I've owned 4 Model 17s of various vintages and barrel lengths over the years. All were great shooters, but the perfect one has eluded my grasp. Two of the older 17s had sticky ejection to the point I needed to tap the ejector rod with a piece of wood to dump empties. This is not uncommon on old 17s, given that Smith cut the chambers very tight on these target 22s. A later 17-6 had just an average trigger for a 17, but an average trigger on a Model 17 is still way ahead of the pack for a trigger on a 22 revolver. The one I should have kept was a 6" barrel 17-3, but being a target shooter, I've always lusted for the rarer 8 3/8" barrel version.
And then I found this one.
It is the perfect Model 17. From a collector's point of view, it ticks all the desirable boxes. For one, it is a 1980 vintage 17-4, so it still has a pinned barrel (and no lock, of course). For another, it has the very desirable 8 3/8th " barrel, which does add to the collectibility, but, more importantly for target work, gets you that long sight radius. For still another, it is a factory 3T model, meaning it came from the factory with a wider target trigger, wider target hammer and the larger target grips and I have the original box to prove it came from the factory that way.
Functionally, it has an outstanding trigger, as good as it gets in a target revolver. Best of all, it shucks empties slick as can be, so no extraction issues. And, of course, it's wonderfully accurate.
First time out with my perfect 17.
A target revolver that can't shoot at 50 yards is not a target revolver. The perfect 17 keeps all 12 in the 6" black on this one. (We reuse our targets, hence the 44 mag hole at the bottom.)
Way too good a shooter to let this one collect dust. That's part of what makes it the just right 17.
