Henry Rifle Forums

It was unusually warm today, around 50F, and I needed to shoot my 617 after seeing NCG's new 617 and Ulberti. So I got the revolver, a box of fifty rounds, my shooting bag and loaded it into the mud buggy. The back pasture is solid mud as there has not been many freezing temps yet.



I took the mud buggy to the pasture and set up. Right off the bat I noticed the 617 was filthy, I had never cleaned it since I got it, and the sights were off. It has a fantastic double action pull and I can't believe I haven't had it out more.

I shot at 20 yds, 13 yds and 10 yds. Nothing close to good shooting, but I was glad to get out with it.







Here are the results:

Glad you got it out and took some shots!
I'm seeing some pretty good shooting there Dave.

That looks like a big piece of hardware for shooting .22s.
It is pretty and I wish I had one.

Noice work, Dave. Have to love and early 617 for sure. I really think Smith was more "awake" when they made the early ones like that. Seems like they've been asleep, lately.

that's sure one nice piece of machinery

Just FYI I have not had good luck with that brand of ammo for accuracy. Nice 617

I have a wonderful 617, no lock. I think mine is a -2 if I remember correctly. I picked it up at a shop in CT when we lived in CT. It had been used as an indoor 22lr plate gun. From what the owner said, it was his personal gun. No box, no papers. He'd put well over 100k through it but was now having accuracy issues.

I took a chance on it and worked a buy-two-get-a-chunk-off deal. (other gun was a dan wesson vbob.)

I did shoot it a half dozen times and did a cursory clean and oil of the gun. I had issues with ammo sticking in the cylinder. I ended up needing the Lewis lead remover brass patches to clean out each of the chambers. That's how much fouling had built up. It now loaded and fired easily, but the accuracy was not so good.

Every fifth or sixth round would fly off to Oz. I decided to run the Lewis lead remover patches through the barrel. It got stuck an inch after the forcing cone. I pulled with all of my might and felt it move. I kept pulling. To put how hard I was pulling in perspective, I had my foot braced against my bench and the gripless pistol in a soft-jawed vice. I kept having to tighten and adjust the pistol down.

Why would I pull so hard? Because I had four six-inch long slivers of lead from between the groves exit the barrel. It took me about five hours of cleaning after that to get the barrel clean.

I've put an additional 125k through the gun, worn out two hands (the one it came with and a second,) and had to replace the firing pin with the factory extended firing pin because the first wore down to a nub.

I love this revolver, and to this day, if anyone asks me what gun to buy as a first gun, I tell them a Smith 617.

BigAl52 wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 28, 2023 9:42 pm

Just FYI I have not had good luck with that brand of ammo for accuracy. Nice 617

Mine likes cci standard 40grn lead round nose. Wolf target, and eley sport. I've found that Standard velocity 900-1050 fps are far more accurate out of the gun than supers or "quiet" loads.

BigAl52 wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 28, 2023 9:42 pm

Just FYI I have not had good luck with that brand of ammo for accuracy. Nice 617

Thanks Al, I'll have to try a few different types to see if they do better. I got a brick of that stuff on sale because it was standard velocity. I had thought about putting it in my S&W model 41.
I still haven't tried that. I'm hoping the 617 will do better with the thorough cleaning I did too.

North Country Gal wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 28, 2023 6:34 pm

Noice work, Dave. Have to love and early 617 for sure. I really think Smith was more "awake" when they made the early ones like that. Seems like they've been asleep, lately.

I have to agree NCG. I have passed on several post lock S&W revolvers for various reasons. Mostly I didn't think they were up to snuff compared to the older models. I do have a couple of Performance Center revolvers that are very well put together. I guess the Performance Center still does it right.

To me, any day of shooting is a good day! Glad you got out!!

Dave if I ever find a pre-lock 617, I will grab it for sure, even though I have that current one. The 617 is such a great gun when you find one that works.

Nice looking gun. I love the heavy barreled smiths.

I second the need to keep 617s clean. They clog up fast if you don't. All revolvers need to be kept clean, of course, but the 617 just seems more inclined to foul than other revolvers. This is the 10 shot version. Not sure about the older 6 shot versions.

As for ammo, we use CCI SV a lot in our 617s. Browsing the S&W and target forums, CCI SV seems to be the ammo around which S&W builds their rimfire handguns, revolver and semi-autos like the Model 41.

North Country Gal wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 30, 2023 10:46 am

I second the need to keep 617s clean. They clog up fast if you don't. All revolvers need to be kept clean, of course, but the 617 just seems more inclined to foul than other revolvers. This is the 10 shot version. Not sure about the older 6 shot versions.

As for ammo, we use CCI SV a lot in our 617s. Browsing the S&W and target forums, CCI SV seems to be the ammo around which S&W builds their rimfire handguns, revolver and semi-autos like the Model 41.

The six shot version was filthy. I used Balistol and a toothpick to remove solidified grime from the cylinder recesses and a few other areas where it was built up and solid. Balistol on a rag took care of the rest. Unless a gun is REALLY bad, I limit cylinder and barrel cleaning to bore snakes. I'm not putting too many rounds through them between cleanings.

My 4" ten shot 617 was purchased used also. It needed a pretty deep cleaning to get it acceptable if I recall. I' attribute it to people who believe .22 cal firearms don't need to be cleaned.

I'll have to watch each one to see if they foul more than others. I'm afraid they don't get out much. I'll have to change that.

Thanks for the information on the CCI SV. I have some of that too. I know how finicky some of my airguns are about pellets.
I have a fairly wide variety of .22 lr. People have offered me some here if they don't shoot but know I do. The zip lock bags of assorted .22 lr, l and shorts are my favorites. You can certainly call that a mixed bag. (Very rarely do I find a round that has failed to fire.)