[Penforhire]

Hello, I have a dumb newbie-type question about my newly acquired 4" seven shot 686. I am extremely conversant with how pistols (automatics) work but there is a design feature on the 686 I do not fully understand. It may be common to revolvers, never having handled them previously (go easy, my Colt series 70 was always enough for me).

The rear center of the cylinder has a spring-loaded pin that engages a hole in the frame when it is closed. I see the frame has sort of a "guide lip" that ramps this pin into the compressed position. Playing around with snap caps I also see that guide has a broad enough slope that if I tilt the gun up the cartridges slip in and out of the individual cylinders as I pull the trigger. At the moment I cannot detect any binding of the snap caps, they gracefully slide back and forth. I haven't been to the range to see if real ammo does this (not exactly a try-it-at-home sort of thing).

I would think that whole pin-ramp feature could be made so narrow that the cartridges never "see" it. Seems to me this is a binding problem waiting to happen.

What am I missing ?

As a long-time lurker on TFL and THR, this question drove me to register and so, here I am. My other 'rides' are that old Colt series 70, a Walther P99, and a Remington 870 Express.

[ChristopherG]

Yup, snormal. Won't ever cause you problem one.
CG

PS--welcome to the vocal minority, and to your 686+. It's a fantastic gun. Learn how to shoot it and see if you don't suddenly understand what all those old wheel-gun nuts were going on about all this time ;)

[Archie]

Yes, the unfired cartridges do move back and forth a bit.

In many, many years of shooting S&W revolvers, this has never been a problem.

[stans]

This is normal and not a problem, unless you are shooting way over pressure loads.

[Penforhire]

Thank you all for the replies. I've since run as much as 98 rounds downrange, varied loads including plenty of cheap stuff, at a time without cleaning it. Worked like a champ.

And the Cor-Bon 357 Mag loads were as powerful as I would ever want to shoot through it. No malfuctions other than in between my ears. I don't like the double-action trigger as much as on my P99 auto, very hard pull. Weird how the gun rotates slightly in my hand with those loads no matter how I grip it.

I'm thinking I'll stick to +p 38 Sp. SXT's for defense loads but those Cor-Bon's sure were 'hot' and shot accurately.