Animal Mother
Member
After having a bad experience with a lemon of a Taurus 96 (beautiful gun, and would have been almost perfect if I could have fixed a misfire condition), I resolved to put the Taurus aggravation behind me and buy a Smith.
So last weekend I stopped in a gun store to check to see if they had a S&W 617 in stock, because I just wanted to look one over and had not yet settled on a specific model and a lo and behold, they had a really nice 17-3 in the case. After a few minutes of holding and checking the trigger I was sold. They were asking $650, but I talked them down to $525. It was manufactured in 1969, and had the original grips and box. I took it out to shoot the next day and had a blast. I wanted to shoot smaller groups but I think the issue lies with me and not the gun as I didn't have a proper shooting rest and have never done any serious shooting at greater than 10 yards with a handgun (a situation that will be rectified shortly). I also managed to snag some nice walnut grips on eBay that really fit my hands nicely for $15.50, the seller believes they are made by Herrett, but it didn't look like any recent Herrett grips that I've seen, I suppose they could be older. The bluing is very nice on the 17-3 but has a bit of finish wear right at the ends of the barrel. I'm thinking about touching this up with some quality cold blue, but part of me wants to leave it alone if its not going to blend nicely with the original bluing. I'm thinking about scoping it so that I can squeeze all the accuracy potential out of it but I don't want to drill and tap it. I have seen a Weaver mount that uses the existing sight base, does anyone know if that's a good option?
Revolver with the original set of grips.
Revolver with my $15.50 set of grips.
My best group at 10 yards offhand, those squares are 1/2" across. Please excuse the booger hook on the bang switch.
My most accurate group after adjusting the sights, 10 yards offhand.
So last weekend I stopped in a gun store to check to see if they had a S&W 617 in stock, because I just wanted to look one over and had not yet settled on a specific model and a lo and behold, they had a really nice 17-3 in the case. After a few minutes of holding and checking the trigger I was sold. They were asking $650, but I talked them down to $525. It was manufactured in 1969, and had the original grips and box. I took it out to shoot the next day and had a blast. I wanted to shoot smaller groups but I think the issue lies with me and not the gun as I didn't have a proper shooting rest and have never done any serious shooting at greater than 10 yards with a handgun (a situation that will be rectified shortly). I also managed to snag some nice walnut grips on eBay that really fit my hands nicely for $15.50, the seller believes they are made by Herrett, but it didn't look like any recent Herrett grips that I've seen, I suppose they could be older. The bluing is very nice on the 17-3 but has a bit of finish wear right at the ends of the barrel. I'm thinking about touching this up with some quality cold blue, but part of me wants to leave it alone if its not going to blend nicely with the original bluing. I'm thinking about scoping it so that I can squeeze all the accuracy potential out of it but I don't want to drill and tap it. I have seen a Weaver mount that uses the existing sight base, does anyone know if that's a good option?
Revolver with the original set of grips.
Revolver with my $15.50 set of grips.
My best group at 10 yards offhand, those squares are 1/2" across. Please excuse the booger hook on the bang switch.
My most accurate group after adjusting the sights, 10 yards offhand.
