Through the course of the past week I had been trying to get a red dot optic properly sighted on my 617. Finally I gave up on the cheapie I had on it and ordered a replacement that I mounted Saturday. It took awhile but it all got worked out so I broke everything down to clean the revolver as part of declaring victory for the day's activities. As I was disassembling the piece for cleaning I noticed something just up and right of the hammer. At first I thought it might be a stray cat hair but, no such luck, it looks to be a hairline crack in the frame. The photo's not the world's greatest but it conveys the idea. I sent a note with photo to S&W Saturday so likely it'll be sometime next week before someone gets back to me. In the meantime the revolver became the reigning safe queen. (P.S.-Click on the photo to enlarge it. Re: Ammo. All it's ever been fed is CCI MiniMag 40 gr. solid; Federal Auto Match, 40 gr. solid, and most recently Browning's new, to this area anyway, 40 gr. solid high velocity product. It's hard for me to imagine there's any such thing as a "hot" .22LR load that'll crack a frame.)

Attached Images

617 crack.jpg (74.1 KB, 185 views)

Im not seeing a crack all I see is the action cover seem

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John Hermesmeyer USMC9296

It's the seam for the sideplate, perfectly normal.

I'm relatively new to revolvers and bought the 617 as we had, for a while anyway, a rimfire revolver sub category in our Steel Challenge group. Is it normal for the seam to separate like that? If so, am I to gather it doesn't present a safety hazard with the revolver?

Part of why the seam may be a bit wider than normal might be because you have one of the screws out of the side plate. Screw them all in and your should be fine.

Ashlander: the screw was out because I had removed the cylinder for cleaning. Even after it was reinserted and tightened fully, the separation still shows clearly. An email from S&W this morning told me exactly what you folks had already informed me of.

Looks normal and probably within specification to me. Sometimes even the older hand fitted revolvers will have quite the visible joint. Just depends on the final fitter.

There is nothing at all wrong with that seam. Someday you'll probably remove the side plate on one of your S&W revolvers and when you see the complexity of the surfaces that are fitted you will come to appreciate the level of skill required to get a fit that close.

BTW, the sideplates should NEVER EVER be pried up to remove them. They are so closely fitted in the recess that you need to vibrate them loose by lightly tapping the grip frame with a piece of hardwood. It's almost like watching a bit of magic the first time you do it, with every little tap on the grip frame that sideplate will rise up in tiny increments. I'll also tell you the first time I removed the sideplate it took me a full 45 minutes to figure out how to position the hammer block safety and re-position the sideplate so I could push it home. So, if you do remove your sideplate and feel lost, don't hesitate to ask for help. Most of us have been there done that and perfectly willing to help out a newbie.

PS: also don't be the least bit embarrassed about your question and mistaken assumption. Because the "cracked frame" question comes up about every 1 or two months with regularity. I'll also point out a lot of us have made the exact same mistake.

Loosen all screws a couple of turns and partially tighten each one a very small amount, in an alternating pattern going from one screw to the next, starting with the one nearest the gap shown in the picture.

Above all, don't over tighten any of them. People who routinely overtighten fasteners are a curse to humanity.

Finish tighten the screws one-sixth to one-third of a turn past a significant increase in resistance.

The advice I have is kind of a ballpark guideline for aviation maintainance standards to be used in the absence of specific instructions.
They work well for a lot of other applications.

Smith and Wesson may have some other recommendation for side plate torque values.

I know many of you disagree with me, but S&W does not recommend doing the degree of disassembly that the OP describes. Revolvers are not like semi-autos and were not designed to be field stripped in this fashion and doing so leads to trouble, as we see here and in many other threads.

I get it that this is a hobby and many of us like the feeling of knowledge that allows us to disassemble firearms, but revolvers are not intended for this. I can break my semi-autos down pretty far, but I will never do so with my revolvers. Haven't had one fail yet, in 40 years of shooting.

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Army veteran, NRA Life Member

There is almost never a good reason to take the side plate off of a revolver.

The OP removed his cylinder to clean it. He did not remove the side plate. If S&W recommends against removal of the cylinder for cleaning, I will ignore that advice. I'd bet there is a much higher chance of damaging your revolver by trying to clean it with the cylinder still on the gun than with it removed. The crane (yoke) on a revolver is not that difficult to bend, particularly if you have leverage by allowing it to connect two large parts unsupported.

For a light cleaning, just swabbing the chambers to remove residue, I don't bother to remove the cylinder. To thoroughly clean it I will definitely remove the cylinder. I agree, there is seldom a need to remove a side plate, but do check the tightness of the screws when cleaning. It's a lot easier than having to replace one that eventually backs out.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244