By Jim Dickson | Contributing Writer
Upon receiving the Smith & Wesson Mode17 .22 Masterpiece revolver for review at Reeves Ace Hardware in Clayton, Georgia I was excited to get to shoot one again.
It had been many years since I had the chance to shoot this model and it had always shot perfectly for me in the past.
Originally called the K22 for its K frame size, the K-frame is a .38-caliber size with a 1.450-inch diameter cylinder. It can be thought of as a Model 10 Military and Police .38 made as a six shot .22 with adjustable sights. This size difference, compared to smaller .22’s such as the S&W .22/.32 kit gun gives you two major advantages. The more robust size adds reliability and longevity and most important makes it far easier to shoot accurately.
As a rule, small light pistols are harder to shoot well because their weight in relation to the trigger pull is less and the muscles in the arm are not exerting the same amount of tension in holding the gun on target resulting in wider group sizes. The K22 Masterpiece is an ideal size for an accurate .22 revolver. It is also a perfect training companion to the larger bore K-frame .38 Special and .357 Magnum revolvers allowing more shooting at a lower cost.
Trappers often carry .22 pistols to finish off what they have caught in their traps. The choice between the smaller, lighter, but harder to hit with .22/.32 S&W Kit gun and the larger and much easier to hit with K22 Masterpiece was often determined by how much they needed to be able to hit other game at far longer range for the table. When you are also a subsistence hunter that swings the vote to the K22 decisively.
The ease of accurate shooting with the K22 was best shown by the fact that the late Lucky McDaniel chose this model for instructing instinct shooting with a pistol to his students. Lucky was the first man to develop a quick way to teach this method used by Captain Asdam Bogardus, Doc Carver, Buffalo Bill, and all the great exhibition shooters of the past.
A gifted natural at this method, McDaniel soon found that other people were wanting him to teach them to shoot better without using sights than they could with sights. Faced with a particularly frustrating student who kept missing the tiny targets thrown in the air, Lucky handed him a BB gun telling him to “Try this. It’s cheaper to shoot.” Whereupon he discovered that since he could see the BB in flight he could see where his student was missing and correct his aim by telling him to look over or under the target as the case may be. This method, coupled with Lucky’s unparalleled ability to impart his skill to others, led to his teaching nationwide.
During the Viet Nam War he taught the troops at Fort Benning for free resulting in the Army adopting the training method as the “Quick Kill “ system using Lucky’s former students as instructors. When it came time to use real guns Lucky always chose something easy to hit with for his students to learn on.
The larger size of the K-frame, originally made for .38-caliber revolvers, coupled with the mild recoil of the .22 Long Rifle cartridge, results in the recoil stress of firing being immensely diminished on the now oversize lock work of the revolver. This means far longer parts life as the internal parts are not getting battered as much by recoil. This increased life span of the revolver more than offsets the price of the K22 Masterpiece.
Frequent trips to the gunsmith are discouraging and can prove disastrous in a gun called upon to defend you in a sudden emergency when you have to use whatever is at hand. Back in the 1920’s when the .32 ACP was a popular trapper’s pistol to put down trapped animals it was not unknown for the same pistol to be successfully used on wolves and bears in emergencies. Hardly the gun you would choose but bad things happen and you go with what you have in your hand when it does. In addition, a lot of people keep a .22 pistol in the house for burglar protection. Certainly not a caliber I would recommend for anything larger than squirrels but they do and if that is your choice then at least get a first quality one like the K22.
Of course, the real reason most people buy a .22 pistol is fun and practice with emphasis on fun. Let’s face it. Shooting a .22 pistol is just plain fun. Back when a brick of 500 rounds of .22LR was just $5 I used to shoot one or two bricks up every time I shot a rimfire pistol. Now with .22 ammunition costing as much as 9MM at times that is not economically feasible for most folks and the high cost of .22 rimfire is discouraging new shooters to the sport in an anti-gunner’s dream scenario. .22’s need to be cheap for this is how new shooters learn and get hooked on shooting.
The test gun was beautifully fitted and finished in a flawless high polish blue job. It had a 6 inch barrel and weighed 40.6 ounces. Length was 11.5 inches, width was 1.45 inches, and capacity was 6 rounds. The double action trigger was a hefty 12 ½ pounds and the single action trigger pull was a stout 6 pounds as measured by a Lyman mechanical trigger pull gauge from Brownell’s Gunsmithing Supplies. I would have preferred lighter trigger pulls. The MSRP is $1169.
I had 750 rounds for test firing consisting of 550 rounds of Remington Golden Hunter hollow point with a 40-grain bullet at 1,255 FPS and 200 rounds of Remington Ranch Hand 38-grain plated hollow point at 1,345 FPS. The pistol was accurate and fun to shoot and I wished that I had more ammo to run through it.
Everyone should have a good .22 pistol and a quality one like the M17 K22 makes a good investment. Retiring a favorite .22 pistol because it is worn out and there are no more parts for that model available for rebuilding can be heart breaking. That can’t happen with the K22 as if it ever does wear out S&W is always there to repair it.
The K22 does everything that you can ask of a .22 revolver and it does it well. It makes a good companion for outdoor fun. I have spent many happy hours roaming the woods and plinking with a .22 pistol. When you shoot at a small target at a distance, it becomes much more demanding than paper targets which can also get boring, not to mention the expense of the targets. I remember the fun I had shooting with friends like the late Bob Parker. When shooting .22 pistols we had to get past 75 yards before I could get the least bit ahead of him shooting.
Many families made shooting a .22 pistol a routine part of fishing trips and it was great fun for all. A lot of men used them to pot a squirrel or rabbit while doing outdoor work. The .22 pistol rode on the hip and did not interfere with whatever else they were doing.
A .22 pistol in the glove box of a truck was often retrieved for shooting small game for the dinner table. Constant practice honed the skills needed for making the jump to bigger calibers and the .22 pistol became a cornerstone for building a pistoleer. It is an American tradition and the M17 S&W K22 Masterpiece is a fine example of a .22 revolver worthy of being your choice for a .22 revolver.
