Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns S&W 10 Shot 22LR Variants - Picture Request

I want a 22LR revolver for vermin.

I'm thinking 5" bbl, 10 shot, SS. Did they make one without a full lug and a smooth cylinder?

Please post up pics of your favorite variants!

The S&W 617 is a wonderful revolver, but it does have a 6-inch full lug barrel. I shoot it double action better than my Mark III Ruger semi-automatic bull-barreled target pistol.

Not a 100% sure but don't think they made a 10 shot 617 without an underlug*, or a 5" at all. And, I've never seen a 617 with a smooth cyl.

4, 6, & 8 3/8" underlugged, fluted is about it for a 10 shot

Love my 4" but sometimes think it's too much of a good thing.

*There was one variant that's hardly worth mentioning since it's so rare. A 617 Mountain Gun.
A few over 200 made special order that the customer backed out on, & a dealer closed them out at a reasonable price. That took less than a day after the word got out. I missed getting one by a couple of hours, & thought it was the style I'd like for S&W to have configured them all along in the 4".

I have a 4" 10 shot 617. It was my absolute favorite handgun for years. These days I shoot my Colt OMT more, so I gave my 617 to my son.

That's intriguing, never heard of that one. But some quick google fu turned up this picture:



This is a very useful .22 revolver configuration. I've fired a couple of other folk's 617's at the range, both 4" and 6", and while they are accurate revolvers that full underlug isn't needed at all.

I have a S&W 63 that's got a 5" barrel. Pretty sure it doesn't have a full underlug and I know the cylinder is fluted. Seems to me it's a 10 shot if my memory is correct. Father in law has a 4" barrel one with a 6 shot cylinder, his is an earlier model and is nicer.

63 is a J frame 6 shot.

Yes, the heavy barreled 4" round butt with alloy cylinder is most rare. The ones with 4" and 6" steel cylinders no lug barrels are uncommon, but easier to find.
Couple big advantages of 617 are stainless steel and in later production guns 10 shot cylinder. The full under lug does not hurt what is essentially range gun anyway.

Correct in being a J frame, but my particular pistol holds a lot more than 6. I'm 99% sure it's a 10 round cylinder. Meant to get it out of the safe last night and look, but got in late and forgot all about it.

i think the full underlug thing on the 17's was to match the 586/686 configuration rather than strictly functional. i personally like the underlug and have an original first year 586. always had it on the list to get a matching 17 but it never worked out and now they are really expensive if you can find them. pretty sure the 10 shot 17's had an aluminum cylinder that had issues as well. i actually saw one of those several years back and was tempted but didn't get it. i settled on vintage 17's and 18's instead. i like that 617 mountain gun 22. it would go well with my 44 MG.

You should pull it out and look. No 10 shot J frames were ever made. There are 8 shot versions, but no 10 shooters.

The early 617s had aluminum cylinders, but the current ones have stainless steel. I have one of the later ones, it's nice, but I think the Mountain Gun configuration would be a heckuva lot nicer.

That awesome. I want one of these!

Yep, that is sure a Grail Gun. I like my corpulent 617 4", but should the opportunity arise, it would be gone in a heartbeat for one of those.

I, too have a M-63, J frame with a 5” barrel. and IIRC, it’s an 8 shot. It has a half lug and looks like a scaled down 6” M-66.
I have its twin, a model 60, 5”, 5 shot in 38/357 and in my mind those two are just about the perfect J-frames.

My Smith .22's are a 317 (3", all aluminum except steel barrel liner, lockwork and sights, 8 shot aluminum cylinder) and a 617 6", 10 shot full underlug. That 10 shot MG would be about the ideal .22 revolver to my way of thinking. You'd think they wouldn't be able to keep them in stock.

I like the looks of the 6 shot cylinders better.

Only thing I can add is, yep, far as I know, they never made exactly what you're looking for. Closest thing I can think of currently being made would be the S&W 17 "Classic" which is blued and 6", but the barrel could be cut back an inch.. at a pretty penny and you'd still have a blued gun, but it wouldn't be as heavy as the 617.

I had both a 6", and more recently a 4" 617, but ended up dumping both because they were just too heavy. I always wanted a 4" S&W 63 kit gun (J frame), but they either wanted more than I had at the time, or more than I was willing to pay.

Couple years ago, I got a good deal on a new 3" model 63, which has an 8 shot cylinder and a fiber optic front sight at the same time that I still owned the 4" 617. After smoothing them both up, and playing with springs, and changing the grips on the 63, I shot them exactly equally and the 63 was substantially lighter.. so the 617 went down the road.