Pistoleros: I think I have it figured out?
I kept digging and asking and looking and talking and I found a friend with the exact same pistol - well almost the same.
We met in town this morning to compare pistols.
Mine has a lower serial number.
Anyway our pistols are exact in every respect except my cyclinder has a different design/manufacturing around the case head/rim "holding" area cut out in the cylinder!
His pistol allows for "dents" to be made when dry firing around the cylinders raised rim area.
My pistols shows no impact marks in this area - like my friends does.
The 22 Magnum cylinder of my friends pistol will fit in MY pistol!
And the 22 Magnum cartridges fill the cylinder right to the max length of HIS cylinder.
The markings on the barrel and on the frame are exactly the same on my pistol as they are on my friends stainless "convertible" pistol (22 L.R. & 22 Magnum).
I think maybe I just purchased a New Model stainless Single Six 22 pistol that the previous owner might have lost the 22 Magnum cylinder for!!!
And thats kind of a shame if that happened - I probably would not have used the 22 Magnum cylinder much myself as I have a S&W Model 647 in caliber 17 HMR.
So one of the questions that was answered by seeing my friends pistol is that the marking on my pistol "22 Cal." refers to BOTH the 22 L.R. and the 22 Magnum as his has this same marking!
I had wrongly assumed that the "22 Cal." refered to 22 L.R. only - it doesn't.
And another mistake I made was "eyeballing" the 22 Magnum ammo alongside my cylinder/frame and deciding they would not fit in the frame cut out!
They will fit in the frame BUT they would not fit in the 22 Magnum cylinder IF it has the same method of being rebated or milled down about .040" like my 22 L.R. cylinder IS.
I am still a bit puzzled but I am very happy with the pistol so far anyway.
I tried two brands of ammunition in it yesterday and made several 6 shot groups at 20 yards with both types that measured 1.5" to 1.7" (off of sandbags!).
This will be perfect for my Gopher shooting duties I have planned in the spring.
Once I was done shooting for group and getting the adjustable sights set up for MY particular 6 oclock hold I began shooting Clay Pigeons!
Man that was fun.
Someone had left about 10 clay pigeons lying in the snow and I set them up and began shooting them offhand - I usually hit the Clay Pigeons with one or two shots (from 15 yards or so) and they shattered into 5 or six pieces.
I ran out of hollow point ammo and still had one clay Pigeon left, so I loaded the cylinder with Eley target ammo and stood back behind the bench at 22 yards and took careful aim (two handed) and touched one off - the bullet struck the Clay Pigeon dead center and just put a hole through it - not shattering the bird at all.
I saved the Clay Pigeon to show my friend - he laughed at it later.
This pistol has a wonderful, crisp and light trigger pull and the sights show themselves distinctly for my eyes.
I really enjoyed shooting it and cleaning only took a few minutes.
The stainless cylinder and frame do get coated with powder residue to a noticeable extent. I fired about 60 shots in all.
I don't think I will need to "dry fire" it at all anymore - so no worries there.
I wonder how much a new 22 Magnum cylinder would cost to be fitted to my pistol - prohibitive I suspect?
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy