Interesting Model 17 barrel, does anyone know of a special order of model 17
8 3/8 "barrels with ramp front sight installed on revolovers and the ejector rod shroud? I have had several people tell me they never made a model 17 with ejector rod shroud in a half lug!

As I have seen said here many times, with S&W, never say "never". However, I will admit that I have never heard of such. I also don't recall off the top of my head that they made any 8 3/8 K frame models with a shroud of that nature. I don't think there were any M19s with a barrel over 6", and that's the only K frame candidate that comes to mind right now.

Where did you get it? Does it look as though it was always a .22, and not sleeved down or something of that nature?

Oh. A thought - what about the .22 Jet or whatever that was - an M53? Didn't they have a shrouded barrel? Did they make any with a barrel that long?

ETA: Looks like an M53 barrel, mis-marked, or a custom marked barrel based on one from an M53 might be the answer, as I see one that looks like it (8 3/8, ramp sight) here: Gun Library: Smith & Wesson Model 53 .22 Rem. Jet : Cabela's.

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NHI, 10-8.

The pins in the front sight look polished flat.

Wasn't the M53 marked "22 Magnum"?

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Correct, this is marked .22 long rifle, model 53's were marked .22 magnum...

Which is why I did the "ETA" bottom of my stream of consciousness response. Mis-marked or custom marked (lunchbox special?) because they did not mark the M53s as .22 LR. Are there any other barrel blanks that could have been made into this? I really don't know, but the collective knowledge here tends to have such info readily available.

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NHI, 10-8.