Smith&Wesson M617/6" .22 Lr Pistol

mtemur

I'm a naval officer at Turkish Navy Submarine Service. I have a great interest about guns and target shooting. Also I am a member of Navy Shooting Team for over than 10 years. We generally use .32 S&W and .22 Lr Hammerli 280 pistols for shooting. I would be very glad if you answer my questions below. 3 weeks ago I bought a Smith&Wesson M 617 .22 Lr revolver which has a 6" barrel and 10 shots capacity. I wonder how effective and accurate it is. Can it give any harm to a person when it is fired to ? What is the stopping power of .22 Lr cartriges and of that revolver ? Does 6" barrel useless and long for .22 Lr ? What are the advantages and disadvantages of S&W M 617 and .22 cal when they were compared with other pistols and calibers. Mustafa TEMUR

Blokey

I'll try to answer your questions:I used to own a S&W 17 and I found it to be very accurate. When you say "effective" I assume you mean as a defensive weapon as alluded to in your second question. A .22LR bullet will certainly be noticed by your adversary, but in all likelihood you'll just make him mad; there are definitely better caliber choices for defense. If it's available to you go for a least .38 Special in a S&W 10 or 14.The 6" barrel will probably get you a couple more fps than a shorter barrel, but you're still talking about a tiny ~40 gr. bullet. Overall, the 17/617 is really intended to be a target shooting/plinking/small game revolver and probably a defensive weapon if there is absolutely no other firearm choice available to you.FYI... The moderator will probably tell you to post this kind of question in the "Ask the Experts" forum.Hope this helps.

Goathead

I am going to move this Topic to the Ask the Experts forum. Thanks Gentlemen for Under standing.

MORGCL

I HAVE ONE AND IT IS VERY ACCURATE AND CHEAP TO SHOOT. ONE OF THE TIGHTEST 22S I HAVE EVER OWNED