Confederate
Member
On another thread, the 686 recall came up, and I wondered how many of you with no-dash 681/581s and 686/586s ever bothered sending them back to the factory, and if any of you actually experienced the cylinder binding that was supposed to pop up in these guns? The reason I ask is that I have a no-dash I've never fired, and I wondered how prevalent the problem was?
Back in the 80s, when I was in Paducah, Ky., we had some officers that had front sights wearing down quickly, and it turned out that S&W (as hard to believe as this might be for you true believers to fathom) hadn't quite watched its stainless steel quality control for a batch of their 681s. So their holsters were wearing down their front sights! S&W fixed the problem by paying more attention to its quality control. It also started pinning steel front sight pins on! I hope that wasn't part of the fix.
Anyway, I love my 686. But I never shot it. Got a second one in a trade. Never shot it, either. But the second one had an internal firing pin, so it was never subject to the recall. But in all the 4-inchers, 681s and 686s (no-dash), I never heard of any cylinder binding. So now I wondered if any of you had problems with cylinder binding with .357 ammo? In fact, have you ever had any problems with your 686s, period? Except for those 681s, those are the only defects I was ever aware of. Yet officers were firing their 681 and 686 no-dash guns double action and there were no binding problems at all. In fact, once the springs were replaced, I liked their actions much better than any Colt action I've ever seen, including the great Python.
So how about you?
Back in the 80s, when I was in Paducah, Ky., we had some officers that had front sights wearing down quickly, and it turned out that S&W (as hard to believe as this might be for you true believers to fathom) hadn't quite watched its stainless steel quality control for a batch of their 681s. So their holsters were wearing down their front sights! S&W fixed the problem by paying more attention to its quality control. It also started pinning steel front sight pins on! I hope that wasn't part of the fix.
Anyway, I love my 686. But I never shot it. Got a second one in a trade. Never shot it, either. But the second one had an internal firing pin, so it was never subject to the recall. But in all the 4-inchers, 681s and 686s (no-dash), I never heard of any cylinder binding. So now I wondered if any of you had problems with cylinder binding with .357 ammo? In fact, have you ever had any problems with your 686s, period? Except for those 681s, those are the only defects I was ever aware of. Yet officers were firing their 681 and 686 no-dash guns double action and there were no binding problems at all. In fact, once the springs were replaced, I liked their actions much better than any Colt action I've ever seen, including the great Python.
So how about you?