SmallCaliberCentral

I found what was advertised as a new S&W 686 (no hypen) with a 4" barrel in .357 magnum. I did all the paperwork, sent the FFL copy to the seller and within a week I had my revolver at my FFL dealer. While the revolver does not appear to be brand new, it is in cherry shape, so I'm just going to bite my tongue and not complain. It is a .357 Combat Magnum with the red ramp front sight and the white outline adjustable rear sight. Real easy for my old eyes to see!!!



It has the Checkered Goncalo Alves Target grips with the old S&W monogram on the left side grip.



The trigger is described as a "Combat" trigger and it is reeeeeaaaaaallllll smooth. When I tried it in single-shot mode I thought I was squeezing the Jewell trigger on my Pac-Nor barreled .17 Remington. It is super nice!!! Someone must have done some work on that trigger. Here's a couple of side views of my new toy.





I purchased 50 rounds of 125 gr. JHP .38 Special ammo for practice and 50 rounds of Black Hills 125 gr. JHP .357 ammo for close combat with the cougars.

Thanks to all who made suggestions to my questions about what handgun to get for protection.

She looks like a nice little rig SF!! Congrats on the pick up!!

SF: Excellent choice! That revolver will not disapoint you. Get a good high-ride thumb break holster, add a set of Hogue Mono-Grip finger groove stocks, and you'll be even happier with the new piece.

The Hogue grips will dampen recoil, give better all weather gripping ability on the gun, be much more comfortable, and also not ding your rifle stock if ever carried on the same side as the handgun while slung. I've got either Pachmyr's or Hogue's on every S&W revolver I own, feeling they really complement each weapon.

A great practice/all purpose .357 load I've used over the years is the Lyman Keith 152 gr SWC (No. 358429) over 7.5grs of Unique in .357 cases. It will give you 1300+ fps out of that 4" barrel, be very accurate, not lead (use Lyman #2 alloy), moderate recoil, and make that barrel last literally forever. That bullet will give complete penetration on any kittie you'll ever encounter too. I've shot medium sized mule deer and had 100% penetration using it.

Congrats on the new piece, she's a nice 'un!

Can't you just see Silverfox out there, "Here kitty kitty kitty"?
Probably put out catnip and a dish of milk for bait.

Very nice. Back in the 80's I had a 686 like yours. Sometimes I wish I still had it. But I sold it to purchase the 30.06 I've now used these past 20 years, so I guess it was worth it.

AZ Hunter: Yeah, the list of guns "I wish I had not sold" is a long one here too. The trick as I see it, is to be able to keep the one you don't want to sell, AND have the new gun too! THAT, is the trick.

silverfox will be popping yotes with that new toy of his. glad to see you went the revolver route and didnt get the 9 mm.
Sportingtly
Cracker

Nice looking piece! Just don't go after the nieghborhood cats! Rick is correct about the houge grips, they will tame the recoil. Enjoy! Gary

hey silverfox
that s&w looks just like mine, but mine has a 6in barrel. i didn't get mine for protection from big kittys, but i just love shootin a revolver. i load and shoot a whole lot of 38's. mainly 158gr copper plated hollow points, with 3.8 grs. of titegroup. my load for the magnum is 15.0 grs. of 2400, over 158 gr jacketed hollow points, or 125 gr. jacketed hollow points. the load with titegroup does shoot a bit high at 25 yds, but its still a blast to shoot.
congrats silverfox

Silverfox, I hope you never have to use it. But if you do, I can't wait for the write-up and pics!

I carried the same type S&W 686 for several years as my duty gun. I had a pair of custom grips made to fit my hand (small), and they really made a difference in shooting. It was no doubt the most accurate duty gun I had during my career. It got me thru several "tough" situations, including arresting a man who just murdered his wife, and still had his gun in hand. When the "pucker factor" is high, it's nice to know that your gun is capable of a precision shot.
The 686 was replaced by a Glock Mdl 22, which I think was a step backward. The Glock had firepower, but lacked accuracy (about 3-4" group at 25 yds). The bright side, I got to buy my mdl 686 instead of trading it in, so it sits comfortably in my safe.
Those 686's are great guns.....enjoy!

The high-ride thumb break holster and a set of Hogue Mono-Grip finger groove stocks are on the way as I type this. I was out prairie dog shooting yesterday and fully intended to do some shooting with the .357 Mag, but ran out of time.

I love giving those prairie dogs a helicopter ride with my .204 Ruger. This first picture below is of one that was a peeker at about 30 to 40 yards away. All he would give me was the top of his head to his eye and a tiny bit of his front shoulder. It is difficult to tell yourself you have to shoot high on these shots, but I managed. The center of my scope is 1.6" above the center of the bore on my Savage 12VLP so the 25 yard shots hit about 7/10" low, while 50 yard shots are usually dead on my point of aim. This guy just got plumb destroyed from the base of the skull to way down along the spine.



This poor little fellow in the photo below was sitting about 75 yards away when I squeezed off the shot. I could see him through the scope as lift off began and he started to spin and fly to the left before he left my view in the scope. Since I keep my left eye open when I shoot, I was able to see him complete his little ride with my left eye. He only traveled about 6 feet into the air and about 15 feet to the left. He was rather twisted in the middle when I found him.



The Savage 12VLP in .204 Ruger is still a great shooter. I took 49 shots yesterday afternoon and had only 6 missed shots. I hate to admit it, but one of those misses was a 25 yard shot!! Yep, I missed low! Two other misses were caused by the bullets being deflected by sage brush branches that I could not see in the scope when I shot at the same two little prairie dogs that were lined up perfectly for a double. The bullet must have hit a twig on the sage brush and was deflected about 10 feel left of those two PDs. They sat right there while I jacked in another shell and squeezed off a second shot only to have it deflected too. I finally took a look down the side of the barrel and could see that the sage brush was in line with the barrel. I cranked the side focus knob so the sage brush was in focus and could see it clearly in the bottom half of the scope--BULLET DEFLECTION via SAGE BRUSH!!! Anyway, I got 38 singles and got doubles on 5 of my shots. I had 2 chances for triples, but could not find more than 2 dead PDs at either of those mounds. So, I got a total of 48 prairie dogs for my 49 shots with the .204 Ruger. Conditions were really nice. The temperature was about 67 degrees and the wind only about 5 mph at the peak until about 30 minutes before I quit shooting. The wind picked up to about 10 mph for the last half hour I was out there.

I had a little problem with my Pac-Nor barreled .17 Remington. My bullets were either disintegrating or tumbling and not making it to my target. Out of 37 shots at prairie dogs with my Danzac coated 27.8 gr. Hammett BTHP bullets, only 29 of them made it to the target and 8 were total flyers. Some of them were hitting 25 yards short and 25 to 40 yards left of the intended target. I'm going to do a barrel inspection after I get it cleaned to check the crown for damage. I don't think it is the bullets that are flawed because I shot about 500 of these as bare bullets and did not have any tumblers or any disintegrate. It is a puzzler to me. Here's one of the unlucky PDs that got a 27.8 gr. pill from 275 yards away before the bullets started heading willy nilly all over the place.

The little bullet made a very small entrance hole as you can see by the little red spot just to the right of the right front elbow:



However, the exit wound was a totally different story.



With the flyers hitting way off, I still hit 26 single prairie dogs and had one double for 27 confirmed kills with the 37 shots. If I can throw out the flyers, I'd have 27 PDs for 29 shots. It is time for me to head down to my reloading room and do the final barrel cleaning and inspect the crown on the .17 Remington.

Thanks again all you mentors. I really hope you enjoy making people spend money

Silverfox wrote:I really hope you enjoy making people spend money

silverfox, anytime you need help spending money, let me know. i am real good at spending other peoples money, and do a fair job spending my own too.

That's one nice looking S&W! Congrats!

Silverfox - that's a nice lookin' 686 you got there. I picked one up late last year and love it. I bought mine for defense from the two-legged critters.

I'm in the process of working up loads currently with mine. I am also going to get a set of meprolight adjustable night sights ordered in the next week or so for mine. I've found them for $68.

Here's a picture of mine!