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PSA: $650 Clearance sale on S&W 686's


That's what I was thinking. I know Lipsey's is coming out with a no lock 686 Mountain Gun, but I hadn't heard if S&W was finally dropping the lock. Sure, you can remove it or ignore it, but it's just stupid and unnecessary. If S&W did finally drop the locks, I'd go on a revolver buying spree.
 
Lol, the no lock's are going to murder the price of S&W revolvers manufactured for the last two decades. I saw an interesting stat that revolver sales in the US are increasing but S&W is in third place in sales. Behind Ruger and Taurus. Wonder if this changes that.
Smith's problems with the revolver sales are they're not price competitive with Taurus and don't have the "tank" moniker that Ruger's have. Oddballs like those who frequent gun forums may love all the classics that S&W is doing lately, but the average gun buyer who buys a revolver is looking for a small frame snub and we know Taurus wins on price, but I suspect that the LCR's trigger is winning buyers over compared to the J frame.

I don't think locks and Hilary Holes are causing people to buy other options.
 
Noted that the photo doesn’t show the side with the hole

S&W switched to showing the non-lock side years ago. I'm immediately suspicious when the product photo shows that side of the gun. The older ones with no locks show the side with the cylinder release. Some people will angle the photo to obscure the lock when selling used guns. I will not buy one without a clear photo of that area.
 
Smith's problems with the revolver sales are they're not price competitive with Taurus and don't have the "tank" moniker that Ruger's have. Oddballs like those who frequent gun forums may love all the classics that S&W is doing lately, but the average gun buyer who buys a revolver is looking for a small frame snub and we know Taurus wins on price, but I suspect that the LCR's trigger is winning buyers over compared to the J frame.

I don't think locks and Hilary Holes are causing people to buy other options.

The budget buyer or new gun owner may not know about internal locks, but if they did, they might think twice. One can get used or new no-lock J-frames fairly easily. Some Taurus revolvers also have locks. I'm not sure about the older ones. I'm glad Ruger did not jump on the lock bandwagon with S&W and Taurus.

I don't want a lock on my life-saving device that can fail at the worst moment. Short of SAO guns like the 1911, I'm not even a fan of manual safeties on semi-auto handguns. The fewer things that can go wrong in a potentially life-saving moment in a fraction of a second, the better.
 
Lol, the no lock's are going to murder the price of S&W revolvers manufactured for the last two decades. I saw an interesting stat that revolver sales in the US are increasing but S&W is in third place in sales. Behind Ruger and Taurus. Wonder if this changes that.
Without revisiting the politics around the Hillary hole, they should have dumped that garbage two years after it was introduced. It was useless in any measurement almost immediately.

I like, shoot, own, and carry S&W revolvers. When Im shopping it’s the first thing I look for and it is a hard pass when a gun has one. The gun would have to be free.
 
Glad I sold my 686+ and 586 with the hole awhile back for decent money. It was not the lock that bothered me, it was the out of the box trigger compared to the new Colts out of the box. Just a matter of preference. I do have a couple of older S&W no locks I'll keep...
 
Since I don’t carry a revolver anymore, although I do occasionally carry my 640 in .38, when I buy a revolver it’s for pride of ownership, and no firing pin in the hammer and especially the lock in the frame, don’t inspire that pride of ownership. They may work just fine, but since they’re only getting shot at the range occasionally, I’m not dropping $700 for a revolver with the lock. I can deal with the frame mounted firing pin, but the lock just ruins the appearance of the revolver for me.

And the pictures not showing the lock is always a sign the gun has one.
 
Since I don’t carry a revolver anymore, although I do occasionally carry my 640 in .38, when I buy a revolver it’s for pride of ownership, and no firing pin in the hammer and especially the lock in the frame, don’t inspire that pride of ownership. They may work just fine, but since they’re only getting shot at the range occasionally, I’m not dropping $700 for a revolver with the lock. I can deal with the frame mounted firing pin, but the lock just ruins the appearance of the revolver for me.

And the pictures not showing the lock is always a sign the gun has one.
 
I for one could care less about the lock, especially after the way my 586-8 shoots

Same. I'm not a collector, and my primary match gun was a 4" 686-6. After about 80K rounds of rapid DA shooting and thousands of speedloader reloads on the clock, it still functioned perfectly. I relegated it to backup status only when I stumbled on another minty & low-mileage 4" 686-5. I agree it's an unnecessary part that could theoretically fail, so all else equal, I'd take the pre-lock -5 variant over the -6, but compared to some of the other and real S&W QA/QC issues to look out for, The Lock is pretty low on the list for me if I were looking for a shooter.
 
Lol, the no lock's are going to murder the price of S&W revolvers manufactured for the last two decades.

Since I would love to pick up some cheap Hillary specials, that would be fine by me. The lock is very easily removed anyway.

Here's hoping the cost of lock era mountain guns and 69's falls dramatically so I can buy them!
 
The budget buyer or new gun owner may not know about internal locks, but if they did, they might think twice. One can get used or new no-lock J-frames fairly easily. Some Taurus revolvers also have locks. I'm not sure about the older ones. I'm glad Ruger did not jump on the lock bandwagon with S&W and Taurus.

I don't want a lock on my life-saving device that can fail at the worst moment. Short of SAO guns like the 1911, I'm not even a fan of manual safeties on semi-auto handguns. The fewer things that can go wrong in a potentially life-saving moment in a fraction of a second, the better.

That's the thing, I've been looking for a budget friendly, no-frills, US made, j-frame sized revolver for EDC when off duty. I even figured I would look into Charter Arms. When I saw what some of the classic used Smith J frames sold for on Gunbroker (with quite a few looking to be in decent shape), I abandoned research into anything else.
 
I bought mine around 1988 for 1/2 the price of that , but I wouldn’t buy that one if it was that price now .
 
A few weeks before I posted $650 deal, I paid $50 for a LNIB 686-3.
Would I still have done the same knowing the deal was coming?
Absolutely.
Just for the wood target grips, though there are a few other things about the older guns I prefer such as the roll marks, cylinder release, hard chromed trigger/hammer, and the separate cylinder stop.

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