Just picked this one up in trade along with a very nice 1886 Winchester, probably the best gun day of my life. He added the K-22 to sweeten the deal, the thing I like the most about trading is when both of you walk away happy as a couple of pigs in the mud.

Nice Five screw K22! Is that a gold bead front sight?
Good catch

More detailed pictures please.

Very nice looking gun. Does the front sight have a bead? It appears so in the photo.

Looks like VM saw the same thing.

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John. SWCA #1586

K-22 Addiction: Will it ever end? Not Usually just gets worse !
Nice 5 screw taper barrel !

nice throw in you got there. the first thing I saw was the gold bead. It must be shining bright.

What serial number range. I'm guessing around K100,000 or earlier with that sight.


Charlie

Guys...I am so jacked right now I can't stand it...Yeah thats a gold bead front sight, doesn't appear to have been done at the factory as there is a very slight scratch on the finish of the barrel. I'm guessing that it was done about the time the trigger shoe was installed. Came with numbers matching magnas in very nice shape, I like the feel of the target type grips myself. Number is 205XXX places it around '53 as far as I can tell.
Can't help myself but heres a shot of 1886 45/70

Both nice guns. What did you have to give up?
f.t.

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South Carolina-God's country

Hello Kinman
That short answer to that is No, it will only get worse K-22's are like Peanut's the more you eat the More you want. They are the guns many of us learned to shoot with when we were young as well as the one's that get handed down when a family passes away. Ammo for them is the most reasonable out there so Demand is super high for them....

I gave up a late model Springfield M1A with quite a few accessories, I was about ready to trade the guy for the Winchester straight across just stalled a little with indecision and he offered the K-22....I could feel the drug running in my veins and called him immediately to set a meet. Its nicer than my '48 model and the gold bead really pops, I like it very much...and to top it off I finally have my hands on a 45/70 Winchester.

Ya done good pilgram!
f.t.

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South Carolina-God's country

I'm probably a lot younger than most of you guys (and didn't learn to shoot with one), but these guns are great. And when it comes to having a gun that is fun to shoot and affordable...

Nice K-22 and that 1886 with octagon barrel and 3/4 magazine is a real dandy. Congrats.

Say, what configurations of the post-war pre-17 K-22 exist - barrel length, hammer, trigger, grips, sights etc...
Then ditto on the Model 17s.

Thanks! Mark.

Looks like you got a really great deal on the trade and like others have said the addiction only gets worse. next you will start looking for a P&R 8 3/3 inch barrel one next, then a 617, and so on.

Bye the way this group only throws more Gasoline on the fire.

There is a 12 step program available for K-22 addiction, it goes kind of like this:

Step 1: Shoot a K-22 for the first time and realize you need one.

Step 2: You find a nice one for sale, run the purchase past the Smith-Wesson forum junkies, buy the gun.

Step 3: You go to the range and before you know it you put half a brick downrange and wonder why you didn't buy one of these sooner.

Step 4: If your first gun is a 6", you decide that you should have a 4" to go with it. You rationalize this by stating that the 4" will be a good practice gun for your 4" centerfires. (If your first gun was a 4" just swap 4" and 6" in the above, works the same).

Step 5: Well now that you have 4" and 6" guns you think you are done with K-22's. Then you get to shoot a friends Outdoorsman.

Step 6: You scour the various sale sites for a nice Outdoorsman, find one, buy it. Rationalization-they are only going up in value, it is a good investment.

Step 7: You are on the SW forum and someone posts photos of the really sweet long tube he/she just got. You decide it would be cool to have one, the credit card takes another hit. Rationalization-it will be great for small game hunting and maybe some informal silhouette.

Step 8: You are extremely happy with your small K-22 collection. No need for any more. Your range buddy lets you send a few .22WMR's downrange from his Model 48 and you say to yourself "Darn, those are a blast to shoot." You see one for sale on a local gun board for a reasonable price, credit card takes a hit again.

Step 9: Well if the 6" 48 you bought is such a nice gun, a 4" and 8 3/8" would be nice to round out the .22 WMR collection. You call the bank to get the credit card limit raised.

Step 10: You reload for your centerfires so why not get a 53. I mean they have a shrouded ejector rod unlike anyother K-22 so you have to have one.

Step 11: Well the first 53 was really a nice gun, might as well get the other 2 barrel lengths you don't currently have. You hit the home equity line of credit for these.

Step 12: You are now really pleased with your nice collection of various K-22's. You are sitting with the adult beverage of your choice and pick up the SCSW just to look. What the heck, early post war K-22's have different barrel and backstrap patterns, the 17-6 is available with a full lug barrel, gee a 617 would be nice to have a stainless gun for bad weather carry.................

Your wallet is now a smoking hole in the ground.

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Jim
Many K and N Frames

Surrender to the force Grasshoper . You're now irrepairably damaged & will never be the same . Only cure is to buy up as many as you can . BTW you simply must have a pre war 2nd Model K 22 Outdoorsman .

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm pre war outdoorsman huh

The addiction can end any time you want it to. There was a time, back in the last century, when I owned 36 of them. A full 3 dozen. Then one day it came to me, I don't need that many. So I began selling them. One here, two there, etc. Away they went, and I didn't feel bad about it at all. Better still, I could invest the proceeds from those sales in other guns. True, some of the new purchases were other K22s, but ones that filled noticeable holes in my meager collection. And often it would free up a less good gun to sell off.

These days I only have one shootable K22. Its also the worst by far in my collection. I do have 11 other ones that could be shot, I guess. But I'm not going to do it. Well, unless I burn up that one front line gun and need to move to another one. And if I had Drew's K117, I'd probably sell off a couple of my ratty old ones, like K155 and K166. The key is having control of the urges. If tomorrow I saw a nice engraved one, in the same quality range of the other engraved ones I have, I'd probably buy it. I seriously doubt my wife would even flinch.

And I'm glad the above poster showed good common sense and include Jets in the discussion. They're very worthy guns, if postwar.

And I did make some mistakes in my sell down. I sold off a great Outdoorsman because the prior owner had scratched his SS number on the frame. Otherwise it was a 98% gun, easy. I should have kept it as a shooter.

Now if you want to see what the later stages of the disease entail, we can talk about boxes. Every K22 should come with a place for it to live. If not the original to the gun, then at least a worthy Katrina trailer equivalent. That means a correct to era box, and the better condition, the happier you will be. Oh, I guess we could talk about paperwork and tools.

Something else to consider is it takes years to accumulate a proper inventory of K22s. I'm still a newcomer to the game, with it being 40 years in 2013. A word of advice would be to take your time and not bother with lower quality specimens (except 2nd models). Spend your money carefully, and don't push the buying. There are others on gun show tables, or gun shops. Besides, in the overall scheme of things, I'll die soon and my ratty little accumulation can be purchased from my widow. Maybe. And at a fraction of the cost, time and effort I expended.

No matter what, guns change hands over time. Its far cheaper to buy a gun once than to buy lesser condition examples, only to replace them as you climb up the condition scale. Just keep one as your shooter.

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Dick Burg