617 After Reaming Cylinder

I was having problems with sticky chambers in my 617 with a variety of ammo so I reamed the chambers last week to see if it would correct it. It sure did.

Today I fired over 300 rounds of CCI Mini Mags, Federal Golden Bullets and Federal AutoMatch and all empties just dropped freely. Big improvement

I loaded up with my DS-10 loaders and SpeedBeez and Pelican loading blocks. Makes shooting much faster and more fun.

I need to do this as well to my 17. What kind of reamer do i need? and where can i buy one? Thanks

Get a Clymer .22 Finishing Reamer from Brownells.

Or you can rent one from 4DReamer. Be sure to get a cylinder reamer as the pilot of a regular reamer fits the lands of the rifling and a cylinder reamer fits the throats of cylinder chambers

Go slow and easy by hand...use plenty Tap Magic

I too was having major difficulty not only extremely sticky extraction, but also even loading fresh rounds by hand. Most all had to be "pushed" into chambers by thumb pressure, making the whole range or plinking experience discouraging for me, wife, kids (grown and grandkids).

It got so that when we went out, literally everyone chose either the 1947 or 1948 K22 Masterpiece guns which never experienced this issue with any brand ammo, whether high velocity, standard velocity or hollow points, etc.

Two pics below are of my 1972 Model 17-3, and my 1975 Model 34-1 BEFORE reaming.

I read all the posts and figured what have I got to lose..seeing as the guns are just sitting in the safe and not desired by any of my shooters.

I bought the Manson 22LR cylinder finishing reamer shown below. It was about $65.00 plus tax & shipping if I recall. I think it was from Midway, but might have been Brownells. Anyway, the reamer is very sharp (of course being brand new) and finding a SMALL container of "cutting fluid" (you want the stinky stuff..not sewing machine oil) proved impossible on line, so I just visited my old employers machine shop and they gave me a little Tap-Magic in a little squirt bottle.

Do NOT remover the extractor star, go slow and easy by hand, all in one direction and have a drip pan under your vise. The reaming is done when you notice (or feel) the countersunk rim recess just get "kissed" by the reamer. I did NOT get any chips that you would recognize as machining chips, rather it was more like angel hair/dust and there wasn't even a tremendous amount of that, but WOW....sure made the difference on both guns. They load as easy as the K22's, they extract just as easy, and absolutely no effect on accuracy to my knowledge.

Bottom line? It is only a few thousandths (or less) of metal being removed, but all the difference in the world. Happy guns, Happy shooters and these two fine S & W's are back in action.

Good luck with yours and just gaining the confidence that yes..you can do it yourself without an aircraft quality machine shop in your shop/garage/den or wherever the wife will let you work on guns. BTW: this reming is actually LESS of a mess than standard after shooting normal cleaning...in both mess and smell.

Loadin fast is nice ... if that's what you want .

I would prefer accuracy over fast loading .

I don't see one target ... how does it shoot ?
Gary

The accuracy doesn't change by making the chamber to proper specs. What it does is make the gun more useable. It's not about fast reloads.

I tell you what I will take out a pre model 4" & 6" K22 that was never reamed and an 18-4 and a 17-3 that were reamed. I will fire them all from my home built Ransom rest and we will see. I am betting that they all shoot very similar groups. I have never reamed the 2 pre models simply because I seldom shoot them and they mostly just look nice taking up space in my safe. I have reamed my kit gun, my 18-4, 17-3 and a 6" 4 screw.

You need to ream any 22LR revolver then send a PM to Jebus35745.

There is a reamer with handle and cutting oil "kit" that is/has been circulating among members of this board for a couple of years. I just sent it off to Jebus35745 a couple of months ago after using it on a couple of my own revolvers.

If he hasn't passed it along yet then he should be able to send it to you. If he has sent it on already, he can tell you who he sent it to, and you can then reach out to them.

It's a karma thing - keep it "going around...."

All my chambers feed and extract fine. Very smooth. Probably shot 300 rds so far. Love the Speedbeez loader. My problem is that it's spitting, I need to work on my forcing cone.

Baltimoreed11754 said:

All my chambers feed and extract fine. Very smooth. Probably shot 300 rds so far. Love the Speedbeez loader. My problem is that it's spitting, I need to work on my forcing cone.

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Before you work on the forcing cone. Have you checked to make sure it is carrying up correctly. With snap caps or fired brass in chambers, lay a finger on cylinder and slowly cock it. Does cylinder stop click in notch and lock cylinder before hammer locks back. In DA does the cylinder lock up before hammer falls?

How wide is the barrel to cylinder gap and how much endshake does it have?

If you do end up working on the forcing cone go easy with correct tools. Once that metal is gone it is gone and only way to fix is to set the barrel back a thread.

When you cut, go slow, oil frequently, clean reamer often. With the cylinder with ejector star in place, in a padded vice put a wad of shop towel or paper towel under it to absorb all the oil. Never turn the reamer backwards, only forward and keep turning slowly while removing it from chamber.

Thanks for the input, not trying to steal your post op. Ok, just checked my 617 and the cylinder has no endshake, .005 thousands cyl gap and is properly locking before the hammer is cocked. There is a little bit of cyl rotational play with the trigger pulled to the rear. Believe it to be just slop between the cyl stop and notches.

OK, I went out to the range and set up my homemade Ransom rest. I took 6 S&W 22 revolvers. I used Winchester 35 gr hp ammo in all of them from the same box of 325. I would mount a gun then fire 6 rounds at a dot making sure gun was seated, they were all fouled similarly etc. Then I would fire a cylinder full from each gun. Temprature was 94 degrees with a slight left to right breeze.

Targets were at 20 yds from front of bench and the muzzles were near edge of bench. All shots single action.

Even with a rest the shooter (me) has some effect as you still must line up sights right. But, the trigger is operated by a lever and should be pretty consistent.

My machine with Ransom K frame inserts which worked on I frame too.


1. a coil spring I frame that I replaces the 2" barrel with a 4"
The cylinder on this has never been reamed.


2 a 4" model 18-4. Cylinder has been reamed although ejection was never a problem with it. Top hole is 2 touching


3 a 4" K22 5 screw, with a never reamed cylinder


4 a 17-3 6" barrel with a red ramp front sight, reamed cylinder


5 a 4 screw with a 6" barrel, patridge sight and reamed cylinder


6 a 5 screw with a 6' barrel, patridge sight and never reamed cylinder


You can all draw what ever conclusions you want from this. Some of the spread is probably on me. Some of the guns may have improved with other ammo. I have lots of standard velocity sub sonic, Winchester, Remington, American Eagle etc etc. I just walked in my loading room and grabbed a handy box of name brand ammo.

But, what is obviously, is that reaming sure never hurt the 17-3's accuracy and it was the reason I first reamed a K22 cylinder

Steelslaver- if you are going to the trouble or ransom rest testing and trying to determine accuracy please use something other than an ammo in the worst possible class for accuracy and quality control- Remington and Winchester rimfire ammo is notorious for being trash accur wise.
Some good standard velocity ammo preferably European will give you much more valid results

Great work Steelslaver.

Excuse my ignorance, but after you ream a blue .22lr cylinder, do you have to re-blue each of the finished chambers?

If anything you can just clean chambers well with brake cleaner and then cold blue using a Q tip, but 22 ammo being kind of dirty will stain them anyway

As far as the ammo I chose not suiting everyone. While it may not be the best, it was equal across the board. I will wait for the results of their testing with a machine rest and better ammo using multiple K22s with reamed and non reamed cylinders, but I will not be holding my breath while I wait.

If they want me to do it I will gladly provide my address for them to send me a brick of ammunition that suits them.

Ideally the test would be to take one with sticky extraction, find just which ammo it shoots best, then ream the cylinder and re test using the same ammo.

I invite anyone to sent me a K22 with sticky extraction to preform that test on.

I think the group shot by the model 17-3 with the reamed cylinder and the Winchester ammo shows that a K22 with a reamed cylinder still has far more accuracy than 99.9% of shooters have ability. While the rest of the guns may achieve better groups with different ammo, the 17-3 would certainly not loose accuracy using match grade ammo.

MajorD said:

Steelslaver- if you are going to the trouble or ransom rest testing and trying to determine accuracy please use something other than an ammo in the worst possible class for accuracy and quality control- Remington and Winchester rimfire ammo is notorious for being trash accur wise.
Some good standard velocity ammo preferably European will give you much more valid results

Click to expand...

S/S was obviously out of Grey Poupon.....

toad67 said:

S/S was obviously out of Grey Poupon.....

Click to expand...

As well as tolerance for those with little to contribute but criticism.

Thanks to he OP and everyone who posted.
I found this very informative. I have only one .22 revolver, a 617-4, that I am fond of but it has a quirk in that it 2 groups. 6 rounds will have 5 very tight and one out just a bit. Not much, 3/8th of an inch, but enough to notice at 25yds.
I spent a lot of time at the range with it to figure out which chamber was the culprit and marked it. I used the revolver for rimfire silhouette club matches and did fine. I never used that chamber since each station is five rounds.
So the question is would chamber reaming help it any? Would it be worth the effort?