Winchester Xpert 22LR Hates My Gun

I figure I'd post this here, as all guns can develop with this issue....

I have a S&W 617 revolver that I shot about 200-250 rounds of Winchester X-pert, lead-nose ammo through it because I can't seem to find the Dynapoints. It functioned fine and shot well, but.....a couple of weeks after that, my wife's cousin wanted to shoot it, too. I hadn't cleaned it since I last had it out, but figured it wouldn't pose a problem. Turns out, the bullets were going through the target SIDEWAYS at 7 yards or so. They were leaving perfect silouhette shapes in the cardboard. She didn't like shooting it as much as Missashot's S&W 22a-1, so we put it up. A couple of weeks later, I decided to clean it....

I had difficulties getting the cleaning rod through the last 1/2" of the barrel, just before the cylinder. Shining a light down the barrel showed it was filthy. I pulled out the copper solvent solution, instead of the Hoppe's No. 9, and eventually I got the rod through it a bit easier. A few more times, and I pushed out a 1/2" long section of lead! Appearantly the lead was building up and clogging the barrel. I eventually cleaned it up and will stick to copper jacketed from now on with this revolver.

Here is a picture of the gun with some of the blockage next to it, and a picture of the lead that I pulled out of the barrel.





The only reason I'm listing this is because I've never seen anything like this before....and I've shot quite a few rounds in my short lifetime. I hope others can benefit from this.

I've done some research this morning, and it looks like I'm not the only one with this leading issue with a 617. I also recall it spitting more lead out from the gap between the cylinder and forcing cone than I feel comfortable with. I'll probably contact S&W or at least the dealer I bought the gun from. One of the dealer's realitives is a S&W sales rep, so maybe they'll take care of it for me. Thanks for everyone's thoughts on the topic.

With my 10/22, Ruger Mk II, Taurus PT-22 and the wife's S&W 22A-1 and 10/22, We have never had a problem like this with any of them and especially with the Winchester Dynapoints (my cheap 22LR ammo of choice). After a call to S&W and being told that the gap between the cylinder and barrel is supposed to be between 0.003" and 0.009", mine turns out to be between 0.011" and 0.012". Also, the timing looks good, but I'm getting some interesting marks on the notches in the cylinder. Called S&W this morning, and they are sending me a pre-paid shipping label to send it back in to get checked out. Hopefully, this gun will be working better than new in a few weeks.

UPDATE

UPDATE: Twelve-day turn-around from S&W. They turned (cut another thread in) the barrel and recut the forcing cone. The cylinder doesn't scrape the forcing cone, but I can't even get a 0.0015" feeler guage in between there. Timing was checked, too, and appearantly was fine......I'm hoping to test fire it in the next few days. I'm also going to use better ammo, this time....I think I have some CCI's around.