Peculiar 686-3", with pictures

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Kestrel

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I have a peculiar (to me) S&W 686. It has a 3" barrel, frosted stainless finish, round butt and Uncle Mike's boot grips. It also has the firing pin on the hammer, a smooth trigger and black sights. It has what appears to be proof marks from another country, but I don't know what they are. The side plate has ".357 Security Special" engraved in it. I called S&W and they told me the date of manufacture and that it was sold to a foreign country, but he didn't know which. Does anyone know anything about these marks or this gun?

(Sorry for posting so many pictures.)

Thanks for any help,
Steve

Left side...
 
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Shot of the bottom of the ejector shroud.
 
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Inside the crane (I think it's called the crane?)
 
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The "Security Special" was available in Germany a while ago. I distinctly remember it from a German Kettner catalog. Kettner is one of the bog gun dealers/distributors, catering to the hunting market.

The underside of the shroud is stamped "WISCHO", which is a German hunting and sporting arms importer.

The model marking is CS-3, which is the Customs Service run made for the U.S. Customs service. it looks like they made an overrun of the CS-3 686s for the export market. A CS-3 variant is very high on my list of desirable carry guns.
 
And the last picture - shroud again.

Sorry for all the pictures...
 
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I don't like the gaudy ".357 Security Special" engraving on the side. I don't know why that was done. I don't even know why I got it - I guess I'll either use it as a beater gun/car gun or maybe get rid of it.

Thanks,
Steve
 
We can work something out

Steve,
If you are serious about getting rid of that revolver, I'd like to discuss a purchase or trade with you. I've got a 3" M686 CS-1 that looks identical except for the engraving on the sideplate. Please let me know if you are interested.
You can email me at [email protected]

Tx
D-F
 
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ditzel,

What does CS-3 and CS-1 mean? What do the proof marks mean? I'm not sure about selling it, but I'll consider it and let you know. I was definitely not looking for a sale with this posting - I've just never seen these kind of markings on a Smith, before.

Steve
 
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CS-1 & CS-3 markings

The CS-1 marking was originally used on M686 revolvers that were ordered by the US Customs Service, and stands for "Customs Service - Version 1". These guns were made in 3" and 4" barrel lengths with round butt gripframes. The Customs Service guns (about 7500) were all made in the CS-1 configurations, with many over-run guns sent out to US distributors. Just like other S&W revolvers, the evolution of this model had changes noted as engineering changes, and the CS-3 is such - a later version.
After the Customs Service orders were complete, this configuration was popular with Law Enforcement agencies and S&W would fill orders with same. The CS-3 marking is a later version that came along in around 1992 IIRC.
There apparently were some left over and these were used to fill orders for Wischo, which as noted is a German distributor. There are many such models that have been shipped to Wischo, many have laser etched names - I agree that they are kind of goofy. It would be interesting to know how this revolver got back into the US, since it was originally shopped out of the country. The markings on your revolver indicate proof marks made when the gun was originally received in Germany.
There have been many different 3" M686 production runs, I'm interested in that this model is one that I don't already have.
Tx
D-F
 
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ditzel,

That makes sense - thanks for the info. I'll let you know if I decide to sell it.

Thanks again,
Steve
 
ditzel-fritz,

Contact me via PM. (I tried to contact you, but you have it disabled.)

Thanks,
Steve
 
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