686 SSR for PPC?

M

melchloboo

New member
Hi,
I am looking for a revolver for 1) "nightstand duty" but also 2) decently accurate and otherwise appropriate for my local club's ppc once-a-month matches.

As to 1) it needs to a) make any factory primer go bang 100% reliably, not just soft Federals, b) it can wear crimson trace grips most of the time.

I don't know if I'll ever get as serious about PPC competition as I am conventional bullseye, if I do I'll get a more appropriate dedicated PPC gun. I look at this as a good compromise between a "friendly" competition and reliable defense gun, but not necessarily a "serious" competition gun.

But I'm open to any and all comments and opinions.
Thanks.

p.s. Someone suggested a used 4" model 19 might do the trick for a lot less, but I don't feel so confident in my revolver knowledge to separate the wheat from the chaff...
 
get a holster for your .45 wadcutter gun and use the money you save to get an 870 to lean against your nightstand. More and more guys are using auto's for PPC. I'm correct in assuming your referring to indoor PPC, right? If you really want a revolver, get a 6" Smith 586 or 686, just don't get the ported model, not legal.
 
Thanks for the reply. I ended up getting a PPC revolver off of gun broker. An old model 13 all set up for ppc. I hear what you're saying about semis, I prefer to stay with revolver. I will slowly look for a separate nightstand revolver.

I was trying to find 1 gun to do to many things, never works out.

As a side note, I recently dry-fired the ssr, was really not very impressed with the action. It did not seem very smooth at all.
 
I sent my 686 down to Sandy Garrett at Virginia Gunworks. I did a good amount of research before selecting him, and I was extremely happy with his work. Beautifull job and the trigger is superb. The only thing that a FEW people said was that they felt he was a bit expensive, I found him to be within a hundred or so of all the other QUALITY gunsmiths that specialize in PPC revolvers. Again I feel it was the best money I've spent on a gun in a while. And the expense could be easily justified by the extra's he didn't charge me for, polish the gun, test fire at distance and send the target, etc. plus he got the gun back to me within a few weeks. I sent him a gun with a good aftermarket barrel and multiple action problems from previous "work", cost me about 6 and change. not a problem since.
 
Mine was an old Bill Davis. There are a lot of PPC guns on gunbroker nowadays that seem like great bargains. There just isn't a big demand for them. I paid just a hundred or two more than the cost of the aristocrat rib, bull barrel and hogue grips on it.
 
I'd be very careful of what you buy in regards to a match gun of any type on gunbroker. No fault on gunbroker, but there are a lot of guys out there who liken themselves to gunsmiths because they took a weekend course somewhere, and now buy old guns, slap a barrel and trigger job on and sell them as match guns. Not that there aren't nice guns to be had, but I've found the number of backyard specials a bit scary. For example, as explained by Sandy at Virginia Gunworks, it's easy to twist the frame on a revolver when installing the barrel, and almost a certainty if your a backyarder with limited expierience, this leads to all sorts of other problems. My buddy bought a PPC gun from a local shop, "custom and ready to go", he's had nothing but problems because the guy who built it cobbled it together and reblued it to make it look pretty. He's wrapped up twice what I have in a professionally built gun trying to get his to function reliably, and mines still far better. Sounds like you got yourself a good bargain on a truely good gun though, nice job.
 
Agreed. Good revolver gunsmiths are a dying breed.

Only thing I can say about match guns on gunbroker is to ask a lot of questions and try to find out the history. My seller was honest that he was selling it on behalf of a friend who had probably put many thousand rounds through the gun and had been using it for PPC. He answered all my questions, told me all the warts. In my experience those are the best guns, guns that are being used and maintained. There will always be minor things, but I am looking for shooters not safe queens.

If they can't or won't answer questions about the history, I am not interested even if they have good seller history comments.
 
Sure, I pretty much agree. I generally don't believe people who I don't know though. It's really easy to say that "this was only worked on by the famous gunsmith so and so..." but with out proper documentation I rarely believe them. My own father (who is a very honest person) will swear to you the bulls eye guns we shoot are from so and so...but further inspection reveals that it just isn't the case. I think things get twisted over time, especially long periods about how good, or who did what. Also, technology and the methods to improve the guns change. The .45's I mentioned were not shooting as well as they did in years past down at Perry, I took mine to one of gunsmiths on comercial row and he took it apart and said it was a very nice job, but very old and in need of some work. He mentioned the methods used (something with silver solder in the springs?) and said they were cutting edge in their time, but now it's just not used. But ask my dad and he'll tell you they are finely tuned cutting edge weapons. But again, you can get a really nice gun from somebody that put alot of rounds through it and may just need a minor going through. Especially a PPC gun since the rounds are so easy on the gun.
 
I'd be very careful of what you buy in regards to a match gun of any type on gunbroker.
Click to expand...

That's true, especially if they're built from a stock gun.

You'll often see old Bullseye pistols listed on GB, but I wouldn't bother with these unless I had the opportunity to inspect the gun. Some of the earlier methods of accurizing are difficult to restore/repair if the pistol has loosened. And some of these guns are very temperamental.

I've actually had good luck picking-up 2nd hand PPC revolvers. They sell for a song and are very accurate and enjoyable to shoot if they're built and tuned properly. It's my impression that PPC is on its last legs as a sport.
 
I feel that in a few years PPC and Bullseye will make a comeback. All it takes is for the yuppies to get into it and away we go.
 
I hate to admit it, but I fear the worst for PPC and bullseye. My two favorite shooting sports. I think all the action pistol shooting sealed PPC's fate, and I have to admit the action pistol stuff is more realistic. Bullseye is just plain HARD. I think new shooters get turned off when they can't hit the target consistantly, and it's just not that hard to hit a shoe box 20 feet away; they just do it slower. I do think bullseye will be around for a long time though, all the precision shooters will keep it alive because it is difficult and a good measure of skill; and different than all the combat/action stuff.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top