Today I took my 617 to the range to test it for reliability and to see if it likes the ammo I'm using. I've had a problem the last few times out with lead spitting out of the cylinder/barrel gap and hitting my friend at the table next to me. I've even had some lead come back at me.

I've done a lot of work on my 617. I did the work myself and now have a 7 lb double action trigger pull that I really like. To stop the spitting I fixed the cylinder gap from.005 to .002 inches. I used shims to do it.

Yesterday I used a forcing cone cutter and was able to cut it to 11 degrees with a Brownell .22 calibre cutter.

To keep lead from hitting my friend I mounted a target between us on the table. I had no lead spatter shooting 100 rounds and no failure to fire. The round even ejected easily since I reamed the cylinders.

I had a 317 that spit lead. S&W traded me for a new one.

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Carry.."hope" isn't a strategy

My 617-2 (with stainless steel cylinder) started spitting lead worse than normal this year. It's been shot many thousands of times at bowling pins and steel plates over the years. The lock up was getting sloppy and the cylinder also moved up and down in the front too, I just wore it out.

I have to say it was the most used gun I ever owned. I finally decided to send it back after the guys around me complained about it.

S&W replaced the cylinder, latch and re-cut the forcing cone. They even bead blasted it to match the original. It's now better than it's ever been, even when new.

The 617-2 is in the middle.

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Looks/sounds like you're into some competition. Just curious...what's the bowling pin game you play with the 617?

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Carry.."hope" isn't a strategy

I think the re-cutting the forcing cone helped the most with the spitting. I have seen too many S&W K Frame 22's with practically no forcing cone cut at all.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

We started shooting pins at our club over 25 years ago, started as a fund raiser for the club but later expanded to a 10 week league because it was just too fun to do only one day a year. We now have 2 leagues, fall and winter. We have an indoor range with 2 bays, 2 sets of 5 pins on each bay.

We shoot 4 lines of 5 pins for one score, then take the best 6 of 10 scores over 10 weeks and that's your time. The lowest time wins. We use shot timers and shoot at 25 feet. Start "Shooter ready, timer ready, gun on the table then buzzer"

We now have steel outline pins on a hinge so we don't have to pick up pins. It's also getting hard to find pins because alleys in our area are now leasing pins and they have to return them instead of dumping them. We used to get hundreds of pins a year for free and we could use them quite a while until they got too heavy with lead.

I could post a video but don't know how to do it here.

The picture below was captured from one of my faster scores (about 2.5 seconds total, it usually takes me about 1 second to get off the first shot), all pins still in the air.

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Just one question regarding the scope. BLUE?

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Fred
S&WCA 3238

Yes. C-More has a variety of colors. Blue, Red, Gray, Olive Drab, Black, Silver and maybe more.