The 'N22'

by FOG, Tuesday, March 12, 2013, 17:54 (4219 days ago)

All the 'K22' talk reminded me that Smith & Wesson also made at least one N-Frame revolver in .22 Long Rifle.

It was one of a custom-ordered pair of 'Magnums' that was described in the article The First Magnum by Roy Jinks.

I no longer have my copy, but as I recall, they were a matched pair, one in .357, the other in .22, both with 8¾" (not 8⅜") barrels.

This pair of 'Registered' Magnums was ordered, I think, by some Potash company somewhere out West.

At the time the article was published, which I believe was in the early 1990s, the pair had yet to be 'found' by the collector community.

On a related note, the first 'K22' was also a custom order, placed, as I recall, somewhere around 1912 by a man serving in the US Navy.

The factory didn't think it would work very well with the bullet having to make such a long jump to the barrel, so they actually rifled the cylinder throats, presumably to exactly match the rifling in the barrel.

Because of the complexity of this task, the first K22 was not made a production item, and when the 'next' K22 finally appeared on the scene in the 1930s, it lacked this feature.

FYI

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