I know this has been covered here before. Yet, I am wondering if anyone has a new locking model 617 that leads around the frame where the barrel screws into the frame and on the top strap? I have shot maybe 300 rounds through my gun since I have last cleaned it. I have put maybe 1k rounds through it in all. The leading around the edge of the exposed barrel is enough to cause my friends heads to turn. I will try taking a picture to let everyone see.

I sat down and shot a group from 40 paces. I am 6'4". I put 8 of 10 shots inside of 2 1/2" easily. I did not notice any key holing. 2 shots were outside the group by 3 inches. Don't know if it was me or not. I was shooting federal lightning 40 grain lead solid points.

I have the 4" barrel model.

Well, you give a lot of extraneous information which has exactly zero to do with the gun, such as your height (?). Without a picture of what you are seeing there is no way anyone can say if it is normal or not. As long as the gun isn't spitting lead it's fine.

There will always be some deposit in a revolver, lead, graphite from the powder coating, soot, wax/lubricant, primer residue, etc. Both lead and graphite appear shiny if rubbed. The amount of fouling is more dependent on the ammunition being fired, but all will leave deposits.

You got me on the superfluous info. The height thing must be making people think I am a loon. I mean 2 posts and all this irrelevant info. The height comment was to indicate the length of my gate. Indicating the 40 paces was close to 40 yards, and that the gun, although apppearing to lead, is still shooting somewhat accurately.

So to get more to the point. I have shot Winchester 333, Amercan eagle and Federal boolits through this gun in the last 300 rounds. Here are some pics.

Attached Images

	1 Strap leading.jpg (43.6 KB, 468 views)
	2 strap leading .jpg (36.6 KB, 438 views)
	3 leading.jpg (36.4 KB, 399 views)

When I'm shooting mine I'll put 3000 rounds through it in a year. Clean it once at the end of the year. Mine gets a lot dirtier than yours. Just the nature of the beast.

I track accuracy very very carefully. This buildup makes absolutely no different. Forget it!

That looks about like mine does after 300/400 rounds.
You'll find that some brands are worse than others.
I've found that Remington leads the pack at leading.

Perfectly normal lead and powders residue from shooting. You can reduce the amouint by using copper plated/washed bullets such as CCI MiniMag or Federal bulk pack HV HP ammo.

nothing unusual....but cleaning it after every outing makes for easier cleaning....that stuff comes off much easier when its fresh

__________________
Kris
OGCA, NRA LM

That is some great shooting!! You say you "sat down". Does that mean you were shooting from a sandbag or some other type of rest? Also, were you shooting double-action or single-action?

I have a brand new 617 with a little over 500 rounds thru it. Mostly CCI s.v., Eley Sport, Centurion, and Thunderbolt. My 617 shows a little leading, but way less than your pictures show.

I shoot a lot of Smith CF revolvers with lead bullets, and they lead really badly in that area. I use a dental tool to scrape off the lead at every cleaning.

That's been my experience as well. Test different ammo on a controlled basis (ie, clean gun between different ammo). I ran 100 rounds of Remington Golden Bullets and got this leading out of my 617 barrel (there was a lot on top strap as well), and the gun was binding/jamming as I believe I was getting lead "welding" across the cylinder gap. Course the gun was new, so it is possible that it was also break-in issue.



Been shooting Federal bulk from Wallyworld since and have been very happy with the results - this is now my easiest gun to clean.

Every S&W .22 revolver I own or have owned leads the top strap and area around the barrel quite heavily. Age of the gun doesn't seem to matter- 1954 K-22 to the 2005 Model 63-4 I sold all make a mess. They all are/were very, very accurate revolvers.

If it doesn’t have fouling as shown on yours it’s either never been fired or just cleaned by someone with OCD! It’s completely natural. As you practice more and find the ammo your gun”likes” best, your groups will get smaller, the flyers will go away, and it will still get fouled in the places you describe.
Enjoy,
Froggie

In 22 rimfire ammo makes a huge difference in how much lead accumulates there the worst offenders are going to be anything made by Remington or Winchester ( tied for first in the how bad can we make ammo and people still be willing to buy it contest) federal is just marginally better. In domestic ammo CCI is your best bet.
If you really want to know how well the gun can shoot accuracy wise, you are almost invariably going to find higher priced ammo from Europe like Eley, RWS, Lapua and SK are going to give your best results

I think you need to clean your revolver every 100 rounds. Your pictures look normal to me for a very dirty gun.

__________________
S&WHF #946
S&WCA #3824

I clean every time I come home from the range. All of my S&W revolvers blow hot lead and gases out that barrel cylinder gap. That 617 looks like mine did after a couple hundred rounds . All my k22’s do this , lead ammo is the worst, copper coated better .
When benching and you rest the front of the frame on the sand bag/rolled up towel you get instant knowledge of what comes out,like just as looking down range and seeing your group . 2 1/2” at 40 paces is cool ! Dental picks, small stainless brush for stainless, small brass brush for blued , and razor blade are mainstays in my cleaning kit . One thing I’ve become curious about in reading this thread is what do the revolvers look like that shoot lead free bullets(tin), or coated ones like cci made ? Happy shooting and cleaning !

Necro thread but my 617s and 17s all do the same thing if shot enough. My model 63 as well. I shoot mostly cheap plinking ammo so I think that contributes to the build up. Every now and then some of it will blow out and spit

Remington Goldens clogged my 617 after only 100 rounds. After scrubbing the chambers of carbon fouling and lead strips in the barrel (a little on the top strap as well), I grabbed up all of my remaining Goldens and burned 500 rounds in one session at the local indoor range, alternating with my Single-10 when the cylinders got too warm. I did take a brush and dry brushed the chambers after every 50 to keep both shooting. I shoot CCI and Aguila in both now, and barely any fouling occurs. All .22's are dirty. Cheap ammo is very dirty.

__________________
Heavily armed old man.

As many reported above, the quality of the ammo makes a big difference. I prefer CCI Standard Vel 40 gr, and it is outstanding also Aguila SE 40 gr standard. Any .22rf will lead. My 6" 617-6 will keep all rounds inside a 1/2", most all touching, (red dot, sand bag rest at 12 yds). When I shoot Remington or Winchester bulk ammo there will be 2 or 3 outside that group. The cheaper ammo, whole not terrible is not 100% reliable on accuracy.

__________________
H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

It's kinda hard to say that is normal or too much! I have a friend that had a lot of leading, more than yours, that was definitely too much. I ordered a forcing cone gauge from Brownell's and a forcing cone cutter and rod/handle. He had almost no forcing cone as indicated by the gauge. I opened it up to the minimum indication and the leading virtually disappeared.

To me, you have more than I would like to see on one of my guns, so I would check the forcing cone first and if it was normal, use a range rod for .22 caliber to see if the chambers lined up with the barrel. If all was within specs, then just realize that it is what it is and do the cleaning when needed.

__________________
Richard Gillespie
FBINA 102

Wow! 13 year old thread revived! I ran across all of your responses this am. I am surprised at how I described this issue all those years ago. I still have this revolver. Almost sold it after I had an eye injury occur on Christmas Day 2015. I took my nephew out to shoot, and standing off to his side about 50 fee, was observing him shoot without wearing safety glasses. At one of his shots I heard a noise as a lead fragment hit my eye. A small piece of lead punctured it. Thankfully the eye doctor was in town and he opened up his office to remove it. My eye sight is fine, but this is was another indication of the massive leading this gun presented. Also that I should have been wearing eye protection. I almost sold it after that, but no one was interested at the time. Maybe it needs a trip to S&W for warranty service? I have not used a rod to see if the cylinder is out of alignment but will do so one of these days. I really like that pistol but Inhesitate to shoot it much.

Ill jump in on this one with a 617 I just picked up the other week. The gun with CCI standard velocity 40 gr is awesome. I nearly never have a misfire. The ones I do I feel maybe due to chambers getting dirty and not having them completely seated but a pretty rare thing for the most part in regards to CCI ammo.

The gun with bulk pack is an entirely different story so far. My first outing I remembered shooting a few hundred CCI without incident and good accuracy. Once swapped to bulk pack accuracy opened up and holy cow the leading! In fact after 100 rounds or so of bulk pack the gun was getting tied up on a few cylinders to where double action was inoperable.

After cleaning it the bulk pack seems to lead the barrel, the front of the cylinder, the forcing cone and about everything inbetween. I had strips of lead coming out the barrel. The accuracy opened up a bit and reliability wasnt far behind it with the bulk pack. Also seemed to get 80% ignition on the bulk pack in double action.

At this point Im just going to try and shoot up the bulk pack stuff and order CCI and just stick with that. It doesnt seem to lead the gun nearly as bad. The ignition is better and Im not sitting there scrubbing the forcing cone and front of the cylinder trying to remove the lead.

I had a m18 years ago from a blue box. It packed lead in the forcing cone so bad that I would not shoot it further. I wish I had looked to Brownell's for a forcing cone cutter. I called S&W and had opportunity to speak with Dr Jinks about Bangor Punta era quality control. He stated that it was the consumer's fault for putting too much on demand on the factory to tend to minor issues.

__________________
"Don't Give Up the Ship"