S&W 617 revolver woes

**guncollector** · February 12th, 2024, 11:54 PM

I would also check the ejector rod just in case it got bent ever so slightly. If it did or was out of spec when they installed it can cause this all day long.

**imashooter2** · February 13th, 2024, 02:56 AM

Originally Posted by Delkal

AFAIK a "finishing reamer" is used when a chamber is short cut for final headspacing. But once the chamber is finished there isn't anything else to cut. Is your ammo seating correctly?

For smoothing a rough chamber polish it with an extremely fine abrasive like Flitz. JB bore paste is good stuff but it would take you forever.

No sandpaper. And I wouldn't use any paste under 800-1000 grit.

Tooling wears. In production the reamers cut a range of tolerances until they are removed from service and it is not unusual for a 617 to be delivered with chambers on the tight side. Running a new SAAMI spec finishing reamer into them is the best solution. Polishing may or may not work. That said, your advice on grit is well founded. It is unlikely you can damage the gun with any reasonable application of Flitz or similar, but you could very easily jug the chambers with sandpaper.

**Noah_Zark** · February 13th, 2024, 03:30 PM

Originally Posted by imashooter2

. . . you could very easily jug the chambers with sandpaper.

That's a valid concern if Bubba tries it with a variable speed hand drill.

I want to clarify my earlier post. for 22LR revolver cylinders, I use my drill press with the slotted cleaning jag containing the strip of either 400 grit or crocus cloth in the chuck, and the cylinder assembly held plumb (vertical) in a machinist's vise with protected jaws. That ensures alignment. Also, the drill press is set on 420 rpm and I run the drill press quill up and down about 6-8 times, never stopping. Then I switch to the crocus cloth and repeat, usually not more than 12-15 quill oscillations. That's it. The chambers look mirror bright, and although there may be some residual machining marks, they are not as defined by virtue of the 400 grit, and are polished smooth by the crocus cloth. Ejection has always been improved.

For 32, 38, 44, and 45 caliber revolver cylinders I use regular gunsmithing chamber hones (like small engine cylinder hones) from Brownells, but again chucked in the drill press with the revolver cylinder mounted in the machinist's vise. I follow the hone instructions for speed and lubricant. I did three S&W 940 9mm revolvers that all but required a hammer to eject the empties, and some work with a chamber hone made them tolerable for ejection. The S&W 940-1 was much better for cylinder chamber wall condition. The 940 "no dash" sucked for rough chambers. Looked like beavers chewed the ID of the chambers.

I usually lap the chamber throats a touch if I've reamed them from being undersize to proper size for the bullet diameters that fit a particular revolver bore. Some Ruger and Smith & Wesson revolvers have had a reputation for having undersize chamber throats that swage down the bullet diameter and make it undersize for the barrel rifling, killing accuracy.

A finish reamer may or may not improve chamber walls, depending on the respective diameters of the finish reamer that one uses, vs. the finishing reamer that the manufacturer used. Sure, they both might have an OD between 0.224" or 0.225" but given machine gage tolerance, calibration, and measurement uncertainty, it's possible that a pass with a given finish reamer might take out the high spots, or it might not cut all all.

Noah

**imashooter2** · February 13th, 2024, 04:46 PM

I did not mean to imply fine grit sandpaper polishing couldn*t be done right, but rather that it was easy to do wrong.

**solrac7** · March 24th, 2024, 08:19 AM

Never had problems with clearing/ejecting spent rounds, but if i use hot rather than standard loads, the cylinder will freeze up (not rotate or release) until it has cooled down. Nice little gun otherwise.
617 Airweight...

**littlefitz** · March 24th, 2024, 09:14 AM

I've heard of that being more of a problem if you are shooting steel case instead of brass. Were you shooting steel cased ammo?

**Brick** · April 3rd, 2024, 05:03 PM

Sent the revolver out to S&W, they changed the cylinder and recut the forcing cone. When returned I test it and the same issue. Sent it back and just received it today. Test fired it with CCI Mini-Mags and VOILA! They ejected just fine! Once more they changed the cylinder and replaced the ejector rod! I'll give it a more thorough test soon!