The K22 Masterpiece's are wonderful shooters. I have had a pair of them for many years now and have found that they are a bit sensitive to the ammo you use. If you are concerned about getting wringing the best accuracy out of yours, you might try some different brands and velocities. Mine seem to like standard velocity the best, but yours may like an entirely different type.
Have two, junk, not accurate at all. Gave up fixing them after I bought the Ruger Mark II. Mark II, Colt Trooper and Gold Cup shoot circles around the two M17.
Don't just shoot to judge, sand bag and shoot like 30 rounds and see the grouping. One has flyers one out of about 10 rounds, the other one just lousy grouping. I do gun smithing, I checked all the spacing and they are tight, but still not accurate. Here are the two M17 in the picture:
The Colt Trooper on the top of the picture is very accurate.
I have a Model 17-3 and a K-22 from circa 1948. I also have a Colt Cobra in .22 and Colt Diamondback in .22. For some reason, whenever I want to shoot a .22 revolver, it's almost always the K-22.
I have a few M17s and just got a pre17 “K” manf. 1947. 1st of K prefix. This is 5screw gun.
Excellent shape, no target hammer & trigger. Tapered barrel and narrow rib. Only negative was wrong grips. Now wearing correct Diamond Magnas. I’m still shooting one I got NIB in
1964. Carried like a pocket knife and shot thousands of rounds. Still tight and accurate but does have honest wear on blue. I’ve owned couple dozen K22s never had a bad one.
I've got one k22 Masterpiece but few differences in mine and these. On the right side in front of the trigger guard it say only "made in USA". The trigger is steel and not that white color. Don't have a model number anywhere. I asked about it on the S&W web and they told me it was a K22 masterpiece but that was it. Pretty low serial number 52,937. I have a mod 17 in 32 long and where the model number is is where the serial number is on this 22. They'd told me when it was made but I forget. They said it was worth about $2500. It is really a very nice gun but my H&R HD Military will out shoot it.
Neat! I got it's older brother. A S&W M&P that was turned into a target rimfire revolver by Parker Hale. It is a very smooth gun and easy to shoot well, thanks to its excellent sights.
I just bought this 1960 made 17, the K-22 Masterpiece
It has honest wear, scars, German proof marks and a patina to it. I’ll use it as a shooter, bought it for $ 530.
Beautiful gun right there, and snagged at a great price too. Congrats.
In fact, the OP's first pic displays all you need see: Old School revolver beauty in its natural state ... UNmarred by any horrific looking Hillary Hole!