The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - 1st it was the Rossi fail, then the Para FTFs, now the 686. I have bad gun juju

rock185 · February 19, 2014, 01:22 AM

TheFineLine, I've owned S&Ws, purchased new, since the '60s and had much more trouble with the 1970s guns not carrying up properly, than with the later guns. I have owned multiple 686s, 686+s, a 586 and one 686SSR with the lock. The 686SSR , and all the others timed up/carried up properly. I did wear out my 1972 vintage Model 66. It developed excess end shake, went out of time/didn't carry up, etc. This resulted in shaving jacket material, spitting lead and feeling like a slap in the face when firing .357 ammo. The way I check carry up on S&W revolvers is by cocking the hammer very slowly as far back as necessary, revolver UNLOADED of course, for the cylinder stop to drop into each notch. If it does, I check with empty cases to see if it will do the same. If it does not, repair is indicated IMHO. Cocking the gun more quickly will cause the cylinder to appear to carry up due to inertia carrying it to lock up. This seems to be "good enough" for some folks, but not for this old guy. While I've owned S&W 19s, 66s, 27s, a 28, a Colt, Rugers, etc, the L-Frame 686s have become my favorite .357s, and I've had very good results over a lot of years with this model...ymmv

February 19, 2014, 01:22 AM	#5
rock185 Senior Member Join Date: September 2, 2001 Location: Out West in Rim Country Posts: 1,091	TheFineLine, I've owned S&Ws, purchased new, since the '60s and had much more trouble with the 1970s guns not carrying up properly, than with the later guns. I have owned multiple 686s, 686+s, a 586 and one 686SSR with the lock. The 686SSR , and all the others timed up/carried up properly. I did wear out my 1972 vintage Model 66. It developed excess end shake, went out of time/didn't carry up, etc. This resulted in shaving jacket material, spitting lead and feeling like a slap in the face when firing .357 ammo. The way I check carry up on S&W revolvers is by cocking the hammer very slowly as far back as necessary, revolver UNLOADED of course, for the cylinder stop to drop into each notch. If it does, I check with empty cases to see if it will do the same. If it does not, repair is indicated IMHO. Cocking the gun more quickly will cause the cylinder to appear to carry up due to inertia carrying it to lock up. This seems to be "good enough" for some folks, but not for this old guy. While I've owned S&W 19s, 66s, 27s, a 28, a Colt, Rugers, etc, the L-Frame 686s have become my favorite .357s, and I've had very good results over a lot of years with this model...ymmv __________________ COTEP 640, NRA Life