I think it's finished!

[coolhandluke]

Damn fine looking rig you got there!

Thanks GTG!

I'm excited to post pics of the 617 that my brother is wrapping up. I believe that it's finished with the exception of cutting the forcing cone on the barrel. IMO, it's the most impressive 617 build that I've personally seen and this is his first attempt at it. He picked up a lathe from Harbor Freight over the holidays and has used it to shorten and lighten his cylinder, cut and thread the barrel blank as well as cutting an aluminium barrel shroud.

Here's a shot of the short cylinder and lightweight barrel. The aluminum shroud (not installed in photo) is the same diameter as the frame and he is using a MaddMacc's rimfire comp as the tension nut. I'll post additional pics after it's completely finished.

I'd really like it to have a ported or comped barrel myself, but I may just leave it as is. Not really any huge need for that or a lightweight barrel since I have yet to run mine in any rimfire SC competitions.

 

[mightymouse]

Super trick! Thank for posting the pics.

 

[ronny]

This constantly being awash with your (and now, your Brother's) excellent handiwork is becoming more than my jealous side can handle.

j/k. I admire the work and thought that went into those pieces. What's next?

 

[BobbyV]

Very cool. Looks great.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[coolhandluke]

This constantly being awash with your (and now, your Brother's) excellent handiwork is becoming more than my jealous side can handle.

j/k. I admire the work and thought that went into those pieces. What's next?

He's the one with all the talent when it comes to doing action jobs and now dabbling in custom S&W revolver builds. He recently purchased one of Bruce Warren's (of BC Armory) prototype steel challenge builds which was a lightweight Model 10. It had some gas erosion issues at the forcing cone so he took it upon himself to learn how to recut the barrel and shroud. That gun was also set up with a short cylinder and tension barrel which gave him the idea for the 617. He actually ended up swapping frames out for a spare off of a junker Model 19 and did some skeletonizing work on it. I think that he plans to use it as his primary centerfire steel challenge gun.

 

[mightymouse]

^^^^^That's pretty radical. I guess you don't need side plates?

 

[coolhandluke]

^^^^^That's pretty radical. I guess you don't need side plates?

As long as you leave the locating pins intact, you can remove quite a bit of frame material without interferring with the movement of the action parts as everything is captured once the sideplate is installed. In the photo above everything was just mocked up. One of the pins and sideplate aren't installed. I believe that the gun weighs in the mid-20 oz range. Not much heavier than my Model 649 J frame.

 

[SPDguns]

Why do you keep doing this to me????? You know I love the 617's!

 

[RickN]

If he ever gets another junker M19 frame he wants to get rid of, cheap, I would be interested. My father gave me an old 19-3 with a screwed up frame before he passed and I would like to build a working revolver out of it.

 

[Shadowrider]

Decided that my cylinder could stand to lose a few extra oz's so I asked my brother to throw it on his lathe while he was working on his own custom 617 build. His 617 will have a short cylinder that has been cut in similar fashion with a lightweight sleeved and compensated tension barrel. I'll post pics after it's complete.

Very nice. How is it for reliability with that light trigger? I've heard that Randy Lee himself can get them reliable at uber low ridiculous weights, but I think he has some voodoo ritual he does to make it happen. My slicked up pre-lock 17 is too iffy for me at 8.5lbs but it doesn't have his hammer in it either. When I get it back to the range I'm going to have to straighten the spring a bit.