I recently picked up a new S&W 617 .22LR revolver with 6" barrel. No particular reason; I just wanted one.

Took it to the range the other week and my initial impressions were as follows:

1. The black front sight is unacceptable. VERY difficult to get a sight picture when shooting at an indoor range where the light is only OK (all of them).

2. The trigger was very rough and stiff. Certainly no better than my Ruger SP101 .22LR. I had hoped for better in a S&W.

Took the gun to my gunsmith and asked him to smooth the trigger out a bit and also paint the back of the front sight with white paint.

Back to the range. Had some light strikes. Accuracy was superb. With a decent front sight that 6" barrel sight radius really makes for accuracy.

The trigger was much better. Had my Smith adjust it a hair to where there are now no light strikes. Still lighter than when it came from the factory.

I am hoping that putting another 500 rounds through the revolver will further smooth out the trigger. From the factory it was downright brutal. I had a nasty blister on my trigger finger by the time I'd fired those first 200 rounds. I also bought some snap caps to enable me to dry fire the gun to further work in the trigger.

All comments are welcome. I am hoping to like this revolver once I get the kinks worked out of it.

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Army veteran, NRA Life Member

Unfortunately, S&W revolvers chambered for rimfire cartridges tend to have heavier trigger pulls than their centerfire counter parts. I believe they get a heavier mainspring to help more reliably set off the rimfire priming compound. I have never measured the Double Action trigger pull on my K22"s but it is noticeably heavier than on the my K38's

I HAD 3 of them all brand new over the years. I was Sooooooo excited of getting one when they 1st came out, that I made the mistake of NOT looking it over in a proper way, and it cost me. Man the 1st one I bought was my dream 22, Six inch bbl, Sixshot ( my fav ) wooden combats, BEAUTIFUL, until I got it home and shot it....................The trigger was about like trying to kick-start my ole 1954 Harley panhead motorcycle, the forcing cone looked like one of my EX mother inlaws "gnarled" off like a staved pitbull got a holdoff. Sooooo I sold it, as back then they where fairly easy to come by. As time went buy I bought 2 more, and to be honest, as they where very nice looking/feeling, sadly they wasn't much better, regards Ernie

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Rimfires Makes me "Insane"

I have purchased three M 617s. All were very acceptable in trigger pulls from right out of the box. The method I use on NIB S&Ws is to flush out the innards with brake cleaner (remove the stocks/grips) and then shoot it for 150 to 200 times with lots of dry firing added. Then I open it up and see where the rub marks are. Add the use of a little Dykem to verify and some light polishing will make a great pair of trigger pulls. BUT, to my amazement, I was not compelled to do that with two of the three. The resulting trigger pulls were very very good on two of them. I did do a light action/trigger pull job on the one that needed a little TLC. With light lubricant added all three are an absolute pleasure to shoot and shoot a lot.

These are the M 617s that I added an additional cylinder that had been re-chambered to .22 WMR/MRF. All are tack drivers with both 22 LR and 22 Mag. I sold one to a neighbor who gives me a 'thumbs up' every time I see him returning from the shooting range. ........... :-)

I hope I didn't "come-off" as bashing S&W in anyway, as I live S&W! And to be 100% honest, I should have also flushed" and worked with the 1st one a little. BUT and a BIG BUT was the forcing cone, Man that was the worse I have ever seen, that was the main turn off,, guess I should have sent it to S&W as the only way I could see it being fixed was a new barrel. The gun was pretty tho, regards Ernie

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Rimfires Makes me "Insane"

While not a 617, I did pick up a 63 recently. Yes, the trigger was pretty heavy, but smoother and not as gritty as the 640 I got a couple years back. I put an Apex spring kit in the 63, as I did the 640, and learned quickly that the extended firing pin is bad news for rimfire, and not recommended (it tends to puncture vs. strike the rims). However, going with the Apex main spring and trigger return spring yielded very, very good results, light years over the original factory springs, and 100% ignition when I went back to the factory firing pin.

I have a 617-6, 10 round, and I have no problems with it. The trigger is equal to my 17-4 and Pre 18. The accuracy can be described as one hole groups at 50 ft. from a sandbag rest. Yes, I'm very pleased with mine. It has never been touched by a gunsmith, and I wouldn't consider giving a gun to a gunsmith for trigger work until I have fired at least 1000 rounds through it, not just dry firing. Any piece of mechanical equipment needs a little breaking in before it runs at it's best. (That's all a "trigger job" is, someone stoning "wear" on moving parts sooner than it will get there naturally).

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Sounds like he is loosening the strain screw. This is not for adjusting trigger pull.

Try a Wolff RP mainspring or you will continue to have reliability issues.

I agree with you on both points: Trigger can be improved (lightened) and sights can be improved.



These are both very personal depending on what you use the gun for and your eye sight.

I find a lighter trigger improves my accuracy in double action. The downside of a lighter trigger pull will be occasional (maybe 1 in 50 with Federal Automatch) light strikes. My gun is a range gun...so no problem.

Note: I shot 5,000 rounds of 1960's 22 ammo in 2014 and did not have any light primer strikes after a trigger job. Modern cases seem to be harder.



And yes, I sold the boxes on ebay!




I find a .110 wide Dawson Precision fiber optic front sight to be perfect on the 6" barrel. (The factory sight is .125 wide and my 46 year old eyes prefer a little more daylight on the sides.) The minimum distance I shoot is 25 yards...paper at 25 yards and steel out to 100. Accuracy is plenty good with fiber optic.

Call S&W and find out the height of your front sight and place your order with Dawson Precision. It will arrive in a couple of weeks.

The final change I would make to the gun is replacing the grips. I prefer the Hogue Monogrips.

Lastly, consider one of these speed loaders and a loading block.
Ansac Speedloader S&W 617/10 Shot Silver

You have a great gun. With a few improvements it will become one of your favorites.
Dave

Went out Friday afternoon and put another 400 rounds through the 617.

Firstly, part of the problem with my first range outing turned out to be that the ammo I was using was sub-par, and was actually a little on the big side, which seems to have affected the way the cylinder rotated. This seems to have made the trigger action more difficult. It was some Mexican ammo that Turner's Outdoorsman got ahold of. (By the way, in general I have had good luck with Mexican ammo. But this stuff does appear to be a little on the large size of spec).

My bad. I obviously should not have tested a new gun with strange ammo. I knew better, but I did it anyway.

Friday I shot CCI Mini Mags and Federal Automag ammo. The gun was much better as was the trigger.

I will say now that I've got the sight to where it is visible and the trigger worked in, that the Smith is very accurate. I was shooting a big ragged hole in the bull's-eye at 25 feet. Not real impressive, I know, but I was more interested in testing the gun than testing my marksmanship. This is double action freestanding, no rest. This gun is a hand rifle!

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Army veteran, NRA Life Member

I love my 6" 617 and have fired thousands of round through it with no problems. I was able to do a trigger job and get the action down to 8 lbs double action and 3 lbs single action.

I use a Red Dot Scope on mine so I don't have to worry about the stock front sight. I did paint it yellow dayglow for when I want to switch to irons.

DO NOT DRY FIRE a .22. If you must, use snap caps in it.

I've used mine for Steel Challenge Matches and was very successful.

Out of curiosity, is it OK to dry fire the 617 *with* snap-caps?

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Army veteran, NRA Life Member

I've had two 317s. The first was a 6" 617 and although the action was very good, the gun leaded badly. The second (and current) one is a 4" 10 shot and is a keeper.

Here are a couple of targets that I shot from a rest -- two at 25 yds (Leupold 2x) and two at 100 yds (4x Leupold) -- used the scopes for group shooting as the old eyes don't do well for precision shooting.

25 yard groups on diamond target, 100 yd groups on cardboad.

Love the 317.

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Nice range report. My wife has a Model 317 Kit gun. She loves it. FO green front sight and the trigger pull is wonderful; firm and crisp. But she still prefers my K-38.

This is true. The heavier pull is designed for more reliable ignition of rimfire. I had a fair share of .22cal Smiths and that was one of my "complaints" among other things. I eventually sold all and focused on centerfire ones.

This is not to say that the 617 or any rimfire Smith is bad. I just decided to part with mine.

OP, may your 617 be everything you hope it will be. Enjoy it more!