Originally Posted by wantmoresmiths

My daughter-in-law, who incidentally has fairly small hands, has a 617 with the factory rubber hogue grips and she does quite well with it. She has never complained about the grips.

If you are getting a good deal on the 617, and it has a 4" barrel, I would just buy it. You can probably turn around and sell it for the same money if the wife doesn't like it, or better yet you can keep it for yourself. The reason I mention the 4" barrel is the muzzle heavy feel of the 6" version. I'm a fairly big guy, and I sold off my 6" 617 because I didn't like the muzzle heavy feel.

One nice thing about S&W revolvers is the huge selection of aftermarket grips out there. So if the wife doesn't like the factory grips you can always try something else. You can buy some here on the forum and resell if they don't meet the wife's approval. Keep trying different grips until you find something she likes.