617 Range Report

[Jeepster1]

I followed that thread last week on the 617 with great interest, as I had already ordered one. Well, I picked it up today. Went straight out to the range. Ran some CLP-soaked patches through the bore and all cylinders. Dried everything out and put 250 rounds through it. WOW! What a great gun. First off, as I mentioned last week I shoot IDPA a fair amount with my Smith 686 SSR (Pro Series) in SSR Class and wanted something to practice with cheaply. The 617-6 feels and looks identical to a stock 686 (I own a couple of stock 686s and 586s). The trigger pull in double action is identical to the 686. Same with single action. The sights were spot on with needing just 3 clicks of right windage to have a solid zero. Elevation did not need any changes at all. I was shooting the cheapest .22 LR I could find- Federal 525 Round "Value Pack." Out of 250 rounds 5 failures to fire. All but one fired when I repositioned them in the cylinders. All FTFs had solid firing pin marks in the rims. My experience with that Federal "Value Pack" stuff is they often do not go off in my other .22 (Browning Buckmark Semiauto), so I am not blaming the 617 at all. Bottom line: I am thrilled as I can be with my 617. Oh yes.... After putting 250 rounds through my 617, I loaded up my 686 SSR with .38 Specials (my IDPA loads- Power factor legal) and fired a fast 6 rounds. I had as good a group under those conditions as I have ever had, even better. I am betting that my new 617 will definitely make me a better IDPA match shooter. So, here is one "thumbs up" for the 617.
Oh yes, it is a 10 shot, 4 inch barrel.

 

[buckyjames1]

nice bro
I dont have one but have been eye balling them for quite a while. I think it would be a welcomed addition to my or anyone's 686 4inch. Wife prefers to shoot 686 4 inch as opposed to the M60-10 that I picked up for her a while back.
The 617 would allow her to hone skills on the same platform as the 686.
I dont think I have read/heard/ or otherwise know of anyone having any complaints with the 617.

 

[one eye joe]

Congrats, the 617 is a GREAT gun. I have a 4'' 10 shot also. It's my favorite .22 caliber handgun......

 

[ab4ka]

I've got a 6" and I love it. Like you said it's a great warm-up act for my 6" 686.

 

[scooter123]

My experience with my 617 is that I only get misfires when the rounds require a push to seat them in the chamgers. Depending on the ammo used, this usually starts to happen between 50 and 75 rounds downrange in my 6 shooter. Once I caught on to that, I started to take a 22 caliber pistol brush to the range and dry brushing the cylinder every 50 rounds for 2 to 3 strokes per chamber. Now misfires almost never happen.

Bottomline, keep the cylinder clean and you won't have problems with misfires even when shooting the really cheap stuff. Let it get cruddy and you'll fail to fully seat some rounds and all the first hammer strike does is drive it home. Leave it in place and next time around it'll fire.

BTW, I started out shooting the Winchester Xpert HV bulk packs in my 617 because it was the cheapest I could find at Walmart. Shot great and the accuracy was good enough for 2 inch groups at 100 feet, however cleanup was a real chore. More recently I've been shooting the Federal bulk pack and it's much cleaner shooting. However I still have to bench shoot some to determine how accurate it is in my gun, hopefully it'll be as accurate as the Winchester.

 

[cowboy117]

Congrats!!!I have a 616-6 10 shot 4" barrel also.They are great guns.Keep the cylinder clean and run a Boresnake thru the barrel while still hot-only really clean the barrel every 1000 rounds or so.Enjoy!!!! Oh,yeah,i only shoot copper washed ammo thru it[the cheap Federal].Did i mention i have 20,000+rounds thru it?

 

[Firearmsrookie]

I have a rookie question...should you use snap caps if you are going to dry fire the 617? I have the 8 3/8 10 shot that I have not had time to go and shoot yet.

 

[Idempotent]

Firearmsrookie, absolutely, you always need to use snap caps with rimfires. Here's why. With a centerfire, if there's no cartridge loaded up, then the firing pin is just going to reach full extension and only hit the air in the center of the empty chamber. Big whoop. But the firing pin on a rimfire is going to go past the missing rim and smack straight into the edge of the chamber frame. Ouch! That's not good for the firing pin and it's not good for the frame either.

I just got a 617-1 a couple weeks ago and I'm finally getting a chance to take it out to the range for the first time this weekend. I'm really looking forward to it. This is also my first handgun in general, so ... yeah

 

[Firearmsrookie]

Darn...I'm off to Cabelas to get two packages...10 shot

 

[carbofan21]

i've never seen .22 snap caps

i've seen the blue "dummy" rounds, but never snap caps

 

[islandguy]

Firearmsrookie.....
DONT waste your money on snap caps!
Pick up your clean empties and keep them in a can for use as snap caps when you do your dry firing practice. I always have a couple of hundred on hand. You can normally get several "firings" on each case before you have to reload. Just a matter of rotating them after every "shot".
I'll second the use of Federal 525 copper-washed ammo in your gun. I don't use anything else in my 17-6, and it is the cleanest and most accurate of all the ammo I've tried in it.

 

[lafayne]

So far I have four 617's - two 4 inch and two 6 inch. I love them all. I usually shoot CCISV, but I also have a varied assortment of .22 ammo and it really doesn't seem to matter much.

Question. As the cylinder is recessed, will the hammer really extend past the recess and hit the face of the cylinder? I have some Smiths .22's that I have dry fired a lot and I don't notice any cylinder damage. Maybe I am just lucky or not looking closely enough.

 

[scooter123]

If an extended length firing pin hasn't been fitted, the firing pin won't contact the chambers. However, the shock to the firing pin when it bottoms out in the frame recess isn't good for either the frame or the firing pin. Dry fire it too much and you'll probably start to experience misfires from the now peened frame rubbing on the firing pin or break the firing pin. It's far better to just save your fired cases and use them to cushion the blow. Yeah, rotating the cases after each strike is a royal PITA but it's best for the gun.

 

[Steave]

My first handgun was a 6" 17-3, I got it sound 1978, maybe 1979, wonderful handgun that I still own. I got my first 617 around 1995, an 8 3/8 617-0, which is one of the best shooting handguns I own; I really like long barreled revolvers. I liked it so much that I picked up a 6" 617-0 a few years ago. Now I ust need a 4" to go with the other two.

 

[Firearmsrookie]

Islandguy,
Thanks for the advice. Using spent cartridges is an economical solution. Unfortunately, too late for me. I guess I can return them. It's Cabelas after all. On the snap caps, do I need to rotate those as you would the spent rounds?

 

[gr7070]

Islandguy,
On the snap caps, do I need to rotate those as you would the spent rounds?

I believe so. IIUC they will break quickly regardless.

I've used #4 dry wall anchors as snap caps. Some think it's a bad idea. Others have recommended it to me.

 

[pea shooter]

617

My 617-6 will only shoot 2.25 " groups at 25 yds using cci 36 gr hp mini mags.I have sent it back twice, first when it was new for an over torqued barrel ,once because of the lack of accuracy and they said it was within spects. I plan to keep sending it back until they fix it.I think 2.25" groups at 25yds.with a $700 gun is unacceptable.Also I had this gun securely clamped in a vice with a red dot sight,from what I have read this gun should do much better than this

 

[gr7070]

How many different types of ammo have you tried?

 

[pea shooter]

How many different types of ammo have you tried?

fed 550,win 333,fed lightning,centurion,cci minimags 36gr hp,cci minimags 40 gr rn,win super x 40 gr,win super x 36gr,rem thunderbolt and probably a couple I forgot, The only one that shoots decent (2.25" group@ 25yds.)is cci minimags 36 gr hp.

 

[k22fan]

My 617-6 will only shoot 2.25 " groups at 25 yds ... [with its best grouping ammo] ... I have sent it back twice .... and they said it was within spects. ... I had this gun securely clamped in a vice ...

pea shooter,

During over 30 years of reloading and target shooting I never heard or read that any gun should be accuracy tested by clamping it in a rigid vise and I never saw it done despite observing a lot of very good rifle and handgun benchrest shooters. To the contrary, the general belief is that this should never be done. Could it be that you need to abandon this method and spend your range time developing conventional bench resting skills?

Best Regards,
Gil

 

[skeete]

My 4" 617 is my second favorite handgun with my bright stainless 4" Python my favorite.

 

[pea shooter]

pea shooter,

During over 30 years of reloading and target shooting I never heard or read that any gun should be accuracy tested by clamping it in a rigid vise and I never saw it done despite observing a lot of very good rifle and handgun benchrest shooters. To the contrary, the general belief is that this should never be done. Could it be that you need to abandon this method and spend your range time developing conventional bench resting skills?

Best Regards,
Gil[/QUOT[/I]
the only reason I clamped the gun in a vise was to take me out of the equation.I was trying to test the ultimate accuracy of the gun by clamping the gun so I could be sure it was not moving at all.I have no problems with my other guns achiveing good accuracy shooting from a rest.I am trying to find out if there is a problem with this gun.