Hello all,
Just purchased a model 48 S&W with .22 mag and .22 cylinders. The Smith has the .22 cylinder in it now and I want to change over to the .22 mag. My question is HOW? Rather than mess things up I thought I would ask. Thanks in advance and God bless. cordell

there is a retaining screw on the right side of the sideplate just above the trigger.Loosen that screw and the yoke and cylinder will slide out.

M16,
Thank you very much. Just in from shooting the .22 Mag cylinder (thanks to you) and pleasantly pleased with the results. Take care and God bless. cordell

Cordell

One little detail - that screw is different than the other sideplate screws so if you ever decide to remove the sideplate completely, for cleaning, etc, make sure it goes back where it belongs.

Ray

Do you get better accuracy with the 22 mag ammo?

Reason I ask is I have refrained from buying a combo revolver since I read a gun rag article. It said that 22 rimfire bullet diameter is .222" 22 mag bullet diameter is, like most centerfire 22 ammo, .224". The handgun manufacturer makes the barrel .224" so the short, long or long rifle ammo wobbles down the bore and therefore is less accurate.

Have you found this to be true?

Hello Cheechako & onefunzr2,
Cheechako thanks for the heads up regarding the screw sizes, I will keep that in mind when I clean this rascal.

onefunzr2, I shot this the other day with .22lr ammo and I thought it did very well, however I haven't shot it enough to give a good account of it yet. The .22 mag did well but if I had to put money on the two I would say the .22 LR did much better than the 22 mag's????????. We have company until Saturday but I will try to get a few targets up and see what this puppy will do with both cylinders. I will then post the results, and we can kick it around a bit!!! I have always been under the assumption that standard .22's were .222 dia, but acording to Cartridges Of The World the bullet diameter for .22 short through .22 long rifle is .223 with the .22CB and .22 BB dia being .222. However these could be rounded up with the actual dia of the .22lr at .2229 etc. I will see what I can come up with by the time I give this Mod 48 a good wring out. Take care and God bless. cordell

onefunzr2,
O.K. just in fron doing some makeshift testing on the S&W Mod 48. It appears that both cylinders shoot about the same!!!! I am having problems posting the pictures so if you know how to post pictures and are willing, I can send you the targets. Once they are on we can discuss the results. I shot both 5 shot groups from 33ft due to the fact my golf cart ran out of gas and that's how far it was to the hill I was shooting into . Both groups are 1" and slightly to the left of center with 1 bullet from each cylinder hitting the X ring. I am not much of a pistol shooter so this little guy in the hands of a competent pistol shooter might be a real winner. Take care and God bless. cordell

That's good shooting. It appears that your revolver digests both types of ammo accurately. You couldn't ask for more.

Good grief!!!!!
I don't know what I have done to post this size picture but here they are. I will delete them in a day or so due to the size!! The pictures are marked 1/19/2008 due to the fact I don't have a 12 year old in this area that I can get to set the date on my camera!!!!! Take care and God bless. cordell

Have been using the M48s and M17s for many years. The 17s are cut .222 and the 48s are .224. The 48 was offered with a .22LR cyl. but the 17 was not offered with a .22MRF cyl. The M53 in 22Magnum(Jet)has a .222 bore and uses inserts for .22LR and was also offered with a .22LR cyl. S&W allowed it was okay to shoot .222 in a .224 bore but not the reverse. Probably did not want to damage the accuracy reputation of the K22 series. You will find that the 48 will do far better with the original cyl. Most 48s will stay around an inch with some down to 1/2" at 25 yards. The 17 will usually go under an inch and often much better. Easier to find accurate 22LR ammo than MRF. Ruger bores it's guns .224 to handle both but is markedly inferior to the S&W. That extra cyl. is for supposedly increasing versatility. In reality the capability of the gun is usually far beyond any advantage the extra cyl. provides. Most folks bought a K22 for its top accuracy and found a separate gun for each caliber was most in keeping with the original plan.