I picked up a Smith & Wesson 317 Airlite a few months ago. I haven't had a lot of time working with it, but until today, I couldn't find a brand of .22LR's that it liked. My best groups at 25 yards were around 2.5" for all 8-shots.

Last weekend I was at Sportsman's Warehouse and saw they had a new shipment of all kinds of different CCI. I picked up some Green Tag competition, some CCI Longs, and CCI shorts. Just as I was walking back to the check out, an employee was bringing out some CCI Pistol Match. I picked up a box of those also.

Today, I tried the CCI Pistol Match and the little 317 really loves these things. I was getting just over 1.25" groups at 25 yards for all 8-shots. This from a handgun that weighs all of 10 ounces. I'm sure it could have done better, but I have a hard time holding that lightweight handgun steady.

The trigger needs some serious work done, but I believe I've got my pot gun and load!

If you are having trouble with accuracy from your .22LR handgun, try those CCI Pistol Match. They are absolute death on skeet, cans, and pop bottles.

They are picky little beasts, but got lucky and found a couple of loads early on...certainly not the most powerful loads, but had various boxes of match ammo that none of my rifles seemed to care for greatly...rather tyhan just burn it up plinking, decided to test them in the little 317.

From there, tried other Eley ammo, and found the Practice 100 shoots well (and a good bit less $ than the match stuff)...slow, but this isn't a magnum anyway.

Have one odd-ball load that may be worth a try...but it's kind of a do-it-yourself load. Made a little flat-pointer and trim the 60gr. bullet to a nearly full 43gr. wad cutter. Has the ballistics of a well thrown brick, but it does "smack" small game down.

I certainly don't need fast or powerful. This little gun is for bringing a grouse or ptarmigan to the pot (instead of having to eat those freeze dried foods) when sheep hunting. Figure you can get within 10 yards of the dumb birds pretty easy, but unless there's a lot of brush, 5 yards is pretty much luck.

These little Pistol Match from CCI are fairly quite and the gun seems to like them pretty well. I didn't try the Green Tag stuff and I still have some Remington fodder I've yet to try. Guess I was having too much fun with the Pistol match.

I certainly don't need fast or powerful. This little gun is for bringing a grouse or ptarmigan to the pot (instead of having to eat those freeze dried foods) when sheep hunting. Figure you can get within 10 yards of the dumb birds pretty easy, but unless there's a lot of brush, 5 yards is pretty much luck.

These little Pistol Match from CCI are fairly quite and the gun seems to like them pretty well. I didn't try the Green Tag stuff and I still have some Remington fodder I've yet to try. Guess I was having too much fun with the Pistol match.

Makes me wish I hadn't shot all mine up in the rifles (know it has "pistol" printed on the box, but it shot so well in the rifles, that's were it got used). Will look for more locally...besides, the plastic 50round box fits in your pocket so much easier than the long 100round Green tag boxes.

hay alyeska338 if you stone down the sear on that little smith be careful. I have been out of the smith busines for quite a while now, but used to be Smiths hammer and sear were soft on the inside and case hardened on the outside.

If you went thru the case hardening you ended up with a sear that would wear quickly. This wasn't a problem if you got a can of casinit from Brownells and just followed the directions when you get the sear to where you want it.

I do recommend you use a diamond hone as the hardened surface of those smith hammers and sears can be a bugger to cut.

Good luck with the 317.

I lost my kit gun a few years ago and on a whim bought a little Rossi with a four inch bbl. It looks like it was made on Smith & Wesson's tooling, but the bbl has a half underlug and it looks like a scaled down model 19.

It only chambers six. It shoots like a house afire and It's heavy enough that it is very accurate to shoot but light enough to carry. I can't tell you how many bricks of Wally world 22 has went thru it.

I looked at the 317 when they first came out, but was a little leary of the super light weight and being able to shoot it well though I sure liked the way it looked.

faucett,
That is exactly what I've been told by more than a few Smith gunsmiths. I won't be monkeying around taking much off. The sear is case hardened and doesn't take much to get into the malleable core. I've got a few tips from an Amorer on working Smith triggers and will give his instructions a try.

The gun is incredibly light and very difficult to shoot well, in my opinion. It's not that the gun is not accurate, it's just hard to get that accuracy from it. At least it is for me anyway. I really like the little gun and believe it will serve the purpose I bought it for extremely well.