I've had my new 617-6 for a few months now

[bobsguns]

Not to stir the pot, but this is one case where this long time SW fan feels that Ruger nailed it. Quality on this GP100-22 is as good as any of my 617's but the features and action are better. Fortunately there is room in the safe for both flavors.

You should've bought a lottery ticket the same day you bought that Ruger, IMO. The odds of a Ruger having a better action & being more accurate than a Smith would seem to be about the same as winning the Power Ball, IMO.

Were the Ruger better than the Smith, it would have outsold the Smith by a large margin due to the cheaper price.

Rugers are well-known to be built like tanks with a trigger to match. Glad you like yours, more power to you.

 

[bobsguns]

Think about it; The 22LR is outdated cartridge that barely works in revolvers. The good stuff like the plated CCI usually works well. But you take any of the lesser quality bare lead bulleted ammo and try to run it through a less than perfect revolver, and you're going to get bullets tumbling. The revolver is going to lead up like nothing you ever see in a center fire Magnum that has a lot higher velocity.

I've been shooting .22LR revolvers since 1976. Your experience(s) is almost directly opposite of mine. I can't say why you've had all those issues, I wasn't there to look at your gun(s).

Most folks know Winchester ammo shoots VERY dirty, more so than other brands. I sometimes will use it in a bolt action rifle, but not very often.

I have never seen a bullet "tumble" out of a .22 of any sort. That simply boggles my thought process. The only "bad" .22 ammo I can think of is the "no-name" brands, which most folks should know to avoid, IMO.

My .o2

 

[flundertaker]

I'm a big fan

 

[mike4sigs]

His and Hers here.
Long story short. I had a Ruger MK III but with my wife's Petite hands did not do well with the mags or slide release, So i bought a 617 and some Speed Bees. I got tired of waiting for her to finish shooting so i invested in another 617

 

[CWH44300]

Love the 617's
How could you not?
Have an early dash one and a 10 shot dash six (I think)
Had the 10 shooter out today

 

[Yendor357]

Bob, if you're ever in Jasper Indiana, I propose a friendly wager. If I show you 22 bullets tumbling out of a 22 revolver, you buy dinner. If I can't, I'll buy dinner.

I bought my first Single Six in 1977. It shot Magnums better than LR.That was a good revolver. I should have kept it.

 

[SWFan27]

My 617-6 had to go back to S&W for warranty repair twice right after I bought it. The revolver was shaving lead like a cheese grader at the forcing cone. S&W spent five weeks with it and cut the forcing cone. They also refinished the revolver and removed a tooling mark I had not mentioned on the barrel. I did mention that there was a possible timing issue when I sent it in.

When I got it back there were still two chambers out of time and the cylinder needed to be physically turned to lock into place when the hammer was fully cocked. Thankfully S&W got it back to me in two weeks this time. They replaced the ejector rod because two of the ratchets were causing carry up issues.

Now that I have it back, I have probably put 2000 rounds through it and went to the range again with it yesterday. And now that everything is working correctly, I absolutely love the thing. I am no longer upset about the initial problems and I am very appreciative of the personal attention I received from someone in S&Ws management who got directly involved with my 617's second warranty visit and timely turnaround time.

The 617 has already improved my double action shooting immensely. I pretty much only shoot it double action, and I noticed the difference in my accuracy shooting double action with my 686+ at the range. I will need to bring my model 66 on my next range trip. It is fun to shoot some 357 Magnums now and then even though ammo is not cheap.

 

[russp1]

Wanted post an update on my 617 4". After about 1000 rounds, the trigger has smoothed out quite a bit but I have had a couple of cases where the trigger failed to reset or the hammer didn't fully advance the cylinder. Not enough to worry about yet.
Still having the ejection issues I was having with Herter ammo; also tried Aguila and Federal with the same result. CCI was better and the chambers seem to be wearing in a bit and getting very slightly easier to eject. Maybe another couple of thousand will fix it.

 

[pasound]

@russp1 and SWFan27 I've had my 617-6 for 5 years. Not as many rounds, but getting near 2,000. Trigger smoothed out after about 350. Some 22 ammo brands are still sticky. The chambers are tight. I might get the tool to ream 22 chambers. Wouldn't hurt any of my other 22 revolvers, especially my Ruger SA's. They seem to be tight, too.

The ones that eject from the 617-6 100% are Armscor, Aguila, and Federal. CCI seems to be variable. Boxes in the same batch are sticky, or not. I only use my Winchester 22 in rifles. Accurate ammo, but sticks in all my revolvers.

 

[8shot]

I have a couple of 617 revolvers, love them but can't understand why so many shooters accept the fail to fire situation. The same ammo that fires flawlessly in 22LR rifle often fails to fire in the 617.

Observing my 22 rifle strikes on the 22 ammo rim I noticed the position of the firing pin hits. From this I experimented & modified the firing pin on my 617 firing pin and posted the finding with sources on my car forum.

As a FYI only, this is the forum link:

S&W Model 617 (22 rimfire) fail to fire fix

 

[SWFan27]

Federal Champion ammo never sticks in my charging holes. Other brands can stick occasionally. I think I am one of the few guys who likes Winchester red and white box ammunition and have never had a problem with it in any caliber. But the Winchester does have a tendency to stick in my four inch 617-6. I think their casings expand more when fired.

I usually buy bulk ammo like Federal for my 617 because I shoot the heck out of it at the range once or twice a week. Depending on the ammo I normally get maybe one out of a hundred rounds not fire. I just rotate that round so that the firing pin strikes a different spot, and it goes bang the next time. Sometimes with bulk ammo, you strike an area that the primer material did not get to, and you have to spin the round a little. I have only come across two complete dud rounds out of the thousands I have fired. I love my 617 more and more every time I go to the range.

 

[russp1]

I had a S&W M22 that would eat any ammo I threw at it. Winchester in the red and white box was usually my first choice. When the gun finally wore out, S&W replaced it with a Victory SW22. The Winchester ammo would not seat fully so that is when I switched to Herter. Works fine in the Victory and my Henry rifle but is tight in the 617. It seems to be loosening up a bit.

 

[russp1]

Another 1000 rounds of mixed ammo (500 CCI and 500 Herter) and my 617 now loads and ejects pretty easy. Herter is still a little harder to eject but not the hard smack I had to do originally. I wonder how much deviation there is in .22 ammo. I had to stop using bulk Winchester (the red and white box) because it would not even seat in my Victory 22.

 

[GSP Fan]

I pretty much stick with CCI Mini Mags in my revolvers and their std velocity in the semi auto's.

 

[8shot]

I finally picked up a Manson 22LR finish reamer (removable pilot style). One of the "10" exit ports on my 617 cylinder must be undersize because the reamer would not fully bottom. Probably need to invest in some pin gauges, in any event extraction of fired 22LR is absolutely perfect now.

Always felt that this 617 had a bad cylinder port (accuracy)...may have found out why.

 

[jcs266]

I've been shooting .22LR revolvers since 1976. Your experience(s) is almost directly opposite of mine. I can't say why you've had all those issues, I wasn't there to look at your gun(s).

Most folks know Winchester ammo shoots VERY dirty, more so than other brands. I sometimes will use it in a bolt action rifle, but not very often.

I have never seen a bullet "tumble" out of a .22 of any sort. That simply boggles my thought process. The only "bad" .22 ammo I can think of is the "no-name" brands, which most folks should know to avoid, IMO.

My .o2

My experience has been the same as yours. I've never had any of those problems. I find .22's in my experience to be extremely accurate and fun to shoot.

CCI Mini-Mag copper plated 40gr solids are my go-to rounds.

 

[wproct]

It seems that no-dash Model 617s are one of the most appreciative in value of all 22LR revolvers. I have two, a six-inch I bought new (Oh, the days of $144.95 Smith & Wessons) and a four-inch I bought used. The six-inch was a "full target" version with target trigger and hammer; I added those pieces to the four-inch but I could only find color-casehardened parts. I put Millett rear sights on both guns too.

Ed

I am so envious of those combat grips!

 

[AveragEd]

I enjoy shooting my 4 inch 617. If you have a 22LR revolver that shoots accurately, and functions perfectly, You have a prize. Treasure it. Never sell it. (Except to me lol) I'm sure there are a lot of perfect 22 revolvers out there. But if you're buying a new one, proceed with caution.

There must be a lot of truth to what he said because both of my 617s shoot true to 25 yards, the farthest I've shot them. But then, they're both older no-dash versions. I have to sadly agree that Smith & Wesson quality isn't what it used to be but that unfortunately can also be said about some other firearm manufacturers.

I honestly don't shoot my 617s much because I'm fussy about cleaning guns and revolvers make my arthritic hands hurt by the time I'm done with the carbon rings on the cylinder faces. I do shoot my 22A-1, 41 and 1911 with a conversion kit because I find them easier to clean and a shell catcher net handles the brass pickup process.

Ed