S&W 617 Mountain Gun Review: 22 LR We’ve Been Waiting For

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

The S&W 617 Mountain Gun looks like the .22 LR K-frame woods revolver a lot of shooters have been waiting for. It shoots well, carries the right Mountain Gun attitude, and then trips over the kind of quality-control problem that makes a man shake his head twice.

The S&W 617 Mountain Gun Brings Big Mountain Gun Energy to .22 LR

The concept of the mountain gun brings out some selective imagery. The historian in me thinks of the howitzers in the foothills around Chattanooga. But if we are talking small arms in this century, chances are it is the Smith & Wesson Mountain Gun. The Mountain Gun concept dates from the 1980s, and Smith & Wesson, in conjunction with Lipsey’s Distributors, brought back the concept with their 686 and 629 Mountain Gun at the SHOT Show 2025. The concept is solid. Make a shootable revolver lightweight enough to carry in the woods and capable of taking anything on the mountain. Certainly, a .357 Magnum or .44 Magnum will do just that. The new Smith & Wesson 617 Mountain Gun in .22 LR, however, is an unexpected yet natural addition. Here is Jim’s take:

Why the S&W 617 Mountain Gun Looks Like the Rimfire Woods Gun We Wanted

Smith & Wesson’s Model 617 is a stainless-steel heavy-barreled version of the famous Model 17, otherwise known as the K-22 Masterpiece. The original revolver featured a blued finish, adjustable sights, and a six-shot capacity. It was intended for target shooting and as an outdoorsman’s companion for taking small game and pests. The 617 and 617 Mountain Gun continue that tradition. The 617 Mountain Gun was made in very limited numbers, but now it is back in full production.

Instead of a black front ramp front sight, a gold bead is inset in a square notch to pair with an adjustable rear square notch. The sighting plane in between uses anti-glare milling to break up sunlight that can and will glint off the polished stainless-steel finish. The trigger and hammer also come with a flash chrome finish for extra lubricity and corrosion resistance.

The Smith & Wesson 617 Mountain Gun ships in a blue hard case and has an initial MSRP of $1,199.

🛒 Check Current Price for S&W 617 Mountain Gun on GunsAmerica

S&W 617 Mountain Gun Specs: .22 LR K-Frame Details

Model	S&W 617 Mountain Gun
Caliber	.22 LR
Capacity	10
Barrel Length	4.1 inches
Overall Length	9.1 inches
Height
Width
Weight	2 lbs. 4.5 oz. (loaded)
MSRP	$1,199

Range Time: Handsome Revolver, Strong First Impression, One Big Catch

The Smith & Wesson 617 Mountain Gun is far and away a more attractive package over the standard model. The Bear Hug grips are hand-filling, and the half-lug barrel gives the revolver a slight but not overpowered muzzle heaviness. There is no keylock safety to insult our intelligence, and the hammer has lost its thin MIM-ness for a thicker target profile. The inclusion of a dovetailed gold-beaded front sight is a welcome improvement from the standard front ramp, and it is more precise and less fragile than some fiber optic options on the market. But these smart additions count for nothing if the pistol does not shoot. This 617 Mountain Gun shoots well when it decides to.

25 Yard Accuracy: The S&W 617 Mountain Gun Can Shoot

As with any other new handgun, the first order of business is getting on top of the sights. I benched the 617 Mountain Gun and posted targets at 25 yards. My first rounds hit six inches high at that distance, but a decisive turn of a screwdriver set the rear sight down in elevation, and I was at the point of aim in no time.

I then shot a series of five-shot groups from that distance. I fired in single action mode by thumb cocking the hammer before every shot. The results were a modest surprise. The best overall group was achieved with CCI Stinger 32-grain hollow points, which tend to group loosely and noisily out of a handgun. This little varmint loaded easily and grouped within two inches. CCI Blaser and Federal Automatch 40-grain lead round-nosed ammunition came in second with a solid 3-inch group. I also tried Remington Viper 36 grain, CCI Mini Mags, and Winchester 36 grain Super X hollow points. The Winchester load scored a 3.2-inch group, but the others came in near the four-inch mark.

At this distance, the front sight is still crisp and easy to index on small three-inch bullseyes without covering them up. That is good to know if your quarry is small. The single-action trigger pull is excellent. There is no creep or mush, but a swift break. On my Lyman trigger scale, the trigger pull measures about 4 lbs. 2 oz. consistently. Even the double-action pull, when simply pulling the trigger all the way through to cock and release the hammer, is fairly good. It is long, but smooth and not overly heavy by rimfire standards. It has a solid seven-and-a-half-pound pull, where plenty of rimfire revolvers ship with stout hammer springs that keep the trigger pull in the dozen-pound range or higher.

Offhand Shooting: No Recoil, Good Balance, Then Trouble Starts

In terms of accuracy, the 617 delivers, although I wish it were with ammunition that might leave me more to eat than those hot CCI Stinger rounds. But each .22 pistol will like certain ammunition when it comes to accuracy and even reliability. But as I left the bench, loaded a full ten rounds, and started shooting offhand, I noticed a problem right away.

It was easy to connect in double action or single action out to fifty yards. The sights work well, even as my small eight-inch steel plates decreased in size as I backed up. The 617 exhibits no felt recoil at all, and all you get is a pop and a puff of smoke from the bullet lube to indicate you actually fired a round.

But no matter how much I shot the revolver, I continually had two or three rounds in the cylinder that would fail to go off and would require another hit under the hammer. It was not specific to certain chambers or any ammunition. Even the CCI Stinger load, the most reliable out of the bunch, still failed to strike two times out of ten.

This tendency occurred during my accuracy testing in single action, and nothing changed in double action. Early on, I also had the occasional failure of the trigger to reset after every shot. But that quickly resolved after a few repetitions and resets using the trigger finger. On inspecting and cleaning the pistol, I noticed that the forcing cone was not square with the cylinder, and the bottom half was rubbing the cylinder face. The cylinder itself never bound up, but this display of poor workmanship made me stop the testing for a time.

Warranty Work: The Fix Worked, but the Missed Defect Didn’t

After a bit of head shaking, I sent the 617 Mountain Gun to Smith & Wesson. It was returned within a few weeks with a new hammer spring and an apparently modified barrel and forcing cone. That was not the case, as the forcing cone was still not square with the cylinder. On the firing line, the 617 performed with 100% reliability, but the missed defect had me questioning the sobriety of those who assembled the handgun, as well as those who inspected it twice.

Pros and Cons: The Pretty .22 LR Revolver With a Hard Lesson

• Pros: Attractive Mountain Gun configuration, no keylock safety, Tyler Gun Works Bear Hug walnut grips, tapered half-lug barrel, dovetailed gold-beaded front sight, ten-round cylinder, smooth double action, excellent single action trigger, strong 25-yard accuracy with the right ammunition, and no felt recoil.
• Cons: Light strikes during testing, early trigger reset issue, forcing cone not square with the cylinder, warranty work fixed reliability, but did not correct the visible defect, premium price makes the quality-control miss harder to excuse.

Final Verdict: The S&W 617 Mountain Gun Is an Imperfect Revival

Lipsey’s is a distributor with significant coattails. They are single-handedly dragging the Smith & Wesson revolver lineup back where it needs to be. This ranges from their new no-lock classics to the revival of the Mountain Gun concept to the Ultimate Carry series.

Unfortunately, Smith & Wesson is between a rock and a hard place. They have to chase marketplace trends while keeping their revolver legacy going. Although we are living in a revolver revival, it is clear which of the priorities are chosen, and Smith & Wesson’s investment in Tennessee should be a clue. Their line work and quality control are clearly suffering, even though new and great expectations are now being put upon the company.

This is especially true with the revolvers. Most are good, some are excellent, but those we expect the most from seem to be the most horrendous. My local FFL could not sell me an Airweight J-frame, their staple revolver, because every last one came with a canted barrel. This 617 is handsome, but defective. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the only premium model that had to be returned. Save for a very close inspection before final purchase, I would recommend leaving the 617, and Smith & Wesson more generally, off the list.

Related Reads from GunsAmerica Digest

• S&W 629 Mountain Gun Returns Better Than Ever
• S&W Ultimate Carry J-Frame: Four Models, One Mission
• S&W 940 Review: 9mm J Frame That Runs Hard

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