Smith & Wesson Model 17 Question

I think you were playing us, deadman. It is obvious you have more talent and skill (and equipment?) than you initially led us to believe.

How did you make the muzzle crown perpendicular to the barrel?

Whatever you did, that muzzle crown and sight looks good. Please send us a range report.

May I be the first to send you a 686 to chop?
 
I think you were playing us, deadman. It is obvious you have more talent and skill (and equipment?) than you initially led us to believe.

How did you make the muzzle crown perpendicular to the barrel?

Whatever you did, that muzzle crown and sight looks good. Please send us a range report.

May I be the first to send you a 686 to chop?

If the range report is good, I'll tell you how I did it. If not, I just have more work to do.
 
All's well that ends well. Somewhere there may be a father proudly saying, "that's my boy!"

Have you thought of any way to get rid of those hacksaw chatter marks? Next time, taping the barrel with a couple of winds of masking tape right beside the cut point might help prevent that.
 
So...I snuck out of work for a while this afternoon to try this thing out. Poorly prepared, all I had was a couple boxes of ammo. No rest, so I figured I'd just make some noise and shoot freehand. Typically, how accurate are these pistols at 25 yds? What sort of groups should you expect?
 
Well done! You had me worried for a moment.

My K-22 can group inside 2" off of a rest at that distance with ammo it likes.
 
My K-22 can group inside 2" off of a rest at that distance with ammo it likes.

Thanks, that gives me a benchmark to go by. Today was windy, I'd never fired it before, and like I said, I was not shooting from the bench. Peppered a 6" circle (couple strays), so at least it was shooting in the general area. Need to go back though, and try again for some groups under more controlled conditions. Fired CCI Minimags and Stingers, that's all I had in the ammo crate in my truck.

This thing is pretty nice. Light, light, light single action, and very nice in double action as well. I actually did most of my shooting today double action. I think I need to find another one of these, although maybe I'd leave it original. Maybe.

Hey Swampdog, want me to "commanderize" that Inglis Hi-power you just got?;)
 
I'm looking forward to learning how you crowned the barrel. I've got a 6 inch Model 10 that may just need the same treatment. I've been thinking about coming up with a way to properly crown a barrel when cut down like this without having to chuck the works in a lathe. Or perhaps set up a cutter in my lathe but then use a floating frame in the tail stock to push the barrel onto the cutter using a brass pilot or some other way to ensure a centered crown cut.
 
Sorry, no fancy method. In the end, I used a couple files, a small rotary grinding stone, 400 and 1000 grit sandpaper, and some masking tape. Masked around the barrel where I wanted to start shaping, and just started filing.
Used a sharpie to black out the steel and reveal high spots/inconsistencies as I shaped it. When I had it where I wanted it, I used the stone to deburr the bore at the muzzle, and polished everything with a small piece of sandpaper on my fingertip.

Pretty hokey, huh? Believe me, if I had a lathe and a decent smithing setup, I wouldn't have done it this way. Sorry if my method is disappointing.
 
I followed your post from the start. At first I thought you were joking. Then when I saw the barrel cut off I thought you were a crazy gun butcher. But you actually did a nice job on it, and by the way, there are lots of those model 17's floating around so you haven't deprived the world of anything special.
 
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or,

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Gutsy job; Good job, deadman. Have you any plans to change
the grip shape from square to round?

I had thought about it, but my new grips just got here, so it stays the way it is. Maybe the next one.

027-2.jpg
 
A grip adapter would really go nicely with those grips. I have one on my K-22 with the factory Magna grips.

DSC00095.JPG
 
I'm not sure that would work for me, I like having the pistol sit low in my hand. Yours looks to be in nice shape. My original grips are pretty banged up, plus I couldn't pass on the ajax grips offered by another gunnut.

Other than my old beat up .455, this is my first S&W. Unfortunately, the bug has a powerful bite, I think there are more in my future. Maybe I should contact the guy this one came from. He did have two for sale, and they are pretty inexpensive to buy, especially compared to the new version.
 
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Went and tried it out today, not sure if the results are good. At 10 yds, using a rest (my range bag), you can see how they grouped. These groups are circled with a marker. The three groups at the filled-in squares were fired offhand. The others were contributed by the Colt conversion .22, so disregard them.

011-3.jpg


As you can see, they open up at 25 yds. Kind of haywire looking groups, but with practise, I hope I can shrink them. I believe the inconsistency is pilot error, I don't have a very steady hand.
 
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