Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns S & W outdoorsman cylinder

"Archeryking" Bob Weggel in Wisconsin here. This morning I picked up a nice 1st model S & W K-22 Outdoorsman. It has aftermarket grips, but looks like it was cared for with not too much use. I took it to the range and performed well with a nice trigger pull (they all have) and it shot tight groups. I was picking up the .22 hulls after extracting them and the 22 empties look a bit bulged most of the length but not right near the rim.
Cylinder borings look clean and smooth with the very lightest step where the shell case would end. The empty .22 case will not insert into the FRONT of the cylinder. It is now too fat. This tells me the cartridge borings in the cylinder are TAPERED !!!! Is this correct on this old revolver from the 1930's????

It could be that someone put a .22 Mag cylinder on it. Or reamed the .22lr cylinder for .22 Mag.

Just guessing based on the info.

That may bulge, or even split cases from bulging.

Might see if a .22 mag will go in the chamber. If it does, you have your answer. It could be just a slightly oversized chambering of the cylinder. I've not seen that in S&W K22 models I have had though.

Thanks for the S & W cylinder problem info. The gun shop owner had the gun labeled as another model and marked .22 mag. The cylinder is very long. Barrel is marked .22 L.R.. Thanks again, Bob

I bought, new, a M48 S&W in the waybackwhens. It had a .22LR barrel and cylinder installed on it. The box was marked M18, though.

Factory mismatches aren't common, but they aren't exactly rare, either. A buddy of mine has a M57 in .44 Magnum, for example, that came out of the box, new, that way.

It might be, that you've stumbled into one, like I did, and like Terry did. Stuff happens at the Smith plant.

Far as that goes, another buddy of mine bought a Combat Commander, satin-nickeled, that had a .38Super/9mm breechface, but a .45 ACP barrel, and the slide was marked .45 ACP, too.

Colt and Smith have made a LOT of guns over the years, some of them are bound to be assembled improperly.

It turns out that the cylinder in the outdoorsman is 22 magnum (WRM ?) I do not know when the WRM was introduced. There was another magnum cartridge (similar but older) with a different name. I will look up birth date of cartridge. Cylinder looks great. If reamed, a good job. If the magnum cartridge was available in about 1933 maybe I stumbled onto something. Bob
P.S. The older cartridge I was thinking of is the WRF. It is slightly less potent than the WRM and will chamber in the WRM but may not be recommended to shoot. If a WRM will not chamber then I have a WRF where ammo is at best a gunshow item. The Outdoorsman is a only then but I have been told the later k-22 cylinders may be the same fit.

The Winchester WRF preceded the WRM.

The WRM is the 22 magnum as we know it today.

Left to Right

.22lr, .22 WRF, .22 WMR



Each will chamber in the longer, but not vice versa.

Not a good idea though.

And WRF can be found frequently online and in non-big box gun shops. I would stock up for that revolver if it were mine. Very accurate combo you have.

Go with the Aguila or Winchester as is a Lead bullet and works better in the tighter bores of the older revolvers.

http://www.targetsportsusa.com/22-wrf-ammo-c-204.aspx

my first experience with that .22wrf was in a 1900's semiauto winchester which i thought was a .22lr. until i fired a round. After unsticking it i discovered what .22wrf was. Took me a while but finally found a brick of it. They had multiple versions of .22 in that period including black powder.

notice it's all out of stock

It will be back, my local GS keeps a brick of the CCI in stock all the time. It did not shoot as well in my single shot as the lead did but it worked.