S&W 686 maintenance

GunGuy34 said:
They are awesome, I could shoot full .357 mag rounds double action and it felt like .38 special +P. I sold mine and regret it, have been looking for another ever since. DOH!

Plus the gold bead sight is so awesome, really stands out.
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And myself I've missed the boat on this cartridge with S&W revolvers. With the N frame I own them chambered in 38 & 44 Special, 44 Magnum and 45 ACP.

And one lonely K frame in 38.

My one and only single 357 is actually a Colt DA sixgun.
 
Gillis2 said:
So shooting my 686 and my 617 in double action wears the revolvers more than if I shoot them in single action? Is that true?

Gilbert
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No. Shooting any gun for that matter wears it out, it's a mechanical object that is subject to the laws of entropy. It's the rapid cycling of a revolver that prematurely wears out the lockup pin and cylinder notches. The cylinder is a rotating part whose rotation is "instantly" stopped when the next chamber comes into alignment with the bore. The slower the cylinder is rotated, the less force/impact is imparted on these lock/alignment components and of course with greater speed of movement the more violent this action becomes on these parts. Whether it is done single or double action is irrelevant as the end result is the same, it's the degree by which the force is increased that the action must arrest on lockup, that ultimately causes from normal to premature wear.
 
ryan said:
Assuming $25.00 per box of 50, at least, that would amount to $25000 spent on ammo. The revolver only cost a measly $1000 or so? Throw it away, get a new one.
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Or ship it to a gunsmith and get it fixed for like $100. Maybe a few hundred if it's truly battered.

My 686 has been through far in excess of 10,000 rounds (just thinking of boxes of bullets I've purchased) of .38 Special and a few thousand .357 Magnums. There is some peening noticeable on the cylinder but the gun still performs great despite getting cleaned maybe once every 500 rounds. Mine gets shot exclusively in fast double-action, and I couldn't even start to guess how many times it's been dry-fired.

I wouldn't worry about it. If you're a high-volume ICORE or metallic silhouette shooter, you might wear it out after many seasons, but then you already know guns wear out in time. If you're not, there's a good chance the arthritis in your hands will make it too hard to fire before you can manage to break it. I have a relative who's been blasting stiff .357s out of the same Model 586 since the 80s, and he's gone through more sights on the gun than parts for the gun itself.

Just my experience. Take the plunge and enjoy.
 
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