Had you asked me last week if I had any plans to ever purchase a revolver, yet alone a vintage one, I would have confidently said no. I started with a polymer semi-auto (XDm), then switched to all steel (CZ 75 Shadow SA with Kadet .22 conversion kit), and finally upgraded to a 1911 (Dan Wesson PM-9 with a Nighthawk .22 conversion).
Last saturday I found myself at my somewhat local gun shop starting DROS paperwork, and my 10 day wait (CA law), on a brand new Ruger 10/22 Takedown that I had ordered on their website. I arrived 10 minutes after they opened and it already ended up being a 30 minute wait. That gave me time to check out a curious little guy in the counter. A 10 shot, 4", stainless steel, revolver. I soon found out it was a S&W 617. I was REALLY tempted to add it to my 4473 form. Felt great in my hand, I loved the frame size, but the cylinder had a fair bit of end shake and even more rotational play.
I soon discovered that S&W made an engineering tolerance adjustment in the late 80's / early 90's. As I understand it, the rotational play helped account for less than stellar timing (less hand fitting) and allowed the firing of a round to properly align the cylinder to the barrel. This brought the Model 17 onto my radar; as all comments about the 617 eventually ended up referring to the Model 17 as even better. Inevitably, my research started turning up the phrase "pre-17" and that's when I landed on the K-22. It was Sunday afternoon by this point and I knew I had to have one.
By Monday afternoon I had located what I felt was a pretty great K-22 specimen. Ideally, I would have liked to get a "transitional" post war K-22, but the options weren't that great. Mostly, they were vastly overpriced for guns that looked like they had seen much better days.
I just got back from the gun shop. I've got 10 days before I can shoot this beauty. It felt like a solid chunk of steel. Rather astonishing when compared to the XDM and CZ that I got used to (all in the same price range).
So here she is, an all original 1947 "one-liner", K114XX, with the serial stamped on the extractor star underside, cylinder rear, barrel underside, frame butt, and the inside of the grips. Unfortunately, no paperwork, box, or tools (trying to locate that stuff now).
Proper pictures to follow after I pick her up and thoroughly clean, lube and polish with Renaissance Wax.
Final picture from post #27
Last saturday I found myself at my somewhat local gun shop starting DROS paperwork, and my 10 day wait (CA law), on a brand new Ruger 10/22 Takedown that I had ordered on their website. I arrived 10 minutes after they opened and it already ended up being a 30 minute wait. That gave me time to check out a curious little guy in the counter. A 10 shot, 4", stainless steel, revolver. I soon found out it was a S&W 617. I was REALLY tempted to add it to my 4473 form. Felt great in my hand, I loved the frame size, but the cylinder had a fair bit of end shake and even more rotational play.
I soon discovered that S&W made an engineering tolerance adjustment in the late 80's / early 90's. As I understand it, the rotational play helped account for less than stellar timing (less hand fitting) and allowed the firing of a round to properly align the cylinder to the barrel. This brought the Model 17 onto my radar; as all comments about the 617 eventually ended up referring to the Model 17 as even better. Inevitably, my research started turning up the phrase "pre-17" and that's when I landed on the K-22. It was Sunday afternoon by this point and I knew I had to have one.
By Monday afternoon I had located what I felt was a pretty great K-22 specimen. Ideally, I would have liked to get a "transitional" post war K-22, but the options weren't that great. Mostly, they were vastly overpriced for guns that looked like they had seen much better days.
I just got back from the gun shop. I've got 10 days before I can shoot this beauty. It felt like a solid chunk of steel. Rather astonishing when compared to the XDM and CZ that I got used to (all in the same price range).
So here she is, an all original 1947 "one-liner", K114XX, with the serial stamped on the extractor star underside, cylinder rear, barrel underside, frame butt, and the inside of the grips. Unfortunately, no paperwork, box, or tools (trying to locate that stuff now).
Proper pictures to follow after I pick her up and thoroughly clean, lube and polish with Renaissance Wax.
Final picture from post #27
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These guys and gals will introduce you to S&W delicacies that you never knew existed, and then all of the sudden you will find yourself waking up in the middle of the night, in a cold sweat, knowing that you have to have one (or two , or three...) for yourself... It never ends...
