Two of my favorite things intersect in the S&W 617 Mountain Gun: the .22 LR cartridge and no-lock S&W K-frames. But considering S&W’s inconsistent QC, is this gun truly a convergence of awesome or a tragic disaster? I shot one to find out.
This is Part 6 of Project Rimfire where I’m reviewing dozens of .22 handguns across multiple categories. Details are in the video below or keep scrolling to read the full transcript.
Hey everybody, I am Chris Baker from Lucky Gunner and today I’m going to talk about the Smith & Wesson 617 Mountain Gun. I love .22s. I love K-frame revolvers… when they’re done right. Did Smith get this one right? We’re going to find out.
This is Part 6 of Project Rimfire where I am reviewing a preposterous number of handguns, all chambered for .22 Long Rifle. I’ve broken them down by category. We’ve covered the pocket pistols and now we’re moving on to medium frame revolvers.
I’ve been testing five different options in this category. I’ve chosen a couple of the more interesting options to feature for individual reviews before our roundup video comparing all five. Be sure you are subscribed to our channel so you don’t miss any of that.
When I first announced this series, the 617 Mountain Gun was one of the most requested .22s that you guys wanted to see included. This is a new exclusive variant from Lipsey’s that came out last Fall.
There have been lots of 617 variants since the original in 1989, but they are all stainless steel .22 LR K-frames with adjustable sights. Originally it had a 6-shot cylinder but in the mid 90s, they upped it to 10 shots. For the last several years, 617 options have been limited to the 4 and 6-inch models with full underlug heavy barrels.
What is a Mountain Gun?
What makes this a Mountain Gun is that it has a 4-inch half-lug tapered barrel. It weighs 36 ounces – 3 or 4 ounces lighter than the full-lug 4-inch model. That’s enough to change how the gun balances and handles. But for most people, I think the main appeal is the aesthetics of the traditional barrel profile.
There are some other features. The trigger and hammer have a corrosion-resistant flash chrome finish. For sights we have a brass bead in the front and the standard adjustable rear sight. And the frame is the round butt style with a nice set of walnut square butt conversion grips from Tyler Gun Works.
Smith made Mountain Gun variants of several different revolvers from about the late 80s until the mid 2000s. Starting last year, Lipsey’s has kind of revived the concept. The 617 Mountain Gun is not exactly a revival. Smith did make a very small batch of 42 of them about ten years ago, but they never went into full production. No one seems to know why, exactly. But ever since, revolver nerds like me have been hoping they would make more and Lipsey’s finally talked them into it.
More Features
The new 617 Mountain Gun features a few other changes that I suspect will eventually be integrated into all of the 617s. There is no internal lock. That’s a change they’re gradually rolling out across their whole revolver lineup.
They’ve moved the lockup point from the end of the ejector rod to the yoke. The caliber and logo engraving also looks better. It’s cleaner and more well-defined. Maybe a minor thing, but pride of ownership is a big deal for a lot of revolver fans and I hope this style of engraving is the new standard on all their stainless guns.
Action & Trigger
But let’s face it. Most of you don’t care about that stuff . You came here to find out about three things: trigger, accuracy, and whether Smith & Wesson has fixed their quality control issues.
Starting with the trigger – it’s fantastic. I weighed the double action at about nine pounds. It’s super smooth. It feels like an old well broken-in K-frame. And that’s because I kind of cheated.
It has not had any custom work or aftermarket parts. But this gun that Lipsey’s loaned me for the review was used as a range demo gun at Revolverfest 2025. So it had several thousand rounds through it before I got it. Like most new Smith revolvers, the trigger out of the box is probably going to be kinda “meh.” Just shoot it. Or dry fire it with some dummy rounds. It will get better.
I did get some occasional light primer strikes. But only when the gun was getting dirty under the extractor star. Otherwise, ignition was fine.
Accuracy
Accuracy: also very impressive. I shot one-inch groups from a bench at 25 yards with multiple brands of ammo. It shot best with Eley Club ammo – my smallest 5-round group was just 0.6 inches.
I shot this 10 round group when I was zeroing the optic. That’s 25 yards standing unsupported double action. I don’t think you’re going to get a whole lot better than that with an off-the-shelf .22 double action revolver.
By the way, for the optic, I used an Allchin Gun Parts RMR mount with a Gideon Omega green dot sight. Big thanks to Gideon for providing a bunch of optics to use in Project Rimfire. That’s been a huge help.
I also want to give a quick shout-out to Speed Beez. They did not give us any cool stuff for Project Rimfire, we had to buy it. But I have to say that one of their speed loaders with a loading block is like a fun multiplier for .22 revolvers. They’re not cheap, but you’re probably going to spend more time shooting and less time loading than you would even with a semi-auto and a handful of mags.
Quality Control
Okay, now as far as the quality control issue, I can’t give you any definitive answers. I would like to think it’s getting better, but I can only speak to my experience with this particular 617 Mountain Gun. And it is fantastic, both mechanically and cosmetically.
Of course, there’s no guarantee they’re all like this. With any of the big four revolver makers right now, you should try to inspect the gun before you buy it.
Overall, this one is an excellent example of what Smith & Wesson is capable of when they apply modern refinements to that classic 127-year-old K-frame design. It shoots great. It looks great. There’s no lock. I can’t really complain.
Almost Perfect
But this is a gun review so I kind of have to complain a little bit. There are a couple of things I would change. I can’t really call them shortcomings because they’re all preference related.
The walnut grips are really well made and they look classy, but they’re not quite the right shape for my hands. They need a little more meat in the front strap area. Not a huge deal for a .22 but I would probably swap them out.
The factory rear sight notch is too shallow, but that’s an issue I’ve had with a lot of newer Smith & Wessons. You can’t even see the full brass bead when you’re aiming.
And I wish it had a 3-inch barrel. That would not be in keeping with the Mountain Gun tradition, but I think we can all agree that 3-inch K-frames are objectively the best K-frames.
But again, that’s all pretty small stuff. Those first two issues are easily fixed with aftermarket parts and I can live with a 4-inch barrel when the gun shoots like this one does.
Final Verdict
I’ll be talking a lot more about how the 617 compares to other revolvers when we get to our medium frame .22 roundup video in a few weeks. But I don’t mind telling you now that it’s looking like the 617 Mountain Gun is a strong contender for my personal favorite, not just among revolvers, but possibly for Project Rimfire overall. We’re still early in the game, so we’ll see what happens.
Next time, I’m going to look at another strong entry in this category: the 3-inch Colt King Cobra. Make sure you are subscribed to our channel so you don’t miss that. And next time you need some ammo, get it with lightning fast shipping from Lucky Gunner.
