bad karma smith 686-use or lose?

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Cut yourself and us some slack...

"Guns don't kill people, people kill people."

Gee, wonder where I heard that before?

To ascribe anything else to this situation is to play into the hands of the anti-gun crowd in a big way. Get the gun back to S&W and have it gone through, then carry it with pride!
 
the issue isn't whether there is something "wrong" with the gun. The issue is whether it bothers you. Why add to the stress in your life? If it bothers you, sell it. If it doesn't, keep it. There is nothing wrong with either choice. My guess is, it does bother you or you would not be asking the question...and there's nothing wrong with that. Just sell it.
 
The gun was built to shoot. When called upon, it did what it was made to do.

The cause and the results are the responsiblity of the shooter, not the gun.

Clean it up, shoot it, take care of it. Some day it may be called upon again, this time to take care of you and yours.
 
Sounds like a heck of a conversation piece! I'd have no issue with the gun...but if you do...I'd love to take it off your hands!...my 686 needs an experienced "safe buddy".

I have a nice looking Model 19 that might be right up your alley! Maybe we could work up a fair trade??


Bob
 
I'll cast in my support for selling if it bothers you.

We all know a gun is inanimate, but an inanimate object can still remind you of unpleasant things. I see it as being like getting rid of a painting that your ex-girlfriend gave you, just because the constant reminder of a negative relationship keeps dragging you down. There's no "evil ex-girlfriend vibes" emanating from the painting, but it still might bother you.

So long as you don't believe in metaphysical bad karma sticking to the gun, I see no problem with either telling the buyer its story or not telling the story. From what we see here on the board, it appears that some folks would prefer a piece with a "history".

If it bothers you, sell it. Why keep an object that bring up bad mental images?

-MV
 
686 karma

OK, I'me keeping it, at least for now. First, I am contacting S&W to have the timing checked, maybe the cylinder gap, maybe recrown the barrel, plus check the sideplate, in case needs a new one, the yoke, and put new sideplate screws in. Should be cheaper than a new one, anyway, and this one is one of the old, and I think better, ones. Heck, it still seems to cycle properly, but I have to possess maximum faith in any gun I own. Thanks, everyone, and I'll post pictures when she gets back.
 
Wow, going on 8 1/2 years...a few weeks ago I finally dug this out of secure storage and had a friend of mine, a certified S&W armorer, give it the go-over. Needed a new yoke screw, which he did, and pronounced it as good as new, functionally. Still has some bad scratches. Shot it with some .38 low-cost ammo--long time since I DA shot, Felt good, and after a few cylinders I was putting decent clusters at around 15 yards. TRigger was so smooth and ssweet. Going to put gripper professionals (I have somewhat small hands), either a new ramp insert and a white outline blade or a set of glow sights, get back in practice combat reloading, and put her back to work. Maybe find someone to get out the scratches-Know they don't matter but I just don't like them. Got about 250 to 230 round of federal c357b-try a cylinder or so of those next weekend.

It is somewhat strange to be shooting a wheelgun seriously again, after all this time. When I started out in law enforcement in the mid-80's, most everyone still carried them, and we would drill with snapcaps and speedloaders and such until it was second nature. Then, in around 1987, I went to a Beretta 92 with the special tactics team, and then I went into the narcotics unit for a state agency. We carried Glocks and Sigs, and I even had a P7 for a while, along with a Hi-Power and a Colt Gold Cup. I would use a SW 640 after it came out on assignments. Then, I went to an agency that issued drug agents a Glock 19 and pretty well stuck with it, with a 1911 off-duty. Have a 1991 1991 right now, but probably moving it-great gun, but if I can carry one this big I will take the 686. All those guns and years, and now back to pretty much where I started--my first duty gun was a SW 19, then the 686, then a GP100 after the 686 got stolen, then pretty much semiautos for decades.
 
People may not come from the dead, but threads apparently do.

As to the original question...
At a local Civil War reenactment, some of the muskets and most of the cannon are the real McCoy, and many (the cannon in particular) have their history very well known. They are known to have been fired in anger, with at least some chance of having killed someone. None of the reenactors admit to being bothered by this.
Ditto the WWI weapons some of us have.
Ditto the WWII weapons some of us have (the Jap rifle I hold was certainly used in combat, and if it killed anyone, they were on my team).
Ditto the... on down the line.

Perhaps it's the time lapse that makes some such weapons acceptable, and others not so much. I think your weapon would bother me somewhat, but that I would have it refurbished and keep it.
 
Glad you kept it

Consider polishing out the scratches and have it bead blasted. It will look great unless you like that mirror polished look.
 
If you dump the gun because of bad Karma, does that mean you'll dump the friend that allowed the gun to be stolen too? If those killed or the one pulling the trigger had no close ties to you, why would there be a "Karma" thing anyway? No different than the thousands of military surplus weapons folks use and collect. They too were instruments of death in the past.
 
Wouldn't think twice about it if I liked the gun. My M1, my Brazilizan contract 1917, Nagant 1895, maybe even my .38 M&P might have been used against people. It's not what was done with them in the past, it's what I'm doing with them now. I don't think that there is any residual bad juju on 'em. But that's just me.

If it bothers you, get rid of it. You're the one that has to live with it, or not.
 
Its a hunk of iron. Send it to S&W for full clean/polish/repair and enjoy shooting your freshly refurbished revolver. Its history is just that...history. Has no influence on the future.

Shoot it!

Mark
 
Have you ever wondered if your 686 had been involved in more than just the event you know about?

I had something similar happen. My Kimber Custom was stolen while in the hands of a moving and storage company. Years later, an LA county deputy pulled it out of the waistband of a gangbanger. The gun, magazine, and the ammo that the gangbanger was carrying at the time were later returned to me. I have wondered what it would tell if it could talk. We'll never know. It is an interesting history to recount to friends, though.

As an aside, I sent this gun to Kimber for some much-needed repairs, and included some information about its history. Their response was simply incredible (see http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=463680&highlight=kimber). That story is much more important to me than anything else I know about this gun.
 
Keep it. Send it to S&W and have it checked out. Guns have no soul.

On a side note, I would love to have the M19 my father used on the coke head with the stolen 1911 in 1976.

edit: just realized its a necrothread. Glad you kept it. Enjoy.
 
Karma is the wrong term. Karma is generally thought to be an aspect of creatures with moral agency.

In English Common Law and Christian law, the correct concept and term is Deodand.

If you're concerned about the history of your firearm from a Christian perspective, the proper thing to do is forfeit it to God.

But I'm just playing Devil's advocate here. I'm an unwashed, woolly bearded anarchist heathen. I'd keep it, and be mindful of how little separates us from the dark side.
 
I'd keep it. But then, I have an antique British service revolver that I bought for a song in Afghanistan. No actual stories came with it, but I can imagine that it has seen the elephant a time or two in the 140 years of its life, considering the violence of the area it spent most of that life in.
 
Guns do not shoot people. people shoot people. Keep it.

There's another side too. Look at all the gun's gone through to get back to you!
 
cwdotson said:
Wow, going on 8 1/2 years...a few weeks ago I finally dug this out of secure storage and had a friend of mine, a certified S&W armorer, give it the go-over......
Click to expand...
Glad to see you kept the 686.....I had one several years ago that I let a Buddy talk me out of, they are a nice piece.
I like the idea CZ223 has of getting it bead blasted.....I always liked the look of satin finished stainless better.
 
By the mid-80's S&W was using their "Triple-Alpha Four-Numeric" serial number system. They still use the same system today.

The s/n the OP listed in his first post, "64757", is likely incorrect. Look on the heel of the grip-frame for the correct s/n. It likely begins with an "A" or a "B", then two letters followed by four numbers.

If it was made prior to 1984 it might have been s/n'd on an older system - but that number would still be on the heel. The prior system used one Alpha character. The old system and the new system overlapped for a few years in the early 80's.
 
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