A monthlong search ended today with a 609$ purchase of a new 617 k22....one LGS had a used priced at 799$..After seeing the clerk do a tv spinning cylinder slam, I started the research for another pistol. WHAT ???Academy has them new for 699$...Hit up 5 stores today and no one has them in stock. Pointed out to the LGS they were priced 100$ used over new. Hemhaw,,, well someone paid too much on trade....(not my problem).

Finding the 609$ deal I hustled on down... made the purchase and headed home with high expectations. What a disappointment, couldn't make it thru a cylinder without binding and lock-up. Oh Noooo... my first S&W return.

Remembering a long ago thread about binding.... I checked the ejector for obstruction... none there. What about burrs under the ejector? Yep, massive burrs! After a minor deburr... I'm up and running.

Any ideas on further smoothing of the action? I'm starting to like this pistol.

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I have a new 617, it shoots fine. BUT I have to clean under the ejector about every other load. Not really a problem.
Walt

Shoot it every day it will get better and
Better .

Yes, you can get some plastic drywall anchors to use as snap caps and shoot the **** out of it.

I bought my 6" 617 about 4-5 months ago and used it weekly at outdoor steel plate matches. It was real tight when new however shooting the heck out of it and cleaning it after each range trip made a world of difference. These revolvers are built like tanks and with proper care will outlive any of us.

I bought my 4" 617 maybe a couple years ago and in that time it has become my most used gun. Thousands and thousands of rounds - I can't even guess. It has smoothed out very, very well. I shoot it 90 plus percent in double action.

If your problems are fixed, no problem.

If not it sounds like a return to mother ship problem.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

For these reasons I am starting to buy all my revolvers used. Not only do you get each one with some trigger smoothing (although most only have a few hundred rounds) you can get preMIM and prelock which just isn't an option now.

Best one was from the now 86 year-old Marine that I took my first shooting class in college from. A 17-4 that with a trigger that was glass smooth. Other than it being absolutely filthy there was a little tip wear on one side of the muzzle. Just looking at it makes me want to take this one out today!

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About 2 years ago I purchased a filthy 617-6, 10 shot, 6” barrel, box, test fire cartridge and paper work. I paid $580 including tax and decided to take it to the range the day after I bought it. What a mistake!!!! Misfire after misfire. I was prepared to call S&W to send it back for service, but decided to give it a good cleaning first. I found that the main spring screw was loose and the whole gun was just filthy. Tightened the main spring screw and cleaned it THROUGHOUT!!! Shoots Great!!! Nice Trigger!!!
Have noticed that if I let the cleanings go, build up under the extractor causes misfires. I clean everytime after I shoot!!!

First, you stole that gun at that price. I've rarely ever seen a beat up used one for that. These guns DO hold their value. My guess is that the gun was being sold at cost because the binding issue kept it from selling.
Now onto the gun. As others have said, shooting and /or dry firing (on caps) will smoothen the gun out quite a bit. That said, I've installed 14# trigger return springs in these two to lighten the DA pull. Many of us with ageing eyes paint (or replace) the front sight too.
Adding a DS10 Speed loader ( or 3) and loading block will also add to your enjoyment.
Do a search here on 617 and you'll find lots of input from the 617 fan club.

Now go shooting!

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Dave

That was by far the best price I found; betting you're right about the binding and price reduction. I have a couple of Wilson spring kits on hand, I'll crack it open for a good inspection/cleaning and install the 14# spring this afternoon.

Did find that Aguila brand is very difficult to eject the spent casings. No problems ejecting Remington or CCI. The unfired casings measure the same.....hmmmm.

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I will say, that before ordering my 617 from G O.G., I looked at a few at bass pro and other lgs's. Saw a few that had been dry fired extensively. One lgs offered me $100 off one that was locked up. I asked why didn't he send it back to Smith and Wesson, never got a straight answer.
Unfortunately, my experience has me now ordering all my new guns online, so as they are actually new and not handled and abused demo guns.
I also looked at a 686 at a major lgs that the face of the cylinder and forcing cone had enough lead that it looked like several hundred rounds had been through it.

Good luck, I hope it works out long term. I look to claim a particular K-22 in the not too distant future.

Clerk abuse would be a talk to the mgr for me.

I am by no means a gun guru, but I strongly suspect clerk abuse is a reality...( saw the clerk spin the cylinder on the 799$ used 617 while slamming it shut)
Being non- confrontational.... I don't speak to management or make complaints to anyone.
Long story short the pistol is buttery smooth now; but light striking in double action ( occasionally single action too)....as a student of the forum; what do I do next?

ETA: where are you Toolguy???? Give me the fix!!!

You bought a used 617 after seeing the clerk cowboy the cylinder for 799$ + tax & are NOW seeking help? R we talking about the same gun? OR the 609$ new one with the burrs? Regardless, light strikes = put the original spring back & try again & with different brands of ammo, FOR ME. Others with more know how will surely be along. Great guns, don't give up hope.

I have frequently posted here with statements including "Everybody ought to have a..." (Fill in the gun of your/my choice.) In point of fact, I keep coming back to two guns, especially my K-22 and one of my Chief Specials. even with all of my experimentation with a variety of other calibers, those two pop up over and over (and yes I have a bunch of other 22s and 38s.) I predict that your Model 617, once its (likely minor) difficulties are resolved, will be one of your favorite guns of all times.

Froggie

I've only had it 48 hours. Even without running 100% .... it's already my favorite 22lr( surpassing grannies 9 shot sentinel and pawpaws single six convertible)...

You forum enablers should be ashamed!

Aguila .22LR has always used a waxy coating on their ammo. Most of it is good stuff but will gum up any .22 I've owned at twice the rate of others. We actually used to wipe each round down and then top our mags off with a drop of CLP back when my team and I shot Subsonic Aguila (Purple) in local leagues. ( We had ordered 40,000 rounds of it at $13/brick and had to "make do" :-)
FWIW, I've used Mothers Mag polish on a patch to polish the chambers of my 617's just to help extraction along.

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Dave

First, (assuming you didn't change out the main spring), check the main spring strain screw to assure it's fully seated. If it's backed off, even a bit, it can cause light strikes. (If you did change out the spring, put the old one back in.)

Second, clean the cylinder chambers WELL. If they are dirty they can cause the round to not seat fully. Then when the firing pin strikes, the round moves forward slightly and absorbs some of the energy.

If that doesn't cure it, It should go back to the mothership for warranty rework.

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Dave

Good eye on catching the ejector burrs. Im glad it is otherwise OK.
Jim

When I first got my 4" 617-6, it was pretty unreliable with most ammo brands other than CCI SV. I was getting about one failure out of 10, which was clearly not acceptable. At approximately 1700 round count, I sent it back to the factory for attention. It also had a problem with the sights in that I couldn't adjust the rear sight low enough for it to shoot to the aiming point. When it came back, I was able to get the aim point correct, but it was still (and still is) unreliable with certain ammo brands. Can't use Remington, Federal or any of the premium target brands. Magtech and CCI never fail to go off though.

I am now at over 11,500 rounds downrange according to my log book and this is a very smooth action and one of my favorite, all time revolvers.

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Changed out mainspring with the wilsons and the 13# rebound spring.... major light strikes both SA &DA
Re-installed factory mainspring... better but still light strikes

Changed rebound spring to Wilson 14# ... better yet, but still occasional light strikes

Mopped up excessive oil under the hood...reassembled.... still occasional light strikes

Reinstalling factory rebound spring.... oops, bubba lost it.... substituted a 638 factory spring.... best yet but still occasional light strikes

Next???

Ps did mail off warranty card today.

COVERED!!!!!

Hope you don't go through what I did with my 63. Countless times back until I bought another new one and told S&W that I knew what it was supposed to do. Then they finally fixed it.
Good luck.
AA

Sounds like the firing pin my be too short.

Looks like it's striking plenty hard to me.

Took four strikes for this one

Happens with different Ammo brands.

Willing to try different suggested remedies before returning the pistol...

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I had light strikes with my 4" 617 back when I bought it 2 years or so ago. I sent in back and it was returned in a bit less than 2 weeks. Perfect ever since. Truthfully, I had forgotten about it until reading this thread. I suppose since it wasn't a self defense gun I had to rely on, it was only a minor inconvenience sending it in for the fix. The customer service people were nice, so it was a pain free experience.

I've done a lot of work on my 617 and corrected all the problems. My trigger pull is now a smooth 6 and a half pound Double Action. That took a lot of work.

I had sticky extraction and reamed the cylinders out to specks. I had burrs under the star and fixed that. Now after thousands of rounds it works perfectly with a wide variety of ammo. It like CCI SV the most for accuracy.

Looks like it's going back ... will call home Monday for a label....

Meanwhile..... I've got tomorrow and a handful of main and rebound springs if anyone has a suggestion to try.... not looking to crucify anyone for a suggestion that doesn't work ... just a possible solution....I'm betting it's a simple fix!

Now go shooting![/QUOTE]

Dave,

What company's grips are on your 6" 617? They really look great. How well do they feel? Have you had them for some time?

Lon C.

For the light strikes you can take a spent primer and pick the anvil out and put the primer over the strain screw as this will add a little more tension to the spring.

It takes a bit of skill and to get a K22 to shoot reliably with a light main spring. It can be done, but it's far from a drop in venture. Personally, I keep the factory main springs and change out just the rebound spring for these revolvers as .22LR requires a good solid smack to ignite reliably. The rebound spring weight does not affect the striking force of the hammer. Only the trigger pull. Again , on my K 22's I generally don't push the limits and use 14# (or occasionally 13# if the action is slick enough to support it.)
If I were you, I'd retry different ammo with the factory main spring and see if there is ANY that it will run near 100%. IF not, there is no point playing around further. Make it stock and send it in for repair.

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Dave

The spent primer is a little above my pay grade ....shimming under the strain screw I can probably handle... .010 or .020 thousands or maybe .005

I have no idea how sensitive the strain screw and mainspring are...I do have different thicknesses of shim stock available though.

You can shim with almost anything. Soda can skin, match books, primers etc. Shimming is a good tool for diagnostics (particularly on older guns which may have weakened mainsprings) but should not be considered a fix IMHO. It's a new gun, S&W will make it right without band-aides.

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Dave

Plus one on this sound thinking!!!!

Is there anyway I installed that mainspring housing stirrup on the hammer wrong? The older models are pinned.... this one fell out without me seeing how it went???? It seems it would only work one way though.

It does only work one way. You will see that when you put it back in.

As for rebound springs I use an 11 lb in all of my revolvers. You just have to get your finger off the trigger to reset it when shooting fast.

When I bought my S&W 617 approx. 6 months ago (built 12-2016) it was spitting lead and very uncomfortable to shoot. I feel blessed because I bought it used for $575. The lead spitting was probably why. But when reading up on the revolver after purchase, it seems some (really quite a few ) were having light strikes reported on the internet. Even Patrick Kelly on YouTube (out of the box to the Match series) was having like strikes straight out of the box first trip to the range (several)( Here is the video ) . It seems the best fix for this is to buy a replacement firing pin. All were seemed fixed by this. This revolver seems to have just a tad short firing pin. S&W fixed mine under warranty and I have not shot a 1000 rounds through it but is seem very reliable to me. No lead spitting and fixed the point of aim also with a shorter rear sight blade. They also all seem to shoot high a 25 yards.

Anyway, I do not remember where everyone was getting their replacement firing pins at but I am sure a quick Google search that can be found out and may save you the hassle about sending it back.

Good Luck, I am definitely not a S&W revolver expert though.

Apex Tactical.com makes the best firing pin. It will last the longest. C&S also makes an extended firing pin. You can get them from Brownells.com.

After sleeping on the problem, I had the wrong mainspring installed....although a factory spring, it wasn't the original to the pistol.
Cleaned out the firing pin channel and components while I was at it. Just finished running 50 DA rounds without a light strike!

Thanks for all of the replies... y'all never fail to help....THANKS!

Now back to install that lighter rebound spring
BUBBA rides again

Play with it long enough & you will break it for sure, maybe even void the warranty while you are at it. Be patient & let S&W deal with it. My final answer.

Dave,

What company's grips are on your 6" 617? They really look great. How well do they feel? Have you had them for some time?

Lon C.[/QUOTE]


Lon, those are grips of Thai manufacture purchased from thebay. Manufacturer was ReddKultt as I recall. I've got two identical sets . Both purchased in the last couple of years. ( They still sell them though.) One set is on a 6" 686 and another on this 6" 617. I find the larger square butt profile helps me to better control pointing of these muzzle heavy revolvers. Fit and finish on both sets were very good ( especially considering the sub $50 price tag.) The laser etched S&W logo is kind of cool too.
FWIW, I have a round butt set from the same maker. Nice grips but they don't give me the leverage of the larger SB grip.

Feel free to PM me if you need more info.

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Dave

My 617-6, 6 inch, is my second favorite range gun (Victory is first). The only problem with my 617 occurred right out of the box with light hits causing failures to fire. I sent it to S&W and got in back in twelve days. S&W replaced the firing pin and strain screw.

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"In God We Trust"

After deburring the extractor, solving the self inflicted light strikes problem..... the new 617 came with the standard, no extra charge canted barrel with an exaggerated front sight blade cant. Probably needs the cylinder reamed as some ammo brands are very difficult to extract. Am I sending it back? No. Am I disappointed in quality? Yes. For now it's my favorite, at least until the new' wears off. Burning about a thousand rounds Sunday afternoon I did get a few satisfying tight groupings.
Just had to remember; if not seeing the front sight canted. I'm not seeing the front sight.

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I'd sell the damn thing and buy a Ruger if it was mine.

You have far more patience than I do.

Are there any modern rimfire revolvers that don't have extraction issues from the factory?

That LGS is having a heck of a Ruger sale.
With the only 617 in stock laying on the counter, I asked to see a GP100 22lr. He grabbed a SP101 22lr and placed it beside the 617 saying this is a great pistol; I have one. I didn't even pick it up, it looked like a toy beside the 617.

After the new wears off, I may send the 617 in for repairs.

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I have owned two, SP101's in .22 ( Mainly because I'm a slow learner.) The triggers on these were awful and took hours of work to get acceptable but still not as good as a factory 617.

Haven't bit on the GP100 yet but have handled them extensively. It seems to have potential ( and a slightly better trigger than the SP101) but I don't see anything (with maybe the exception of the FO front sight) that it brings over the 617.

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Dave

As of today's range trip, my shooting log book shows 11,707 rounds through my 617-6. I sent it in to the mother ship at 1,700 rounds due to the short firing pin and the inability to adjust the rear sight down far enough for it to shoot where it was aimed.

I love this gun - I almost never shoot it single action, so I can't comment on that, but the double action has become excellent - and this is with factory springs to boot.

Keep shooting it - when it becomes frustrating because of the barrel cant and the difficult extraction - send it home and they will correct any problems.

I'll 2nd that. I only shoot mine double action. Sweet shooting guns.
But it did take a couple hundred rounds to get it running smooth. There is a lot of detail machine work on this revolver, and I think it's just about knocking off the little burrs at the sharp edges , once broke in its smooth as silk

My 617 had the same issue.
Checking carefully, the problem was obviously a spot on the recoil shield.
I could have fixed it in minutes with some stoning.
But sent it in on warranty.
It was quickly returned repaired.
Note accompanying called the issue "cylinder cramping"
Now its a great shooter

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-jwk-
US Army '72-'95

Not to deviate the thread:

1) I don't care for any of the coatings on .22's. I use .22's more then any other caliber and always take at least a couple to the range to do some plinking. Because I do, I keep about a brick in each case (10 or so). I also keep 4 or 5 bricks that I guess you could call "prepped" on my going to the range shelves to refill what I've used up.

The prepping is simply throwing a brick in my tumbler with some corn cob and let it run an hour or so. I then take a couple handfuls and put them on an old towel, bunch it up and roll it around a bit to remove any dust. After they are all wiped I'll shake out the towel, spread them out on it and give them a blast of Remi-dry lube. Roll them around again and back into the packaging.

It may seem like a pain but it really isn't. I may spend a total of 15 minutes or so, hands on, processing. Most of it is re-packaging if it isn't bulk or put in a coffee can. Then it's maybe 5 minutes. What I end up with are very slick rounds with minimal build up. Just powder which I wipe away quickly every couple hundred rounds, a blast of the Remi on/in the action and start firing again.

I do the same with my 380's. In either case, I've not had a single FTF or FTE since I started doing this unless it's some cheap stuff with a dead spot (no primer) in the rim.

2) As another poster stated. Yes, dry-wall # 4-8 are great to use as snap caps in .22's. They are only about $2.00 of so for 50. I've been using them for years. Much better than dummies or snaps for dry firing. I haven't used one up yet.

My 617 (4") is one of my always take to the range guns. It's a great warm up to my 686 and 629 and besides that, it's one of my favorite plinkers, even if the other two stay home.