DRY FIRING S&W 617 NO DASH ?

[paddywonka]

Just picked up a six shot, 6" model 617 no dash, serial number BJJ47xx, has a target hammer & trigger, nice factory wood combat grips, with original box (marked Spec. Ord. 2202 0202) & original paper work. The previous owner shot it, never cleaned it & put it back in the box. There it sat till I bought it today. My question is it safe to dry fire? All my other Smith's revolvers are center fire, and I do a lot of dry fire practice. Please advise. Is there any way to determine when it was made, what the special order means? Needs a good cleaning, then I will post pictures here.

 

[andyo5]

Most rimfire firearms would be damaged or at least marred by dry firing. On a revolver, the firing pin might contact the surface of the cylinder. I can't swear whether it would happen on your gun or not. You might try it once, then inspect for a contact mark. Or better yet, just play it safe and get six snap caps so you can dry fire all you want without worry.

 

[sodacan]

Never, ever dry fire any rim fire gun. You will destroy the firing pin and the edge of the chamber.

 

[Invictus357]

Please don't dry fire the 617.

As a matter of fact, google "iowegan dry firing" and read his opinion.

I haven't dry fired since.

 

[lowriderfxr]

As other have said, when it comes to dry firing centerfire, yes: rimfire never!

 

[Ed Fowler]

Or you could trade it for a Ruger, they are built right and safe to dry fire. An old single six was dry fired hundreds of thousands of times with no damage.

As have all of my Smith & Wesson rim fires and never any damage.

 

[murphydog]

If you are careful (read: OCD), collect a bunch of empty .22 brass and insert them into the cylinder such that an undented part is at 12:00, where the hammer nose will hit them. Should be able to get 6-8 dry fires each.

If you have the Special Order code from the box label, a 4 digit number, we can let you know when the gun was ready to ship.

Edit to add: missed the number in the first post, sorry.

 

[Wee Hooker]

Size 4 plastic wall anchors are perfectly sized snap caps for .22s. All my 617/17s get stored with a cylinder full so they are always ready for practice. These are surprisingly durable (more so than some "practice rounds" ) and cheap as dirt. Pretty much any hardware / home store sells them for about $4.00/100. That's cheap insurance IMHO.

Crown Bolt #4-8 x 7/8 in. Yellow Ribbed Plastic Anchors (100-Piece)-54772 - The Home Depot


Not my gun but you get the idea.

 

[Kernel Crittenden]

....six shot, 6" model 617 no dash, serial number BJJ47xx,.... Spec. Ord. 2202 .....

July 21, 1992​

The Spec. Ord number is a code for the ship date. The 0202 number has no significance.

 

[paddywonka]

Knew this was the place to go, thanks for all the great info. Also put the #4-8 anchors on my list.

 

[Ed Fowler]

The problem is that the cylinder was out of time, would have happened with or without snap caps.

 

[paddywonka]

Do not think I have ever seen anything quite like that before!

 

[ralph7]

Do not think I have ever seen anything quite like that before!

I have, a friend has a pre 18 that looks a lot like that and although his still works fine, it looks like hell and I always wondered how that could happen. The gummed up action scenario sounds plausible.

 

[dbfman]

I bought a 617 a month or so ago. When I asked for snap caps the gunshop owner gave me 10 of those #4 yellow wall anchors and told me to have a ball.

 

[steelslaver]

The problem is that the cylinder was out of time, would have happened with or without snap caps.

I think that a gun in perfect working order that got a bunch of heavy grease in it and a idiot owner could end up like that. If the locking lug and hand were gooed up enough. What a shame.

I think the seller went way above and beyond to let him swap out guns.

 

[ralph7]

I think the seller went way above and beyond to let him swap out guns.

Either that or didn't realize what had happened and is kicking himself now, and what's to keep the idiot from doing the same thing to the next one?

 

[AJ]

I picked up a 17-2 a while back. It had problems with ejection after firing a couple of cylinders after cleaning. Cleaned the chambers with a brass bore brush chucked into my drill, no better. Polished the chambers with jewelers rouge on a bore mop chucked into the drill, no luck. Tried my chamber iron on each chamber and viola it ejects freely no matter how many rounds I fire. Have purposely not cleaned the cylinder for the last three range sessions and it still functions perfectly on ejection.

 

[Qc Pistolero]

All.
Sold a K22 at a gun show on Sat. Gent brought it back on Sun. and said does not work anymore. Checked gun for ammo and pulled the trigger. Not much happened. Opened gun again and noticed cylinder face. I offered gent his money back, or he could pick out another K22. He took another K22 and left. I took gun home and worked on it Mon. He had opened up the side plate, greased it up all good and dry fired a bunch. Cylinder face now looks like this: Answer your question?
Bill@Yuma

RDR while the photo is not one from a model 17,it certainly shows your point.And a strong one at that!
Qc

 

[Qc Pistolero]

Never ever dryshoot a rimfire.Buy snapcaps or if,like me you're scrounging dollars to buy milk for the baby(no baby around here,replace ''milk''by ''beer''but milk is more politically correct),use spent .22 brass making sure that you don't snap more than 3 or 4 times at the same place.Then,replace or turn the brass 1/4 of a turn until you went around.Then,brass bucket!
Qc

 

[jack the toad]

DRY FIRING S&W 617 NO DASH ?
My question is it safe to dry fire? All my other Smith's revolvers are center fire, and I do a lot of dry fire practice. Please advise.

Subject of numerous threads and topic of many debates. And in theory and a perfect world it may be possible but I personally don't take the chance. The plastic anchors work ok for little cost but as in using fired cases, they have their limitations but that's what I use as I'm too tight to spring for snap caps since I don't dry fire that much.
Here's what the factory says; FAQs - Smith & Wesson