Smith & Wesson Jet

[cobretti]

Only a .22 Jet cylinder will work with a .22 Jet barrel, as the Jet cylinder is longer than the regular K frame .22 RF or .22 MRF cylinder.

I bought an 8 3/8" Jet barrel a while ago, also with the intention of having it installed on a Model 48 so that I could have a .22 Magnum with the shrouded ejector rod. Is this not possible, or can someplace like Cylinder and Slide handle a project like this? I'm not likely to find a .22 Jet LR cylinder anywhere cheap...

 

[Hondo44]

I bought an 8 3/8" Jet barrel a while ago, also with the intention of having it installed on a Model 48 so that I could have a .22 Magnum with the shrouded ejector rod. Is this not possible, or can someplace like Cylinder and Slide handle a project like this? I'm not likely to find a .22 Jet LR cylinder anywhere cheap...

Just about any smith can handle that barrel swap. The Jet barrel will not protrude thru the frame far enough due to the shorter cyl of the Model 48, however the shoulder of the barrel and shroud where it meets the frame will need to be turned down on a lathe to orient the front sight straight up. The smith would simply take enough off to screw the barrel further into the frame to create the correct cyl to barrel gap.

 

[Skeetr57]

Hondo, If you take enough off of the barrel shoulder to set it back to the M48/M17 length cylinder, the ejector rod will be too long, and will need to be shortened also.

 

[Hondo44]

Hondo, If you take enough off of the barrel shoulder to set it back to the M48/M17 length cylinder, the ejector rod will be too long, and will need to be shortened also.

Tom,

Sure, but that's just a routine task with a barrel swap; for any smith that can install a barrel this is the easiest part of any installation.

After unscrewing from the 'extractor star assembly', the 'extractor rod' is trimmed at the rear end the same amount that is taken off the barrel shoulder and screwed back together.

Then the length of the 'center pin' is trimmed/fitted at the front end.

In this case the barrel shank thru the frame is too short to reach the cylinder. First the barrel is screwed in to see where the sight aligns when tightened. If the sight is not at 12 o'clock, metal is removed from the barrel shoulder. K and N frame Smiths have 36 Threads Per Inch so 1" divided by 36 = .0278" travel per thread, per full turn.

For example if the barrel doesn't tighten until it's 1/4 turn past 12 o'clock it'll have to turn in another 3/4s of a turn (or 3/4s of one thread width for the sight to come around and be straight up again. So (.0278" divided by 4) x 3 = .0209" has to come off the barrel shoulder/shroud to turn it 3/4s of a turn more. If the shank still doesn't reach the cylinder, another .0278" for another full turn must come off, etc. Of course the total amount is figured in advance and the barrel is turned in the lathe just once.

Screw the barrel in tight with sight aligned and then set the bar/cyl gap by stoning the end of the barrel. Take the same total amount off the ext. rod and center pin and check fit; adjust as needed. I've swapped 3 Smith barrels now and I'm not even close to being a gunsmith.

 

[Hondo44]

P.S. If the Model 48 frame has a barrel pin, once the barrel is aligned and tight, a new groove in the barrel threads will need to be drilled thru the pin hole in the frame carefully so as not to enlarge the hole.