them, many of them much less. I would really like to run into one of the Hollywood modified guns with the fake ejector rod added to make them look like a Single Action Army.