Well, I had just put a new set of grips on my 629 and loaded it up and ran 6 rounds through it. When I went to open the cylinder the front latch was sticking and I had to use a lot of extra force on the crane to open it. After looking at my 686 and rubbing a file on the front of the ejector rod I tried it again and the same thing occurred. Then I realized something may have unscrewed and I started playing with it. I discovered the ejector rod had come loose and unscrewed a bit from the cylinder. Once I threaded it back (left hand thread) I closed the revolver and it locked up fine and opened normally. I took it out and fired a couple of cylinders worth of ammo and all seems to be good again! This is not something that has ever happened with the 686.