.22 wheel gun with a decent da trigger?

[Shibadog]

Guys, does (literally) anybody make a smaller .22 mag (or even .22 LR) revolver with a decent DA trigger? I had a nice 351PD, nice to carry, shot accurately SA, but DA was an abomination. My wife could barely pull it through and I couldn’t shoot it accurately DA. Pull was off the scale on trigger gauge. Gunsmith buddy says “ I can get the pull down like a good J frame, BUT doing so will destroy reliability. “. He’s pretty sharp so I let it go. It also had THE tightest chambers I have ever encountered on any firearm. I had an old yellow box of Winchester .22 Mag that absolutely NOT chamber, and the rounds that would chamber would start sticking after a few cylinders had been fired. Annoying, but I could have lived with that, but that trigger pull. Anyway, anybody know of ANY brand that’ll work? Looking for something for her to carry here on the farm. Thanks!

 

[Rule3]

Ruger Lcr or lcrx
Great trigger light weight

 

[Protocall_Design]

The tight chambers can cause misfires because the rounds cannot move freely in the gun. When the rounds don't quite go in all the way, the firing pin is seating them on the first hit. This is a shock absorber keeping the rim from being fully dented to cause ignition. Rimfire ammo is finicky enough without adding that to the mix. Ream the chambers to SAMMI specs, then start looking for other causes if needed.

I have been seeing Remington Wheelgun ammo in both rimfire and centerfire on YouTube, new for this year. I don't know if any is for sale yet, or how well it works.

 

[Thaddeus Beauregard]

Guys, does (literally) anybody make a smaller .22 mag (or even .22 LR) revolver with a decent DA trigger? I had a nice 351PD, nice to carry, shot accurately SA, but DA was an abomination. My wife could barely pull it through and I couldn’t shoot it accurately DA. Pull was off the scale on trigger gauge. Gunsmith buddy says “ I can get the pull down like a good J frame, BUT doing so will destroy reliability. “. He’s pretty sharp so I let it go. It also had THE tightest chambers I have ever encountered on any firearm. I had an old yellow box of Winchester .22 Mag that absolutely NOT chamber, and the rounds that would chamber would start sticking after a few cylinders had been fired. Annoying, but I could have lived with that, but that trigger pull. Anyway, anybody know of ANY brand that’ll work? Looking for something for her to carry here on the farm. Thanks!

The Colt King Cobra Target .22 has a pretty nice DA pull. It's around 9 lbs and very smooth out of the box. I don't know of anything that is better. The problem you're going to run into is rimfires need a fairly heavy hammer spring for reliability, so you can't get quite as nice a DA pull on a rimfire as you can with a centerfire and still have 100% reliability. The S&W 617 can be pretty easily tweaked to be about as good as the Colt KC, but again, you have to be careful with rimfires if you want it to go bang every time you pull the trigger

 

[richrd]

My 617 fires reliably at 7.75 lbs DA and my 17-4 has one of the nicest triggers I've ever seen. So yes, it is possible.

 

[SWFan27]

I love the trigger on my 22LR S&W 617.

 

[oldrookey617]

A couple of things you might try, it worked for me. a 13 or 14lb rebound spring, that small light gun with a heavy trigger is not a good combination, while your under the hood put a drop of Lucus gun oil on all moving parts. if there is anything like oil in the chambers the ammo will start sticking. Place a small amount of J-B bore paste on a brass bore brush, and clean the chambers, and bore well. have a new 617 with the ammo sticking, 2-3 trips to the range, clean each trip, problem solved, tried 4-5 brands ammo, Federal was the best for sticking in a new gun. My J-Frame 637 is the one I changed the rebound spring to a 14 lb. just my 2 cents, Good Luck Clifford..

 

[jkd88]

Apex has an aftermarket K/L frame trigger that is meant to improve rimfire DA, called the Mass Driver. The downside (besides expense) is the hammer drop dwell is longer than usual because of the increased mass of the hammer.

 

[Frailer]

I got lucky with the 351C I purchased a few days ago, as the trigger is only a bit heavier than a centerfire J-frame, but very smooth.

But the safest bet would be an LCR. The trigger on my .22LR version is heavier than my .38 models, but not by much.

 

[Judy R]

I’m not a guy, but I’ll answer the question. When I walk in the woods, hiking & such, I carry a S&W .38 model 64 snubblie (1989) with snake shot. There are TWO different types of snake shot. I usually place it in the first 3 or 4 rounds. I vary the chambers to my adventures. It is a very heavy revolver, but I am very accurate with it, the double action trigger is very smooth. Because of the weight, I feel very little recoil. The grips are replaceable, so I bought/swapped new Houge grips that fit my hand. There are TWO different kinds of snake shot ammo!! The .38 gives me more ammo choices than a 22 caliber.
I’ve handled other revolvers at shows, there is no comparison to the smoothness (accuracy?) of my S&W. Good Luck!

 

[challer61]

The TK trigger for the 617 results in an amazing gun. https://tkcustom.com/products/s-w-617-22lr-revolver-reduced-spring-kit

 

[rockquarry]

I don't recall ever using double-action in firing any of my Colt or S&W .22 revolvers. The newest one I've had more than fifteen years. I may have to try double-action some time.

 

[fatcat3]

Looking for something for her to carry here on the farm. Thanks!

Single Six.

 

[Law-dog]

It is simple physics, there are no J Frame size guns that work well with a DA trigger in rimfire. NONE. The best design that works with the physics issue is the Ruger LCR.

It is not even close to what you can get with light springs in a centerfire. Two things MUST happen with the rimfire. First the cylinder must be big enough and clean enough to let the round go fully in 100% of the time. A rough chamber or dirty one will not support the rim against the cylinder and start having misfires as the gun gets dirty. This is always operator error. The simply fix to that issue is honing every cylinder to a mirror finish and periodically polishing them. I use Flex Hones, they are perfect, I use them on every new gun and periodically as round count gets high.

Second is spring weight. The center fires work great with Wolff reduced spring weights, the rimfires do not. They will always fail quicker when they gun gets dirty. We tried using reduced springs in both the 22 and 22 mag, they work a while then start to fail. The 22 mag is harder to ignite. We tried a 22 mag cylinder in an original model 63, a common conversion. It had a 50% fail rate, the 22 mag needs a stronger spring to be reliable.

We have a dozen J Frames in center fire. Any reduced power spring will work pretty well in them. Federal primers are softer and work with very light springs. But the spring power for the SW rimfires is nearly double what a centerfire is to be reliable.

The model 351 for example is a desirable little gun that weighs nothing. But every CCW gun must be capable of single hand fire, simple deal as everyone knows. Your strong hand may be injured. So try those with one hand or off hand DA fire. I have a gorilla grip, but cannot shoot those well with one and, I can shoot all the J frame centerfire, K frames, N frames and even the Governor with one hand, I cannot the little 22 mag, just takes too much spring.


The Ruger LCR has a totally different fulcrum inside and requires less pressure. I do not like those guns, but they are great if you want a CCW in 22 mag.

Just physics. Comments about centerfires are not relevant and confuse people.

We also have in the family, J frames made by Rossi and Tauruss. Exactly the same deal. You cannot reduce DA trigger pull much and keep them reliable.

The simple fix to these issues is simply to fire single action. It is not complicated and people have been doing it for 300 years. Just saying..

 

[CannonMaster]

I am the proud owner of a S&W Model 17 and a S&W Model 63. The Model 17 is an excellent revolver. Great trigger, 6 inch barrel is well balanced. Lots of fun to shoot.

The Model 63, on the other hand, not so much. I bought it in the early 80’s for my wife so that she would have a quality, stainless, reliable handgun to take to the range. I was most disappointed. The trigger pull was off the charts. The cylinder would often hang up between rounds, though not consistently which made the revolver completely unreliable. I took it to a local gun smith and had him do a “trigger job”. The gun came back in the same poor condition. I suspect the gunsmith either didn’t know what he was doing or did nothing and just took my money.

Anyway, the gun rests comfortably in the back of the gun safe, waiting to find a home as a shiny paper weight.

Cannon Master I

 

[hyena]

I had T K Customs do an action job on my 617. The trigger pull is excellent. Smooth as silk. I don't have a gauge so can't tell you the weight.

 

[SASFixer]

Guys, does (literally) anybody make a smaller .22 mag (or even .22 LR) revolver with a decent DA trigger? I had a nice 351PD, nice to carry, shot accurately SA, but DA was an abomination. My wife could barely pull it through and I couldn’t shoot it accurately DA. Pull was off the scale on trigger gauge. Gunsmith buddy says “ I can get the pull down like a good J frame, BUT doing so will destroy reliability. “. He’s pretty sharp so I let it go. It also had THE tightest chambers I have ever encountered on any firearm. I had an old yellow box of Winchester .22 Mag that absolutely NOT chamber, and the rounds that would chamber would start sticking after a few cylinders had been fired. Annoying, but I could have lived with that, but that trigger pull. Anyway, anybody know of ANY brand that’ll work? Looking for something for her to carry here on the farm. Thanks!

The heavy trigger on the 22 rimfire cartridge revolver is the result of the varying thickness/hardness of the 22 rimfire cases. The manufacturers of the ammunition cannot control this variable. To make a DA revolver reliable the firearm manufacturers install a heavy hammer/mainspring. I have tried to install a standard centerfire spring into a M-63 rendering the firearm unreliable in DA operation.

 

[haywood]

I put dummy rounds in and dry fire 2000 times. It makes a noticeable difference. I never had to change springs. Worked on all my J-Frames and worked very good on my 942 Taurus

 

[ultraedge]

I own15 J frame rimfires and 25 K frame rimfires. I shoot them regularly. The J frames will shoot just as well as the K frames. All but 3 of the revolvers were made before 1980. My wifes 317 has a good double action trigger and shoots well. Practice! practice! practice!

 

[old tanker]

The .22 revolver with the best DA trigger here is a Colt Officer's Model Match. The Model 17 is a very close second. The Model 34 Kit Gun is adequate for what it is.