need info on a s&W 686

[jballs918]

ok guys as alot fo you know i have a ton of 38 shells. but no gun for them. well i was going to get a 1894c. well i decided against that. well my question is, are the 686 sw cast friendly. im not sure what kind of barrel grooving they use. also how are the triggers on these. this gun will be a range and home defense weapon, no ccw. i found one for 375 used with a 6inch barrel. is this a fair deal

[Rod B]

My 4" S&W 686 Is almost as accurate as my 6" S&W K38 & it shoots cast wadcutters with incredible accuracy.:mrgreen:

In regards to the trigger. Mine wasn't too bad out of the box. I installed a Wolfe rebound spring & now its great. If the gun is in good condition I would think $375.00 is a helluva deal.

You won't be disappointed with the 686.

Rod.

[klausg]

I shoot a 4" 586 with no problems with cast, my partner just bought a 4" 686 this weekend and was shooting fine with my cast loads, he hasn't called me to complain about my rounds leading his barrel yet, so I guess he had no problems in that arena. As far as price goes, that is a fair price, not great, but not bad; of course condition is everything. Good luck with it.

-Klaus

[Bucks Owin]

My Combat Magnum likes cast boolits ok. (6" M-19) Make sure your boolits fit the bore though. Mine likes .358" better than .357"....

Dennis

[bobthenailer]

i have had 2 686 for over 10 years , and all i shoot are lead bullets with no problems ,with at least 30,000 rounds between them . for a better trigger pull i have installed a wilson spring kit in all of my S&W revolvers and about 20 spring kits in other peoples S&W revolvers with complete satisfaction.

[Bret4207]

Great guns if they're new enough to have had the firing pin bushing fix that was a problem maybe 18-19 years ago. Won't be an issue with 38's unless you go up into +P+/38-44 territory. I think the issue was just staking the bushing better. I know we had to turn in all our 681's to have something done there. I never had a problem in mine but the idea was that the bushing was working loose and tieing the cylinder up.

My 681 (the fixed sight version) was great with 358156 and a bunch of 2400. Didn't do so well with 125 gr gilded stuff. The triggers are fairly easy to smooth and even easier if you have a competent gunnysmith around your area. My only other issue with them is that darn silver color they come in. Gunz is soopozed to be bloo!

[Dale53]

I have a 4" S&W 686 (Treasury model over run) I bought many years ago. The Treasury model is a round butt bead blasted model with full underlug barrel. It is one of the most "User Friendly" revolvers that I have ever had. I immediately installed a pair of Packmayr round butt rubber grips and have shot it a LOT. I have only used cast bullets except for a couple of "check fires" to see where it hits with 140 HP's.

It is cast friendly and extremely accurate (under an 1" at 25 yards off the Ransom Rest). I did an action smoothing job and it is now VERY smooth and totally reliable.

I consider it one of the best models of .357 Mags ever. I really ought to get a 6" to go with it.

Dale53

[versifier]

I have one with the 8 3/8" barrel that I have had 15? years, a long time anyway. It hates light bullets/boolits, but does fine with anything over 140gr. Accuracy is acceptable with .38spec cases but noticably better with mag cases. It is set up with Pachmeyer Grippers and a 2X Leupold EER scope. I'm working up some 100yd loads for it now.