# Bought a new gun today. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 19, 2015, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-a-new-gun-today/725570 "2015-07-19T01:57:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-a-new-gun-today/725570/1 "2015-07-19T01:57:09Z")
Splurged and bought a pricey gun I’ve been looking at for a while. S&W 617 .22lr stainless revolver. 10 round cylinder, same frame as some of their larger revolvers. It was raining like hell when I got home so I haven’t popped the cherry on it yet. There are some refried bean cans that going to meet their maker tomorrow (if it stops raining!) [Cylinder](http://truthaboutguns-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/SW-Cylinder.jpg) [Whole gun](http://www.collectorsfirearms.com/product_images/n/965/IMG_0109__13737.JPG) ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-a-new-gun-today/725570/2 "2015-07-19T02:05:47Z")
Very nice. Congrats! (I bet some people here didn’t even know that there’s such a thing as “high-capacity” revolvers.) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-a-new-gun-today/725570/3 "2015-07-19T02:13:40Z")
Nice. My ‘high-capacity revolver’ is a [Harrington & Richardson 999 Sportsman](http://www.wideopenspaces.com/everything-want-know-classic-harrington-richardson-sportsman-999-22-revolver/). I’ve only fired it once, to dispatch a mouse. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-a-new-gun-today/725570/4 "2015-07-19T02:21:20Z")
I’ve got a 617 I bought 2 years ago. Nice gun. I installed Wolf main spring and rebound spring to improve the DA trigger pull. It sometimes misfires with bulk ammo but it’s not a defense gun so I don’t mind that. I’ve bought 10 round speed loaders and a pelican box that holds 4 loaders and 100 rounds. Makes it better than fumbing in 10 rounds at a time. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-a-new-gun-today/725570/5 "2015-07-19T02:21:53Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Nice. > > My ‘high-capacity revolver’ is a [Harrington & Richardson 999 Sportsman](http://www.wideopenspaces.com/everything-want-know-classic-harrington-richardson-sportsman-999-22-revolver/). I’ve only fired it once, to dispatch a mouse. I was aware of the Harrington Richardson name but never saw that pistol before. Cool! ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-a-new-gun-today/725570/6 "2015-07-19T02:26:34Z")
> [@GaryM](#): > > I’ve got a 617 I bought 2 years ago. Nice gun. I installed Wolf main spring and rebound spring to improve the DA trigger pull. It sometimes misfires with bulk ammo but it’s not a defense gun so I don’t mind that. > > I’ve bought 10 round speed loaders and a pelican box that holds 4 loaders and 100 rounds. Makes it better than fumbing in 10 rounds at a time. I’m thinking I may want to upgrade the sights. My shooting range is in some heavy woods and I’m shooting down what is almost a tunnel of vegetation. It’s dark and some of the other SWs I looked at had high vis sights. I’ll see how it goes, give it a few hundred rounds before I mess with anything. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-a-new-gun-today/725570/7 "2015-07-19T02:49:02Z")
And…22 ammo is starting to be more available here lately. I bought 500 rounds of Winchester when I bought the gun. CCI high velocity is still hard to find but their lead standard velocity is showing up all over. Federal 325 packs are getting common, 23-29 bucks. Lead bullets, higher FPS than the CCI standard velocity. The place I bought the gun today even had CCI HP shorts, haven’t seen those since the .22 shortage started. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-a-new-gun-today/725570/8 "2015-07-19T03:35:05Z")
P.S. Apologies to those of you in drought afflicted areas. I appreciate what a dire situation that is. It is a freaking rain forest here. Way above average rainfall since May. Rain. rain, rain. When I go over to where I normally shoot I am swarmed with clouds of mosquitoes that are thriving in the current wet conditions. Only 3 years ago we were as dry as any place in the US. I splurged on a good sized lawn tractor earlier this year and I am mainly mowing with a push mower because the tractor churns my lawn into a swampy mud pit. I wish I could send some of this your way. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-a-new-gun-today/725570/9 "2015-07-19T03:36:13Z")
> [@River\_Hippie](#): > > And…22 ammo… Your post prompted me to pull out my 3-screw Ruger Single Six. I finally found out which cylinder is the .22 LR and which is the .22 Magnum. . ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-a-new-gun-today/725570/10 "2015-07-19T03:44:48Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Your post prompted me to pull out my 3-screw Ruger Single Six. I finally found out which cylinder is the .22 LR and which is the .22 Magnum. > > . My dad had one of those, it went to my brother after my dad died. Would have liked to have had it but I got the 1954 Marlin 39 lever action rifle. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-a-new-gun-today/725570/11 "2015-07-19T03:47:56Z")
> [@River\_Hippie](#): > > My dad had one of those, it went to my brother after my dad died. > Would have liked to have had it but I got the 1954 Marlin 39 lever action rifle. Nice. I just bought a Marlin 39 about six years ago. Still haven’t fired it. Nor my Winchester 94/22. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-a-new-gun-today/725570/12 "2015-07-19T03:51:35Z")
Cool piece – and from my all-time favorite brand! Mine 9 shot (I think it is) is an Iver Johnson (not actually an automatic) Safety Automatic. Can’t remember if mine is the Sure-shot or Supershot. It has a transfer bar-like thing which makes the “safety” the part that’s automatic ----- but its basically a plain old wheel-gun. Its sort of a family heirloom and not much more. From a vise it will print a fairly nice group but the sights suck so bad that you would almost be better off throwing the gun than shooting it. I’m sure I could figure them out in time but ------- some day. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-a-new-gun-today/725570/13 "2015-07-19T04:05:39Z")
To my non handgun owner’s eye the pistol appears to be massively overbuilt for a gun handling .22 caliber rounds. Why is it so (seemingly) heavily built for a gun shooting .22 caliber bullets? ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-a-new-gun-today/725570/14 "2015-07-19T06:32:07Z")
> [@astro](#): > > To my non handgun owner’s eye the pistol appears to be massively overbuilt for a gun handling .22 caliber rounds. Why is it so (seemingly) heavily built for a gun shooting .22 caliber bullets? I’m wondering if it is to be a copy/tribute to the iconic 686. Congrats on the gun, \*\*River Hippie. \*\* ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-a-new-gun-today/725570/15 "2015-07-19T12:52:34Z")
> [@astro](#): > > To my non handgun owner’s eye the pistol appears to be massively overbuilt for a gun handling .22 caliber rounds. Why is it so (seemingly) heavily built for a gun shooting .22 caliber bullets? I think handsomeharry nailed it. It’s not light but not as heavy as it looks like it might be. I just weighed it. 2lb, 8.6 oz. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-a-new-gun-today/725570/16 "2015-07-19T16:13:20Z")
> [@astro](#): > > To my non handgun owner’s eye the pistol appears to be massively overbuilt for a gun handling .22 caliber rounds. Why is it so (seemingly) heavily built for a gun shooting .22 caliber bullets? It’s a K-frame revolver, meaning that it’s medium-sized and built to handle .357 Magnum rounds. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-a-new-gun-today/725570/17 "2015-07-19T19:56:23Z")
You’ll never wear one out with 22lr rounds! My 617 came with a green lightpipe front sight which I changed to red. For me red’s easier to see in most conditions. I don’t have it but there are mounts that replace the rear sight assembly allowing you to easily install a red dot type sight. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-a-new-gun-today/725570/18 "2015-07-19T21:40:35Z")
I shot about 70 rounds through it earlier today. There were dark storm clouds threatening to break loose at any moment and the mosquitoes were horrendous so I didn’t spend a lot of time on accuracy evaluation. I tossed a few cans in front of the backstop, stepped back about 30-40 feet and blasted away. I was hitting the cans pretty much every time. The single action trigger pull is fine, the double action pull was much heavier than I expected. I don’t anticipate using DA much so no worries. The cleaning was harder than I expected, tried 3 different cleaners but the powder residue on the cylinder and breech end of the barrel came off really hard. I tried a cleaning rod and a bore snake but there appear to be deposits of crud at the breech end in the barrel too. I have one other stainless gun but I don’t remember it being particularly hard to get residue off. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-a-new-gun-today/725570/19 "2015-07-19T21:46:15Z")
My Ruger SP101 requires [this](https://www.birchwoodcasey.com/Cleaning-and-Maintenance/Cleaning-Maintenance/Lead-Remover-and-Polishing-Cloth-6-x-9.aspx) to get everything off. Even then the cylinders have scoring from firing the shorter .38 Special through it. I’ll only do that once a year or so. Getting the surface residue off is typically good enough. You could spend hours trying to make it look new, but what for? ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-a-new-gun-today/725570/20 "2015-07-19T21:57:23Z")
Not knowing much at all about firearms, I’m curious what makes this special over a typical .22. Keep in mind that I don’t know what “typical” is. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bought-a-new-gun-today/725570.md?page=2)