Smith & Wesson 617-1 .22LR
Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2012 1:17 pm
This gun has come up for sale here.. does anybody know any dark secrets about this gun?






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Actually its a 617-1 and have seen quite a few in blued finish on the internet.. Actually gun prices in Mizoram are (almost) reasonable compared to the prices in the mainland states.. was just wondering if somebody has any firsthand experience and if it has any quality issues in the longrun.. BTW, the trigger is butter smooth even in double action although it seems a bit large and heavy for a .22. Accuracy is superb and I believe I could use it to swat a fly on the wall if not for the ricochet..BowMan wrote:Something fishy to me...they never made them in blue finish and I cannot imagine this is SS...
BowMan wrote:Hi Jonah,
Your pistol has so intrigued me that it has not let me sleep yesterday.
My first reaction was perhaps the munger craftsmen have been really working on their skills. S&W denotes SS models by the prefix "6" so while M17 is blued its SS counterpart is the M617 and so on. The wooden grip was supposed to have been discontinued and changed to Hogue rubber grips in the dash one model.
But a closer look suggests it is not actually bluing but could be black anodized satin/matt finish. I can see it where the barrel shows some holster wear, it seems to be SS underneath. Also you did mention the action being butter smooth so we could be looking at a PC gun here (or it is possible that one of the owners got the SS frame coated). The trigger and hammer left without the black finish seem to also indicate in former direction. Same for what appears to be laser engraving on the barrel.
Now there were only 2 PC runs of the M617 and it totals to only 562 guns in total. Both these runs were made in the 90's so and shipped to Germany and so it is more intriguing. I am sure that this can not be from the second run because that had the profile barrel and this does not. Could you please post pictures of any markings the gun has so it can be confirmed further.
Pity there are drag marks on the cylinder. I hope that has not affected that beautiful hand tuned timing which might compromise the excellent accuracy a bit.
Regards
BowMan