S&W 617 malfunctions

[nachogrande]

newbie here so sorry if it's a dup post. finally found a used stainless 617 10 shot 22 lr with a 4"bbl. (previously owned a 6" with no problems and great accuracy, but too big/heavy) and am having troubles with the cylinder locking up after 30-50 shots, depending on ammo. thought it was a timing issue as after cleaning lead from around the frame/cylinder/breach, it works again. I saw the vids on here of guys with similar problems. even called S&W and they acted like they never heard of the problem before. anyone know of the fix? any recall? I'd really hate to have to sell it, cuz it took so long to find this one. any help appreciated.

[MARINE DIVISION TWO]

I can help ! Ater still owning 3 617s and 2 517s,these fine guns are great but if the ammo is dirty it will fould up the cyclinder rotation where it feel like your hauling in a marlin ! After a cleaning you still experience this problem and I do mean a thourough cleaning it is time for a G/Smiths evaluation,But really feel the issue is dirty ammo.Side note after shotting 100 rounds through my revolvers I give a cleaning on cyclinder face and chambers,let us know how this works out,good luck ! MDT

[Noah_Zark]

Very common due to close tolerances and filthy externally-lubricated 22LR ammo. My own 4" 10-shot 617 starts locking up after 1.5 boxes of certain 22LR ammo. Cleaner stuff will let me get by with 2+ boxes.

The 617 also likes to run well-lubricated:

- Make sure that the cylinder-to-crane surface is clean and oiled.
- Put a dab of grease on the cylinder rotation lugs on the ejector star.
- Put a drop or two of oil in the slot where the hand peeks through to rotate the cylinder.
- Clean the chambers in the cylinder frequently, because they get crudded and subsequent cartridges loaded into the verschmutzt chambers will not fully seat. Cartridge heads then project a bit from the rear cylinder face and drag on the recoil plate, causing the cylinder to hang up as it tries to rotate.
- Clean between the rear of the ejector star and its recess in the cylinder. If crud builds up in that area, the ejector star is held out a bit, and will bind on the recoil plate.
- Cartridge head recesses in the ejector star and the cylinder need to be clean as well, a small slotted screwdriver like a large jeweler's screwdriver is great for scraping schmutz from the head recesses.

The 617 (and carbon-steel Model 17s) is picky about being fastidiously clean.

Hope this helps,

Noah

[nachogrande]

thanks for the reply's. never had a problem with my 6" mdl, and yes those tolerances are extremely close. the vids someone posted of bulging cases had me worried. the gun is now squeaky clean and polished inside and out with turtle wax chrome/metal polish, swabbed out, hit with brake cleaner/swabbed out, oiled with break free and swabbed again. will recheck again with as many diff brands of ammo as I can find. so far tried cci stingers, fed value pak, and rem thunderbolts (my least favorite), but now you gotta take what you can find.

[harold63]

deleted...saw first posts.

[PennsyPlinker]

Personally, I think the problem is those extra numbers in front of the 17. Plain ole 17s don't seem to have these issues. Now, I once owned a model 48 (22 mag) which was a beautiful shooter, but you couldn't pull the trigger more than 12 times without having to stop and clean it.

The 617 (and carbon-steel Model 17s) is picky about being fastidiously clean.

I can shoot boxes and boxes out of mine without it clogging up. Must be clean living on my part.

[nachogrande]

yeah the clean living must be it. it's a miracle mine fires at all.

[Hawk]

I was in the market for a S&W .22 revolver and spent about a year looking for one and researching them. I discovered the "lock up" issues is very common on the 10 shot versions, along with a timing issue that S&W knows about.
I almost bought a 10 shot but held off because of the issues. I ended up buying a 6 shot 6" 617 last year and haven't looked back. I've shot a dozen sessions of several hundred rounds so far without a hitch. I have yet to cleaned it. I did however install the Wolf trigger kit to lighten the trigger pull. The pistol is dead nuts accurate and reliable. A little barrel heavy, but expected on a 6" 617.

[nachogrande]

S&W has had timing issues for years in severall revolvers. stand next to some S&W revolver shooters at a range sometime and feel the lead showers for yourself. it just really P'd me off that the customer srvc rep pretended to have never heard of the problem before, or didn't offer to stand behind their overpriced product and fix the problem. I will never buy another S&W new or newer than 1980ish again.

[Dave_n]

I have both the Model 17 and 617, both 6 shooters. As Noah says, certain ammo (begins with the 18th letter of the alphabet) will foul up any S&W 0.22 rapidly. I simply do not use this "class of ammo" in any of my S&W target revolver. I use the subsonic or just sonic from a variety of makers in these and an M41. On the other hand a CT made High Standard and three Rugers (a Mk I and two Mk IIs) will swallow anything. If you keep to the subsonic ammo your 617 will still be punching "one-holers" for years. Dave_n