My older brother and I both had Model 17's, and from high school and for a good 10 years after I (we) shot mine constantly.
My brother was on the pistol team of a large southwestern PD and got all the ammo he wanted for practice, both in .22 LR and .38 Spec.
I can't remember why I sold mine, probably to finance a larger bore revolver.
For the last 30 years since I sold the M 17, I was distracted by .44 and .45 revolvers and 1911's and didn't own a .22 handgun for a long time.
I went through several small frame .22's with disappointing results, although they were very light and portable and fine for small amounts of shooting, they were harder for me to shoot well.
TOO light and heavier DA pull in order to be reliable.
What I really wanted was a K frame .22, and quit messing around with the small frame ones. I was watching classifieds and the big gun shows for a gently used M17 or M18, but all were $950 and up.
A shooting buddy told me about a 617-6 4" for sale next town over.
The guy had owned the gun since new, (made in 2014). He had several small kids and needed the money, price was $700.
The 617 has a Wolff power rib reduced mainspring, longer strain screw and 14 lb. rebound spring. DA pull is 9 1/4 lbs. and SA is 3 1/4. He said it sets everything off in DA.
I took it out and fired 150 rounds of Mini-Mag and Rem Goldens, all fired in DA and all went off fine.
What a joy to have a smooth decent DA pull and also reliable.
The last cylinder full ejected easily as the first.
The revolver came with a blob of light green paint on the front blade. I like the contrast better than black on black, but the green was NOT a good choice for the Birchwood Casey targets I was using, as the scoring rings are the same color green.
Despite losing the front sight against the target background, I shot 7 types of ammo through my new 617 yesterday.
CCI Mini-Mag HP, Rem Golden HP, Fed AM, and 4 brands of Subsonic HP, CCI SSHP, Rem SSHP, Eley SSHP and RWS SSHP.
The RWS was decent, about 1 1/2" at 25 yards, but all the other SSHP and the Automatch did poorly, like 3" groups.
The Mini-Mags and Goldens were the best, 1 1/2" groups with 6 or 7 shots all touching in a cluster.
That's a good thing as I have 1,000's of Goldens and MM, and only a few boxes each of the other stuff left.
The factory rubber grips are O.K.. but put my hand farther back so it is a bit of a stretch to get to the trigger.
I saw some Altamont grips on Ebay that had some nice grain, Burl Walnut. I know, Altamont. I have never liked most of their stuff, shapes/designs and the wood used.
Calling a cheap laminated grip SUPER Walnut or SUPER Rosewood doesn't make it real Walnut or real Rosewood.
I don't have big hands and don't like big oversized grips. I usually take a new pair of Hogues and rasp until they are thinner and not so big at the bottom.
I was hoping these grips, listed by Altamont as "New" Style" Conversion Targets, would feel good but they are almost too thick, and I don't like the big square bottom.
Altamont describes them as a "redesigned version of the traditional K target grip. The new still is slimmer and accommodates smaller hands".
The checkering and scroll work (more then I care for) and the satin finish tends to hide the grain.
If I thin them down, I'll lose the checkering, but will refinish with some Tru-Oil and the grain will really show.
I'd like the top and bottom to be thin, with a thicker palm swell in the middle. The bottom will end up looking more like some Miculek grips than square bottom Targets.
The medallions won't be affected way up top, and the grip screw escutcheons are deeply set, so some thinning will work, just enough in the middle to remove the checkering.
These Altamonts do fit nice, tight all around and the two pieces don't match perfectly but are pretty good.
Two things I noticed with this new-to-me revolver.
When you put your finger on the trigger and begin a DA pull, there is a bit of slack before the pull starts. Like less than 1/8".
I don't remember previous DA revolvers having that slack.
Other thing, the cylinder is hard to open on 3 chambers.
It opens easily on the other 7.
I once bought a 686 that was hard to open no matter how the cylinder was oriented, someone here suggested getting a new (longer) center pin and that did the trick.
But I'm not so sure this is the same issue as it opens easily on most chambers.
While not as smooth as my old M17, this new revolver is worlds better for volume shooting than all the small frames I went through, and can be used as a trail gun or small game revolver too.
Now I just need to get to reshaping the wood, and it will fit my hand like a glove.
Several DS-10 speed loaders and a loading block are on the way.
My brother was on the pistol team of a large southwestern PD and got all the ammo he wanted for practice, both in .22 LR and .38 Spec.
I can't remember why I sold mine, probably to finance a larger bore revolver.
For the last 30 years since I sold the M 17, I was distracted by .44 and .45 revolvers and 1911's and didn't own a .22 handgun for a long time.
I went through several small frame .22's with disappointing results, although they were very light and portable and fine for small amounts of shooting, they were harder for me to shoot well.
TOO light and heavier DA pull in order to be reliable.
What I really wanted was a K frame .22, and quit messing around with the small frame ones. I was watching classifieds and the big gun shows for a gently used M17 or M18, but all were $950 and up.
A shooting buddy told me about a 617-6 4" for sale next town over.
The guy had owned the gun since new, (made in 2014). He had several small kids and needed the money, price was $700.
The 617 has a Wolff power rib reduced mainspring, longer strain screw and 14 lb. rebound spring. DA pull is 9 1/4 lbs. and SA is 3 1/4. He said it sets everything off in DA.
I took it out and fired 150 rounds of Mini-Mag and Rem Goldens, all fired in DA and all went off fine.
What a joy to have a smooth decent DA pull and also reliable.
The last cylinder full ejected easily as the first.
The revolver came with a blob of light green paint on the front blade. I like the contrast better than black on black, but the green was NOT a good choice for the Birchwood Casey targets I was using, as the scoring rings are the same color green.
Despite losing the front sight against the target background, I shot 7 types of ammo through my new 617 yesterday.
CCI Mini-Mag HP, Rem Golden HP, Fed AM, and 4 brands of Subsonic HP, CCI SSHP, Rem SSHP, Eley SSHP and RWS SSHP.
The RWS was decent, about 1 1/2" at 25 yards, but all the other SSHP and the Automatch did poorly, like 3" groups.
The Mini-Mags and Goldens were the best, 1 1/2" groups with 6 or 7 shots all touching in a cluster.
That's a good thing as I have 1,000's of Goldens and MM, and only a few boxes each of the other stuff left.
The factory rubber grips are O.K.. but put my hand farther back so it is a bit of a stretch to get to the trigger.
I saw some Altamont grips on Ebay that had some nice grain, Burl Walnut. I know, Altamont. I have never liked most of their stuff, shapes/designs and the wood used.
Calling a cheap laminated grip SUPER Walnut or SUPER Rosewood doesn't make it real Walnut or real Rosewood.
I don't have big hands and don't like big oversized grips. I usually take a new pair of Hogues and rasp until they are thinner and not so big at the bottom.
I was hoping these grips, listed by Altamont as "New" Style" Conversion Targets, would feel good but they are almost too thick, and I don't like the big square bottom.
Altamont describes them as a "redesigned version of the traditional K target grip. The new still is slimmer and accommodates smaller hands".
The checkering and scroll work (more then I care for) and the satin finish tends to hide the grain.
If I thin them down, I'll lose the checkering, but will refinish with some Tru-Oil and the grain will really show.
I'd like the top and bottom to be thin, with a thicker palm swell in the middle. The bottom will end up looking more like some Miculek grips than square bottom Targets.
The medallions won't be affected way up top, and the grip screw escutcheons are deeply set, so some thinning will work, just enough in the middle to remove the checkering.
These Altamonts do fit nice, tight all around and the two pieces don't match perfectly but are pretty good.
Two things I noticed with this new-to-me revolver.
When you put your finger on the trigger and begin a DA pull, there is a bit of slack before the pull starts. Like less than 1/8".
I don't remember previous DA revolvers having that slack.
Other thing, the cylinder is hard to open on 3 chambers.
It opens easily on the other 7.
I once bought a 686 that was hard to open no matter how the cylinder was oriented, someone here suggested getting a new (longer) center pin and that did the trick.
But I'm not so sure this is the same issue as it opens easily on most chambers.
While not as smooth as my old M17, this new revolver is worlds better for volume shooting than all the small frames I went through, and can be used as a trail gun or small game revolver too.
Now I just need to get to reshaping the wood, and it will fit my hand like a glove.
Several DS-10 speed loaders and a loading block are on the way.
