New S&W 686 pricing?

C

Ctrain

New member
Hey guys,

Looking at a 686, new, with all the stuff a new comes with. They have it marked at my local gun store for $740 I believe it was. I am new to guns, so am hesitant to buy used. I live in Washington State, Seattle area. Not sure about how this price looks for a new 686, but I have heard they are great guns, so the price did not surprise me. Anyone have some more info about these for me before I shoot myself in the foot and pay too much? Har har. Thanks for your help, everyone.
 
I've not priced them in a while. I paid approx $640 for mine 6 years ago from a LGS, so $16/year seems a reasonable 2.5% inflation.

You can buy one from Bud's for $655, so $740 sounds high, but once you include shipping and the FFL fee, you're not too far off $740.

BTW, is this 686 the 6- or 7-shot?
 
Budsgunshop.com is where he is talking about and its a good place to price check guns. They have free shipping so if its $655 + a transfer fee of around $25 that is way lower than $740 + tax. Take your local gun shop a quote from Buds and ask them if they want to match it or if you should just order from Buds. If they start telling you they can't match and you'll have to pay a transfer fee so the price isn't really that low, just remind them the transfer fee is lower than the tax so you are actually giving up a few dollars to buy it from them. Its possible they'll make more money off the transfer fee than price matching the gun though.
 
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i paid 685 for my 686Plus from buds 6"
after the transfer and all that hassel I was over well 700

now its for sale for 600 bucks however check your local shops if you have
to have a new one,me persoanlly prefer used older models now,which is why im selling mine
 
Anyone have some more info about these for me before I shoot myself in the foot and pay too much?
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The best advice I can give is to sack up, learn about revolvers, and spend between $500 and $600 for a used 686, pre-lock and pre-MIM, and we will be glad to help you where we can.

You'll end up with a better revolver and you will spend less dough to get it.
 
I agree with Sevens advice. You will get more gun for less money with a pre lock, pre MIM 686.

Read the "revolver check out" sticky at the top of the page. Lots of good info available for the person who is new to revolvers. Good luck! Regards 18DAI
 
a used 686, pre-lock and pre-MIM, and we will be glad to help you where we can.

You'll end up with a better revolver
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The OP specifically said he's looking to buy new.

Plus, I really hate adding to a thread veer, particularly when it's in the context of the hackneyed "old/new" debate, but since the OP's new when it comes to revos, I'll add my $0.02 for some balance: Don't sweat "new vs old", since "better" is very subjective. The newer guns may not have the fit and finish of the older ones, but they shoot every bit as good, maybe better. And functionally, the lock really is a non-issue.

FWIW, my MIM- and lock-infested 686 took me to the IDPA World Championships last September (where we did well, thank you very much), and I'll be using it this year at 2 National Championships. It's held up very well to the abuse of competitive action shooting, and it's still at least as accurate as my 1952 6" K-38 Masterpiece target revolver.
 
I hear you, MrB, but the OP stated specifically that he was new to guns and worried about a purchase. I figured that gave us license to discuss the matter. Lord help us when we can no longer discuss these things on a discussion forum.

FWIW, while your experience is interesting... it doesn't prove a whole lot. Tell us what ALL the other competitors are using in revolvers, and please leave out those who are sponsored by a manufacturer. Or better yet... that's probably as relevant as my comments & yours as well. ;)
 
Lord help us when we can no longer discuss these things on a discussion forum.
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Telling a new shooter that older S&W revos guns are categorically "better", as though it's an objective & established fact doesn't leave a lot of room for discussion, does it? I'll leave it to the OP to decide, but my head told me some balance was needed.

Tell us what ALL the other competitors are using in revolvers, and please leave out those who are sponsored by a manufacturer.
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There are only a handful of Smith-sponsored revo shooters. Beyond them, Smith still dominates at all levels by a wide margin. At local levels, you'll find newer and older S&Ws. At the higher levels, you'll find plenty of the newer ones. Most of the guys at the top don't care a whit about "new vs old". That ought to tell you something. They buy it, they tune it, and they just shoot *.

FWIW, I'm really no fan Lock & MIM fanboy. I do have older blued guns. But the newer ones are what they are, yet they shoot. As well as they older ones. And they tune well, hold up well, and are easy to repair if something does go amiss. And I haven't yet heard any Master-level competitive revolver shooter say otherwise, sponsored or not. ;)

* In the interest of full disclosure, I'll recognize that some USPSA shooters, myself included, have removed The Lock. It's generally a simple case of KISS, so in that regard, the hammer spur and the hammer block are often removed as well. In my case, I radically bobbed the hammer to the point where it wouldn't hold the locking flag. Once the locking flag's removed, The Lock is no longer "as designed", so prudence told me to take the rest of it out.
 
In areas with competing dealers and no weird state-level restrictions, a new 686 should run ~$700.

If you can find a good used one under $600, all the better. Keep an eye out for old K-Frame 66's as well.
 
I set to work looking for a 686 similar to the one that I have owned since it was new in 1989... mine is a 686-3. A buddy told me that he wanted one and when I asked him precisely what he was looking for, he told me that he wanted MINE.

That was certainly not going to happen, so that's when I started keeping a sharp eye open at gun shows for a pre-lock 686. I've seen prices between $500 and $600 for guns that I would absolutely have purchased if I were in the market. Sure, there were some over priced... and there were some beat up ones, too, neither of which I would have considered. (FWIW, last time I found one of these was an outdoor show on Labor Day weekend... and I found THREE of them)

But I'm in the definite habit of checking prices on pre-lock 686's and I know that if I look for it and pounce when I find it, I can definitely bring one home for under $600, no tax, no shipping and no FFL.

Given that I believe it's a better revolver (my opinion, of course), and it costs significantly less than a new one, that was my thought process here.

And my buddy who wanted MY 686? He bought a new GP-100 shortly thereafter. Seems to be a fine revolver. (I like my 686 more, but...) He later bought a new 686-plus from Bud's. This one is a nice revolver, but it's got a definite "hitch" in it's double action and in a different thread, I'd love to describe it and ask for opinions. But I wouldn't take this for my 686 if he included a lot of money in the deal.

For each of these, he paid more out the door than I can find a pre-lock 686-3 or earlier.

Would be quite difficult to convince me otherwise, but I do enjoy the discussion of it either way! I can't help but think that the chatter in our OP's thread isn't likely to be a bad thing... for him or for others who might be reading it.

I really don't think any of it is "off topic" or drifted any further than it naturally ought to. But then, I'm not a moderator. I'm simply an enthusiast with opinions! :D
 
On one gun I tried to give my local shop a $25 for the transfer, 10% extra to support them and ignored the 7% tax difference with Buds. They still can't compete. They even showed me their distributor page where they were paying slightly more than buds price for the gun. I suggested they order it from buds and resell it to me and take the 10% and they looked at me dumbfounded. They still got the transfer.

As far as pricing, a whole lot more than a GP100. I admit the 686s are a little smaller and the finish is nicer. I was considering a used one to carry.
 
Would be quite difficult to convince me otherwise, but I do enjoy the discussion of it either way! I can't help but think that the chatter in our OP's thread isn't likely to be a bad thing... for him or for others who might be reading it.

I really don't think any of it is "off topic" or drifted any further than it naturally ought to.
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Indeed. Thanks for the discussion, Sevens. I agree that one can certainly do well in the used market. I keep my eyes open too. But too many times, newer ones are characterized as complete junk, leaving a potentially impressionable reader the believe they only have recourse in the used market.

I agree, too, that I hope the OP finds value in this discussion. Otherwise, it's a highjacked thread :o
 
Oh man, thank you for all of the input. Appreciate hearing both sides of the argument, so thanks for that guys. But, I am afraid I do not really know too much about the lock and MIW (spelling?) thing with new 686s. By the way, it is a 686 6, not a 7. I saw a 7 online, but I read on the forum I believe that some competitions don't allow 7s, and that it takes a while to get used to shooting 7 shots instead of 6 or vice versa. Not saying that I am going to compete any time soon of course lol, but just for habit. I can be a habitual person so that extra round might screw me up haha...anyway. I have no problem with a used gun, but I had someone tell me not to buy used until I am knowledgeable. They said I might buy a gun without knowing the condition (I think it goes by percentage, right?), or buy a lemon, or things like that. So they thought I should just buck up and buy new so I don't have to worry about condition or buying something that is flawed without me knowing. I am all for buying a gun for less money, as I don't exactly have money flowing out of my pockets haha, but that is just what I have been told. Is that good advice or do people often buy used guns for their first handgun?
 
No no, definitely find all of this valuable. Learning a lot of new stuff here, so thank you for having this discussion guys
 
Others can flame me but I will state definitively that the old pre mim smith k and l frames have better triggers than new guns. And I have looked at a lot of them. They may "tune up" the same but then that is not quite the point is it? Many things can be "tuned up" big difference with what you get out of the box.

Frankly priced right a good used 686 pre lock / mim will be a better gun and rise in value where the new one will only fall.

Finding a good one is not that hard and learning to inspect a revolver us a good didactic exercise for any shooter.
 
Ah, hm...so you would recommend me to get a used 686? I am trying to find info about the pre-lock pre-mim stuff on these revolvers, but if you don't mind, think you could give me a bit of info about what difference this stuff makes? I see it all over the forum but am not too keen on the jargon as of yet. I did find the revolver buying tips that is stickied, so I am going to read that through so I can do this whenever I end up hopefully looking at a nice used 686.
 
"Pre Lock" means a revolver made before Saf-T-Hammer started installing internal key locks in S&W revolvers. That would be around 2000. There have been a couple of scattered reports of the locks causing malfunctions, but many of us see them as statistically irrelevant. The lock is, however, a bit on the unsightly side.

"MIM" stands for Metal Injection Molding, a casting process S&W uses to fabricate some parts, such as the trigger and hammer. MIM is a cost-cutting measure about which some opinions are divided. Again, I consider it a non-issue.

Nonetheless, revolvers without those two factors tend to fetch a bit of a premium. Is it worth it? To some.
 
Hm, so, based on that though, it doesn't sound as if they really should affect the firing of the weapon? Unless I am mistaken. It sounds from that as if it is more of an aesthetic thing than a functional thing?...again, I don't know much, that is just what I took from that description haha. Thank you for your help with those terms. I might try looking for a used one if the price is right, but if I can't find one I'll probably just end up going with a new 686. Let me know if I am mistaken between the new/old functionality stuff. Thanks again!
 
Have them throw in a box of ammo and try to get a good deal on a holster while your there. Its a great gun your going to like it.
 
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