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Old 11-05-2018, 07:19 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PzKfW5 View Post
Got tired of the ridiculously tight chambers which were essentially non-functional on my K22. After one cylinder required a hammer or a bloody hand. See my other threads on chamber measurement.

So, I purchased a finish reamer from Brownells and went to work.

EXTREMELY PLEASED with the results!

Observations.
1. This is EASY and CHEAP to do.
2. This completely fixes the ejection problem these guns are known for.
3. There will still be a significant "tight" area ahead of the base of the chamber after reaming. See pic below.
4. Leave the extractor in while reaming. Mine certainly benefited from the chamber reamer as several charging hole cuts were off, and several weren't actually flush with the cylinder recess. Primer strikes are better than they were, now, as all cartridge rims are actually sitting flush with extractor and cylinder recess.

Pics.
You can see here where the reamer finished in the bottom left chamber. The tighter area ahead of the now correctly-sized chamber will swage down the bullet to the same diameter as the original S&W chambering, before it leaves the cylinder... and the shells will now actually eject and don't require a hammer. Oh, and fired casings from the pre-reamer shooting sessions (which drew blood) drop in perfectly, with no wiggle... before I couldn't even get fired shells to seat in the chamber...



Really tight chambers... perhaps the final finishing method they used on centerfire revolver chamberings was carried over to rimfire, but with unintended consequences. Unknown if the super tight chambering was fine in olden days, but it doesn't work with today's ammo, match, CCI, or otherwise. I had a 60s vintage M41 that had exactly the same problem. Made the gun unusable and I sold it. Anyways, this is the metal removed after 3 chambers were done.



And after all were done... this doesn't show the full amount of metal actually, as some ended up on towels I used to wipe the reamer off...



All in all, I'm tickled pink. And, now I have an extra original, unmodified complete M17 cylinder assembly that I'm considering selling or having fitted to the gun and reamed to WMR or other caliber...
WITH PERSISTENCE AND PATIENCE, YOU DID A SUPERB JOB......

I HAD A RUGER CHAMBERED IN .30 CAL CARBINE, THAT HAD THE SAME PROBLEM, WITH MILSURP AMMO, FORCING ME TO SELL IT.......

IMHO, REAMING YOUR SPARE CYLINDER TO .22WMR, AND HAVING IT FITTED TO YOUR REVOLVER, IS AN EXCELLENT IDEA ! ! !

ITS AKIN TO OWNING 2 GUNS THAT YOU CAN CARRY, WITHOUT HAVING TO PURCHASE ANOTHER HOLSTER......
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