New to me 686 Plus

M

m&p45acp10+1

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I stopped into the local gun store to pick up a 100 primers to hold me over until I take a trip to the farther away place that I buy my supplies in bulk at. The reloading stuff is in a nook in the back of the store. To get to the stuff you have to pass by all the display cases with a revolver case looking you dead in the face to go into the door of the reloading room.

They keep the primers in a locked case so I had to wait for someone to open the case. I was killing time looking at the revolvers. I see something that was not there last time I was in. It was stainless, had black grips. A tag that said "686 Plus 7 shot .357 Mag. The price was fair." The guy with the keys to the primer case arrived, and I told him he might as well get the keys to the revolver case as well.

One FFL4473 and a few minutes later I am walking out the store with it. Very happily I might add. $700 netted me a like new in box (Owner fired one box of .38 Special trough it. Then put it away to be forgotten about.) He put it out on consignment at a sell it quick price. They threw in a can of HP38, and 200 primers as well.
 
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I am happy with it. I put some rounds through it on Saturday. My wife liked ahooting it with my litht .38 special hand loads.

I put some full power magnums out it, and recoil was manageable. So now my model 28 Highway Patrolman has a friend to keep it company. As Bob Ross used to say "everbody needs a friend."
 
Well I had 3 trips to the range where a problem of light strikes kept happening. There was no rhyme, or reasoning to it. Some would fire. Some would take 2 or 3 strikes. This was with factory ammo, and my own reloads. It was more so with my reloads, and I double checked my priming operations. I even broke out my hand primer to see if some rounds needed a snugging up. Well none seemed to.


After a bit of searching I found out about the strain screw problem. I also saw something about the two piece grips being too tight. Well The grip screw was so tight I was afraid of stripping it out. It did at last come loose. Just as sure as the sun rises in the East the strain screw was finger tight and 4 or 5 turns loose. The local gun smith said to me to make sure to not over tighten the grip it somehow did something that would make the strain screw back out.

I am going to test it out today after my wife and I go to church. I hope the fix works.
 
Well it went from 5 to 7 unfired on the first strike to now it is just primer picky. I will send it to the local smith. If it is some minor adjustments and nothing requiring ordered parts he does not charge me. I give him jars of my pepper jelly and napalm hot sauce.

It light strikes some. Then sometimes it fires every round. Factory ammo I only had 1 out 50 light strike. Some of my magnum primer reloads took 2 or 3 strikes to light off. Some would not go at all. So for me that means it is going to get looked at by a reputable smith. I am happy with my purchase and know it is not an unfixable problem.
 
Could be that the previous owner did a trigger job and the springs used to lightened the trigger pull are the culprit. If no trigger job tighten the strain screw. That should take care of the problem.
 
When you get the Trigger really light they will only fire Federal Primers reliably.
My guess would be a trigger job also.

If you need a Stock Main Spring give me a yell. I should have a few around.

Bob
 
I picked up a used 2 1/2" 686+ earlier this year, the fired casing envelope was dated 2002.

It's been fired 345 times since, with no light strikes. That was SA and DA.

The first time I cleaned it I noticed that the strain screw was backed out about 1 1/2 turns. I try to keep it close to that setting by lightly snugging the screw and then backing it out three 1/2-turns.

Switching to a 13# rebound spring made DA very easy. I prefer the feel/sound of cocking it SA with the OEM spring, it's musical, but am using the 13# spring for now.

I don't see how over tightening the grip screw would affect the strain screw (maybe it does), but I can see how it could cause flexible grips to drag on the mainspring, and maybe lead to light strikes. I would think you could put a few small pieces of tape on the insides of the grips, tighten screw, dry fire DA a few times, remove grips, and check to see if the tape shows signs of contact with the mainspring.
 

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Seeing that picture makes me think the grip screw could be interfering with the leaf spring. I will have to check it out when I get home.
 
Call S&W service...they'll probably make it good on their dime. I've had good luck with them over the years.

Too, I'd check that the firing pin hole in the frame has no obstructions or grease, not likely but possible. And I'll add, that no S&W I've ever owned has had a light strike problem and should fire ANY primer you load with. The strain screw should be fully tightened BTW.

It does sound like the previous owner Bubba tinkered with the lockwork. I'd set it back up as S&W manuf'd it.

Rod
 
Could be the previous owner messed with it until it stopped firing reliable and dumped it off. I also vote to contact S&W and send it back to them, most of the time they will make it right for free and send a shipping label. I would wait until after the holidays to send it back, to many packages going around this time of the year. Good luck with your new addition.
 
One must register the gun with S&W for the warranty to be valid. I did it years ago with my M&P. I should get it back from the local smith some time this coming week.
 
I am glad to hear that you had yours worked on at no cost. If the trip to the smith does not cure the problem this one has I will be contacting them for a shipping label. The smith is only charging me $20 to check it out. I sent along 2 boxes of ammo to test it with, so I will know it is working right when I get it back. He told me if any parts are needed that he will contact me to see if I want to pay for them, or try to send the gun back to the factory to get it fixed. He said that he would get to it on Tues, or Wed. as he has quite a few things in front of mine in the line.
 
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