I have wanted a S&W 22 rem jet since I was an apprentice in trade school, but alas there were non existant up here in my area in central Canada I was 21 years old and didn't know spit! anyway almost 20 years later, just this week found a first year production special order 6"'er with every extra you could have ordered at the time, yeha! when i went to look at it 2 days ago it was hard to hold my excitement in as it was pretty much NIB, it came with the smooth Rosewood grips, target hammer and trigger, front red ramp insert, first year gun 4 screw , complete 22 rimfire cylinder ,all insert set in original box that has seen better days, with all manually and tools! The gun was a dream find, we hagled a little with this fine old gentalmen who said he only shot it onceI since a friend from the USA brought it up to him for taking him on a moose hunt. I think, no I know I got a great deal on this special order 22 rem jet at $850!! Any other pertanent info, that you could give me would be appreciated. I will try to post pictures when I get it home as I have to wait for the permits to be issued before I can take her home. It took 20 years but it was worth the wait, cheers dale Z in Canada

Good for you! What a great feeling that must be. I cannot offer any additional insight except to do a few searches here and online in terms of the history of the Jet. Congrats again.

i got one a couple of years ago, 8 3/8" barrel and all
the extras. i think i met get around to shooting it this
year. great find for you.....

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George Jamison

Got any of this stuff?


Mark

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S&W Forum Member #721

I recently purchased a Jet also and am anxiously awaiting the arrival of ammunition. Probably be a while as Midway is anticipating a delivery date of April for bullets and I believe these are the ones the ammo supplier uses.

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John. SWCA #1586

Its a disease. Run for your life and billfold.

About 20 years ago I bought one. I'd never owned one up until then, but I'd wanted one for a long time. A guy at a large gunshow had one for sale, and he drew me in. We'd walked the show and I still had spending cash in my pocket, so I met up with my buddies and said we have one stop left. Then I took my best buddy and asked if he'd help me carry some stuff. Of course he agreed.

So we went back to the table and the guy again pushed the jet toward me. It was everything he'd promised. So I paid my then huge amount of $700. My buddy about choked, $700 for a 22? Then he pushed over the 10 boxes of factory ammo. My friend was still unimpressed. But the ammo was about worth as much as the gun.

Back then you could still find brass, new and virginal. Better still, a large local gun shop had .222 Hornady bullets in stock. So I went on a buying binge. All the bullets, and just a couple hundred cases. When they restocked the bullets, I bought all 500 they'd gotten in (they never restocked them after that.)

Over the years I bought others. But none are as good as my first, so I sold them off. And I learned how to work gun shows. Look at everything on the table. About once a year you see a box of ammo. Often its only half full. But loaded Jet ammo sells for $75 a box. Half a box often only carries a price of $25. Its a bargain, and pretty often it comes with the empties to make up the 50 rounds. I still see the ammo from time to time. Last year my younger son wanted me to go with him to a gun show. There on the far wall was a forelorn box of Jet bullets (impress in your mind .222). Of course I bought them. As always.

Some hints: You are about to become a reloader. Find a ziplock bag or a wire tie/zip strap. String the stupid little adapters together so they don't get lost, they put them away forever. They serve no purpose except to get lost.

When you reload, keep your pressures and velocities down. Brass lasts a long time when you do. If you ever see a Jet shooter sitting on the ground in tears, its because he's just discovered a split case. Even if you've got a thousand empties, a split one is a tragedy.

If you're a nervy type guy, you can even shoot lead bullets. Just lower the velocity even more and prepare to clean lead out. On the plus side, you can save significant money by doing it.

The Jet becomes a driving force in your life. Every time you see brass, bullets, or loaded ammo your billfold takes a hit. Sometimes outsiders take mercy on you. One of our posters here gave me over 100 handloaded rounds, plus some extra cases. It was like a dream come true.

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Dick Burg

WTG!! Great find if you want to get in reloading there's a fella in BC that has brand new Rem 22 Jet brass for $44/100. I love mine i have a first year Jet with the 8 3/8" barrel a tack driver there a blast to shoot. If you want brass you can PM me and i'll give you his number. Enjoy your new gun...

Rick

Wow! What a find. I haven't fired (or seen) one of those since I shot my friends back in the mid 60's. You lucky dog!

If you plan on doing a lot of shooting you might go ahead and get the dies to reload the Jet and while your at it you could get a set of case forming dies, mine are RCBS and you have to special order them. I like mine very much and I cast 2 different bullets for it, when you get a chance PM me with your mailing address and I will run a copy from the 1963 Gun Digest on loading and forming the cases and mail it to you just get me your address and I will be happy to do it. Just keep the chambers free from any oil and wear shooting muffs. Better 20 years late than never, good luck! Jeff

I bought one of these about 15 years ago that was in very good shape, with the box and inserts, but now 22LR cylinder. I still have it and shoot it on occasion. It is the model with a 4" barrel and is quite loud, but a tack driver.

I started reloading for it about five years ago and I found a load using 11.5 grains of IMR 4227 powder, .222 Hornady bullets and new Remington brass. It works great. I tone the charge down to 9 grains when using once fired brass. The reason I do this is that if I put the same charge of 11.5 grains into once fired brass, the brass gets stuck in the cylinder after shooting and is a pain to get out!

Enjoy your Jet. They are a lot of fun, but I find cleaning them to be a pain in the butt, especially the cylinder.

They came with a cute little tapered "mop" to facilitate cylinder clean up. The problem being they are nearly impossible to find, and when you do they're not cheap. My methods aren't always conventional.

First, knowing how hard they are to locate, I put mine away with the chamber inserts, never to be used or lost. Then I decided to make some myself. 20 years ago you could find an cannibalize other tool/cleaning kits. They were all over at gun shows, often for as little as $1 a sealed bag. No more. But cleaning supply sellers often have them alone for $1 or less in quantity.

If you chuck one in your electric drill (or dremel at lowest speed) and then put the arrangement in your vise, you have a rotating wipe. Then with either a razor knife (its at the wrong angle, but you can improvise) or a good quality wood chisel, sharpened to razor edge, you can just kind of gently reduce the diameter of the tip. Keep a Jet cartridge next to you during the operation. Remember, the Jet is a .357 case necked down. As long as you start with a .38 cal mop, only the far end needs to be 22 cal.

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Dick Burg

I have 2 Model 53's. A 6 inch and 8 3/8 inch. Remington Jet brass is currently available at Midway, but Graf has a better price.

22 Rem Jet new brass

Thanks for all your kind responces! I plan on mainly shooting the 22 RF cylinder for the fall and winter, and only the Jet in the summer to take advantage of the 100 metre range that 7 minutes from my home! I will probably just buy new brass rather than make my own from 357, as I donot plan to shoot much other than targets in the summer. I will definately get picture posted her in a couple to 3 weeks when I should get to take my gun home finally, stupid Liberal laws! cheers for now Dale Z

Here is a photo of the elusive Jet tool kit, it includes two wipers, one straight for the inserts and one tapered for the cylinder. Sorry about the reflections from the bag, I didn't want to open it.

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John. SWCA #1586

In the late 60s, when I was attending U of M in Missoula, I went on several Black Bear hunts with another fellow who knew much more about Bear hunting than I did. We'd hunt right at snow-line in April/May when the bears were out of hibernation and eating green grass to get their digestion started. I carried a .308 (Win Model 88) but he carried only a Jet (6") and killed 3 Bear with it during those hunts (and many more before and after).

No, I'm not recommending it --- Just remembering simplier times.

Enjoy that Jet.

Just an update for all the fine members who gave advice and helpful hints in the operation of the Jet, that I just got it home 2 days ago, so will shortly have a good friend take some picures to share my joy with you all! Here is a funny lttle antedote, when I picked up the gun from the ederly fellow I bought it from, I put the gun in a lock box to tansport it due to our gun laws, the fellows wife said she would take the box and papers and "burn it in the fire to get rid of that old box" I nearly fell out of the kitchen chair! I then told this nice elderly lady that would be like taking an $400 and throwing it in the fire as the extra cylinder and inserts were in it, plus she could not understand that a cardboard box had any value. Shows that most people have the same instink, throw out whatever they don't need, not knowing it brings value down the road, take care, hopefully less than a week to post picture's, Dale Z