Zaydok Allen
Member
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2011
- Messages
- 13,274
Hi all,
One of my very favorite revolvers (686+) has a minor issue. When I bought the gun everything checked out ok, but obviously I missed this one item.
The barrel is slightly canted to the left. Yes, I bought it during those years. I mean slightly as in 1 or 2 degrees. A casual shooter or gun buyer would likely not even notice. With my current experience level I'd say I would likely notice but I bought this gun 5 or 6 years ago, so not true back then. The only reason I even noticed is I was looking really close when cleaning it, and I saw that the ribbing on the top of the barrel does not line up exactly with the lines of the rear sight.
I noticed this issue after the first cleaning but didn't worry because it seemed minor, and I didn't want to mess with an otherwise great gun. This revolver just works for me. Everyone has a gun they just pick up, point in the general direction of what you want to hit, pull the trigger, and bang, it hits where you want. This is the revolver that does that for me, and I carry it frequently for that reason.
I am aware also of the slight cant and can see it in the front sight when shooting, because of course you are leveling the front sight with the rear blade. So it eats at me.
So I ask if we could refrain from the "It's an accurate gun, just shoot it and don't worry!" comments, because I'm not asking if I should have the issue corrected. I'd also like to skip past any "S&W's quality is garbage now and I'll only buy pre-lock guns." comments too. Those comments aren't helpful or relevant.
What I'm asking is if I wanted it fixed, is that something a gun smith could do easily, if I found a smith to do it? I mean is it a matter of throwing a barrel wrench on and torqueing it the 1 or 2 degrees? I know S&W one piece barrels are "crush fit" to the frame, so maybe this is a rebarrel fix.
So to be clear, if you are looking at the top of the gun, with the barrel facing away from you, I'm saying the barrel is slightly canted to the left, meaning the front sight leans left ever so slightly, and it is pointing at 11:59 and a half if you compare it to the face of a clock. But I'm not sure which direction the barrel is threaded, so I don't know if it's over or under torqued. It seems based on the orientation of the ejector rod shroud it would be under torqued.
Since the gun operates perfectly and shoots straight, I would anticipate S&W would tell me it's within spec and I'd just be sending my gun on an expensive air travel adventure. But I have not contacted them about it. I wanted some opinions here first.
Thoughts?
One of my very favorite revolvers (686+) has a minor issue. When I bought the gun everything checked out ok, but obviously I missed this one item.
The barrel is slightly canted to the left. Yes, I bought it during those years. I mean slightly as in 1 or 2 degrees. A casual shooter or gun buyer would likely not even notice. With my current experience level I'd say I would likely notice but I bought this gun 5 or 6 years ago, so not true back then. The only reason I even noticed is I was looking really close when cleaning it, and I saw that the ribbing on the top of the barrel does not line up exactly with the lines of the rear sight.
I noticed this issue after the first cleaning but didn't worry because it seemed minor, and I didn't want to mess with an otherwise great gun. This revolver just works for me. Everyone has a gun they just pick up, point in the general direction of what you want to hit, pull the trigger, and bang, it hits where you want. This is the revolver that does that for me, and I carry it frequently for that reason.
I am aware also of the slight cant and can see it in the front sight when shooting, because of course you are leveling the front sight with the rear blade. So it eats at me.
So I ask if we could refrain from the "It's an accurate gun, just shoot it and don't worry!" comments, because I'm not asking if I should have the issue corrected. I'd also like to skip past any "S&W's quality is garbage now and I'll only buy pre-lock guns." comments too. Those comments aren't helpful or relevant.
What I'm asking is if I wanted it fixed, is that something a gun smith could do easily, if I found a smith to do it? I mean is it a matter of throwing a barrel wrench on and torqueing it the 1 or 2 degrees? I know S&W one piece barrels are "crush fit" to the frame, so maybe this is a rebarrel fix.
So to be clear, if you are looking at the top of the gun, with the barrel facing away from you, I'm saying the barrel is slightly canted to the left, meaning the front sight leans left ever so slightly, and it is pointing at 11:59 and a half if you compare it to the face of a clock. But I'm not sure which direction the barrel is threaded, so I don't know if it's over or under torqued. It seems based on the orientation of the ejector rod shroud it would be under torqued.
Since the gun operates perfectly and shoots straight, I would anticipate S&W would tell me it's within spec and I'd just be sending my gun on an expensive air travel adventure. But I have not contacted them about it. I wanted some opinions here first.
Thoughts?
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