S&W 686 Plus...Experience & Opinions

[sw282]

dverna, l have been shooting, buying Smith&Wesson revolvers for almost 50 years.. Of the two New ones l've gotten in the past 5 years l have had ZERO problems. My 686 Competitor has almost 2000 rds thru it. My 629 Magnum Hunter has almost FIFTEEN THOUSAND rds under its belt.. 95% cast boolits thru both. l don't hotrod my guns...
As for S&W customer service, l have had some contact with them over the past few years. lts all been POSITIVE. My most recent encounter was with a TC Contender frame l got used from a fellow IHMSA shooter... l couldn't get a new 41mag barrel to fit properly. l called S&W CS. They sent a FEDEX guy to my house to pick the gun up. Came back the same way... Repair and shipping, all FREE.. Almost unbelievable because S&W didn't even make the Contender. They serviced it anyway because they bought TC a few years back.

0ne habit l have picked up in recent years when buying a NEW Smith is keeping a shot/load log.. Quite informative and revealing l might add. Enjoy your new 686 Smiths with confidence. Made by American Company doing the same thing continuously for 166 years

[Idaho45guy]

dverna, l have been shooting, buying Smith&Wesson revolvers for almost 50 years.. Of the two New ones l've gotten in the past 5 years l have had ZERO problems. My 686 Competitor has almost 2000 rds thru it. My 629 Magnum Hunter has almost FIFTEEN THOUSAND rds under its belt.. 95% cast boolits thru both. l don't hotrod my guns...
As for S&W customer service, l have had some contact with them over the past few years. lts all been POSITIVE. My most recent encounter was with a TC Contender frame l got used from a fellow IHMSA shooter... l couldn't get a new 41mag barrel to fit properly. l called S&W CS. They sent a FEDEX guy to my house to pick the gun up. Came back the same way... Repair and shipping, all FREE.. Almost unbelievable because S&W didn't even make the Contender. They serviced it anyway because they bought TC a few years back.

0ne habit l have picked up in recent years when buying a NEW Smith is keeping a shot/load log.. Quite informative and revealing l might add. Enjoy your new 686 Smiths with confidence. Made by American Company doing the same thing continuously for 166 years

You're lucky. Plenty of folks have gotten bad guns and crappy customer service.

I've bought two new S&W pistols in the past five years as well. Both had issues. Does that mean all S&W pistols are bad? No. The same way that just because both of yours were fine doesn't mean that all new S&W pistols are good.

[2shot]

More often that not it's the Indian and not the arrow. Over 40 years I have always gotten superb service and good products from S&W.

[dverna]

We are planning to shoot the pistols this weekend at an indoor range. My fiancé does not want to wait for Christmas....LOL

I found 150 rounds and loaded up another 300 .38 Spl. Reloading was interesting. I did not want to do a change over on the 1050, so I decided to use the old 550. I have only used it twice in the last 6 years and had a few issues to sort out. Darn thing would not feed primers, and of course I could not find the manual...but got it sorted out. It took about 30 minutes to set up the dies/measure, and just over an hour to load up 300. I got a bit better once the muscle memory kicked in. Most of the brass was old C-I-L Dominion cases from when I started shooting Bullseye over 45 years ago. I lived in Canada at the time and got 2000 of them, which was all I could afford as a college kid. I had one split neck out the batch I used today. Cannot imagine how many times those cases have been loaded! Brought back some good memories seeing those headstamps.

BTW, used 3.2 gr of Clays, Magma 130 gr RNFP bullets, and Tula primers I got for $16/1000 years ago. It is a light recoiling round to get the fiancé started with. Will work up in steps as she gets comfortable with the gun, but I expect most of our fun shooting will be done with lighter loads.

[Jtarm]

Ideally, you would get a pair of S&W model 66 revolvers but those are very hard to find these days. I tried for 5 months to find one before I bought the 686. Never have seen one in over 2 years now.
I found a model 19, but it was way too high priced. I will not pay more for a 19 that what I can get a new 686 for.
The 686 revolvers are great compromise.

You mean you can’t find a Model 66 locally?

There’s plenty in circulation and new ones leaving the mothership.

[Ia.redneck]

dverna, I bought a 5" 686 7 shot when the 3-5-7 series first came out. Its a wonderful revolver. I wish I was tech savvy enough to post pictures. I have a pic of a 10 shot group at 24yds on a 2" orange paster that has plenty of orange showing around that one ragged hole! It took some load development, and a scope,but it's EXTREMELY accurate. It's actually a hair more accurate than my model 52. Feel free to PM me for the load if you're interested. You are gonna love those revolvers. NONE of my 9mm's even come close.

[tazman]

You mean you can’t find a Model 66 locally?

There’s plenty in circulation and new ones leaving the mothership.

Correct. I like to put my hands on a gun I want to buy. I hate ordering online for firearms.
I spent about 5 months going to gun shops within 100 miles of where I live and all the local gun shows. Nothing.
I wanted one with a 6 inch barrel. The only thing that came up was a 4 inch and only one of those.
In the end, I bought a 686 and I am happy with it once I changed the grips.

[Jtarm]

Correct. I like to put my hands on a gun I want to buy. I hate ordering online for firearms.
I spent about 5 months going to gun shops within 100 miles of where I live and all the local gun shows. Nothing.
I wanted one with a 6 inch barrel. The only thing that came up was a 4 inch and only one of those.
In the end, I bought a 686 and I am happy with it once I changed the grips.

Yeah, no new 6” being made & I don’t remember the last time I saw one in an LGS.

I prefer K-frames.

[Idaho45guy]

More often that not it's the Indian and not the arrow. Over 40 years I have always gotten superb service and good products from S&W.

Yeah sure...

It was my fault that a 9mm Shield came with a bulge in the barrel...

Some people are ridiculous.

[2shot]

"Some people are ridiculous." Aint that the truth
Haters going to hate.

[Rodfac]

l have been shooting, buying Smith&Wesson revolvers for almost 50 years.. Of the two New ones l've gotten in the past 5 years l have had ZERO problems. My 686 Competitor has almost 2000 rds thru it. My 629 Magnum Hunter has almost FIFTEEN THOUSAND rds under its belt.. 95% cast boolits thru both. l don't hotrod my guns...
As for S&W customer service, l have had some contact with them over the past few years. lts all been POSITIVE. My most recent encounter was with a TC Contender frame l got used from a fellow IHMSA shooter... l couldn't get a new 41mag barrel to fit properly. l called S&W CS. They sent a FEDEX guy to my house to pick the gun up. Came back the same way... Repair and shipping, all FREE.. Almost unbelievable because S&W didn't even make the Contender. They serviced it anyway because they bought TC a few years back.

0ne habit l have picked up in recent years when buying a NEW Smith is keeping a shot/load log.. Quite informative and revealing l might add. Enjoy your new 686 Smiths with confidence. Made by American Company doing the same thing continuously for 166 years

My experience as well. I've owned S&W's for over 50 years now, and have NEVER paid for a repair. Here's the list...some of it from back when we wrote on "Big Chief" notebooks with a #2 pencil that was 3/8" in dia., when correspondence was necessary!!

1977 - M57, new, but with a small ding in the crown but shot 1-1/4" gps on demand...S&W changed the bbl., tuned the trigger in DA and SA mode and replaced the bbl. with a shorter 6" one that I liked better...No Charge

1978 - M25-2? in .45 Colt - oversized throats (0.458" with a 0.452" groove, remember this for those of you looking for an early pinned and recessed .45 Colt)...S&W said the cylinder was factory spec., then offered to exchange the gun for any model currently in production. I chose a 6" M29, and was happy ever more.

1992 - By 2015, on my wife's M36, we'd worn out the cylinder stop thing (that nubbin at the lower left hand edge of the frame)...S&W replaced the part at their expense and shipping and on a 23 yr old gun too.

2015 - A new M637 that would not fire after 4 rounds were expended...the 5th tied up the gun....a call brought a FEDEX label and Smith replaced the hand, hammer, cylinder, did a trigger job and returned it in less than a week and a half...on their dime too.

In the last 5 years, I've bought a 5" M629 that sports a Hillary Hole, but quickly found that it had superb accuracy...1-1/2" gps on demand with any 429421 look alike. Trigger gtg out of the box. Not as good as 30 years ago, but still good.

Also bought a two-piece bbl. - ball/yoke lockup - Hillary Holed M69...found it as accurate as any of my older Smiths, and a hellofa lot lighter...great packing gun for farm chores. No issues to date, and a very useful gun.

All said, I've had polite, helpful service from S&W's CS people, whether on the phone or in person over the years. Wish they'd not installed the HH lock, but in truth, I don't even notice it anymore, and the two-piece bbl. that the M69 sports, is visible only if you're looking in the wrong end of the piece! There are 15 Smiths in the safe at this moment, dating from the late '20's to current production, and I've sold or given away at least a half dozen others over the years, but aside from that M25-2 in .45 Colt, all have been keepers.

YMMV, but mine's been great over the years. Rod

[2shot]

Rod. Your experiences with S&W mirror mine for the last 40 years. Nothing but great service from S&W. Even on firearms that they no longer have parts for or service because of lack of parts they have been kind enough to let me know where I can purchase parts from private companies. S&W even directed me to where I could purchase center pins for older "K" frames. S&W no longer carried these center pins but did put me in contact with a person that makes them, something S&W didn't have to do.

2shot