I have 5 K22s and as I was renting a 44 special reamer I had them send a finish reamer for 22lr cylinders along, because K22 are notorious for sticky extraction.

I kept the reamer well oiled and completely cleaned it after each chamber. When doing things like a 44 to a 45 chamber I clean and oil multiple times be chamber, but this was making VERY light cuts and producing very fine chips and not loading the cutter any real amount.

18-4 very little actual material removed, but, had a little resistance from start to finish. I have never had much of a problem with this gun.

17-2 a bit more than the 18, but, only started to really drag at about 1/2 way in

pre 17 4 screw. Probably had the most material removed but never did much for first 1/3

a pre 18 and a pre 17 5 screws. Not much removed and only about 1/2 the chamber had resistance. last 1/4 a bit more.

Did I have to do this, not really, I have never had one get really bad, maybe because of my ammo choices, I don't know, but I do know all my chambers are now correct and uniform. I also did an old Taurus 6 shot that's about J frame size mostly because it had some dings on the edges of a couple recesses from being dry fired. Its going to go down the road one of these days.

It's that type of "tuning" that can make a fine gun even better!

Very few guns get reamed in production with a brand new sharp reamer, hence we see the variations in precision between guns.

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Jim
S&WCA #819

Agreed.

Agreed, I've done probably 7 different S&W .22's, including a 34-1 and 63-1 and a K22 Outdoorsman. A few were for friends. One was an 18-2 and he had given up using it because of excessive difficulty of extraction. He now uses only his thumb to instantly extract the cylinder. My 17-4 had very little resistance, but the 617-6 had a bunch. Just keep the cutter clean and keep it oiled and never turn it backward. I have done enough I'm glad I optioned to buy the reamer the first time.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Interesting. My 17-4 has also had no problems with extraction.

You are probably fortunate that your chambers were reamed at the factory with a fresh cutter. The more worn the cutter, the less chamber material is removed, and hence, the tighter the chambers.

When I reamed the cylinder on my 18-3 the revolver went from virtually unusable to my favorite!

Lou

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NRA Certified Instructor & RSO

So this reaming is done by hand not a machine or drill?

Done by hand using a tap handle that clamps on to the square end of the reamer. The clamp piece is in the center between two handles. Any good hardware store should have them. The reamer in this case is going to turn fairly easy, because you will be making a very very light cut and remove very little metal.

10-4!.....

I have avoided the reamer for years and years, just didn't want to mess up my smith's. The latest K22 is a long tube and had severe extraction problems. My buddy ordered a reamer and I decided to go halvers with him. The first one was so easy, I decided to do the other two that I knew had problems. This week, I took all my shooter smith 22's to the range and fired several cylinder fulls with CCI std and some cheapo stuff. I will be reaming two more this weekend. Not difficult to do, listen to the instructions given above about cleaning the reamer, oiling, and do not turn to the left. Clean it well to remove the fine metal dust when finished. I soaked mine down and hit it with an air hose, and repeat. Can't believe I waited this long.

Charlie