Smith & Wesson's new Model 22-4: history lives in this .45 ACP retro-sixgun!

American Handgunner, March-April, 2006 by Mike Venturino

What comes after one? Two! What comes after 21? Right, 22! As in Model 22, which is exactly what Smith & Wesson in cooperation with Thunder Ranch is presenting us. A Model 22-4 to be exact and for those who aren't up on their S&W model numbers that is an N-frame six-gun chambered for the .45 ACP. It's a newly-made revolver without a full length barrel underlug, a square butt, made of carbon steel with wood grips and plain old fixed sights.

What's notable about that? Because that's what S&W used to make, and it's exactly what Thunder Ranch Director, Clint Smith thinks a self-defense revolver still ought to be. With 30 years experience behind him as a combat Marine, cop and firearms instructor along with the insight gained from teaching thousands of Thunder Ranch students, Clint knows something about defensive handguns. Last year he got us the S&W Model 21-4 .44 Special and now big bore, DA revolver shooters owe him a debt of gratitude for the new Model 22-4.

But Why?

Before the surprise caused by Smith & Wesson's reintroduction of the Model 21-4.44 Special (AKA Model 1950 Military, AKA Thunder Ranch Revolver) had calmed there was an ongoing debate among gun people about what S&W should follow up with. Some voted for a fixed-sight .357 Magnum, others wanted a .41 Magnum, and many leaned toward a .45 Colt version. Clint thought a .45 ACP revolver made more sense.

Smith & Wesson listened to Clint. Together they came up with a compact, powerful and accurate handgun that's at the same time pleasing to the eye. If you think the new Model 22-4 is simply last year's Model 21-4 with different-sized holes in the cylinder and barrel, you're wrong. If you're old enough to remember the original Model 22 and you think the Model 22-4 is simply a remake of it, you missed again.

Here's the scoop. When Smith brought out the Thunder Ranch Revolver/Model 21-4 last year it had a round butt as has all their N-frame revolvers for some years now. The new Model 22-4 has a square butt, as was standard with the N-frame for about 80 years until some marketing type "thought" a round butt would sell better. (Ever heard anyone ask for a round-butt N-frame? I haven't.) The new Model 21-4 had a half-round profile front sight about the size of a halved dime. The new Model 22-4's front sight has the same profile but is about the size of a halved nickel. Both are .125" thick. Last year's Model 21-4 has the new style cylinder release latch. The new Model 22-4's latch is shaped precisely like S&W latches were for almost a century.

Since the Model 21-4/Thunder Ranch Revolver had a round butt, it came fitted with corresponding stocks. Holding them felt like gripping a banana. I tossed mine the very day it arrived. The new Model 22-4 comes with facsimiles of S&W's famous Magna grips. Big-handed people might add a "grip adapter." Those with smaller hands will find them okay.

Perhaps S&W thinks we revolver fans are getting old and blind, because they have taken to stamping enormously large model numbers and caliber markings on revolver barrels. That was the only thing I bitched about when I saw the prototype Model 21-4 in 2004. Evidently others did too. With the Model 22-4 S&W returned to the almost delicate barrel lettering of a bygone revolver era.

Gold Is Gone

Many also complained about the rather garish gold Thunder Ranch Revolver logo on the side plate of the new Model 21-4s. With the Model 22-4 the TR logo is on the grips. If you don't like it you can pitch them in the trash bin, and get some other stocks.

Nor is the new Model 22-4 just a recreation of one of the rarer Smith & Wesson revolvers from the 1950s and 1960s. The basic gun has its roots in the World War I Model 1917. That was when the concept originated of shooting rimless .45 ACP ammo through revolvers with the aid of half-moon clips. The U.S. military bought over 150,000 of those and they served in both world wars. The S&W Model 1917 proved so popular in the civilian marketplace that S&W kept it in production until 1950.

In that year the company re-engineered the innards of all N-frame revolvers with a new "short action." The Model 1917 became the Model 1950 Army, with the only differences being the new internals and lack of the Model 1917's lanyard ring. The only barrel length offered on either Model 1917 or Model 1950 Army was 5 1/2". The 1950s and 1960s were the prime era of magnum hand-guns and adjustable sights, so the Model 1950 Army didn't set sales records. Slightly fewer than 4,000 were made before it was dropped in 1966. When model numbers were assigned in 1957 it became the Model 22.

The Model 22-4 is not identical to the old Model 22, and not just in the safety lock with which all S&W revolvers are now equipped. The new one has a frame-mounted firing pin: the old one had the firing pin on the hammer. The new one has a 4"-barrel instead of the 5 1/2" of the originals.

After 1940 all S&W N-frames had a lug beneath the barrel protecting the ejector rod. That is all EXCEPT the Model 1917 and Model 1950 Army/ Model 22. Why that was, no one today seems to know. The new Model 22-4 does have a barrel underlug. Last, a real nice touch for us life long S&W fans is the new Model 22-4's sideplate is the old four-screw design the company switched from about 1957.