s&w 686?

C

coolbreezy

New member
I was thinking of adding a new 357 to my stable and I leaning toward a s&w 686 in 4" flavor. I have a ruger gp100 in 6" that I love to death and would never part with it is unwieldly for ccw. My question is, does the extra round in the 686 plus sacrifice cylinder strength? I like to run hot loads through my revolvers. I know that the 6 hole 686 is plenty damn strong, but I'm unsure of the 7 hole 686 plus. Thanks in advance!
 
coolbreezy said:
s&w 686?
I was thinking of adding a new 357 to my stable and I leaning toward a s&w 686 in 4" flavor. I have a ruger gp100 in 6" that I love to death and would never part with it is unwieldly for ccw. My question is, does the extra round in the 686 plus sacrifice cylinder strength? I like to run hot loads through my revolvers. I know that the 6 hole 686 is plenty damn strong, but I'm unsure of the 7 hole 686 plus. Thanks in advance!
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It's a trade off. On the plus side, in a 5,7, or 9 shot revolver cylinder; the cylinder stop notches are between the chambers, in the thickest part of the cylinder. On the negative side, you have 7 chambers in the cylinder space of six. Thus, most likely; there is less steel between cylinder chambers.

Bottom line shoot whatever you wish in either revolver.
 
It depends on what you mean by "hot loads". If you stay with factory ammo from a reputable manufacturer or handloads within the published limits of a reputable reloading manual, then the 686+ is plenty strong enough. If, however, you mean handloads beyond the published limits of a reputable reloading manual, then you're probably better off with a gun such as the Freedom Arms 353 Casull, .357 Magnum Ruger Redhawk, large frame Ruger Blackhawk, or large frame Dan Wesson. That being said, I don't consider going beyond published maximums to be an advisable practice in most any .357 Magnum revolver.
 
You have it backwards my friend: the 686+ is actually a stronger design than the 686 standard six-shooter.

if you want maximum cylinder strength then you want a seven shot. I went through the same process as you and this is what I found:

1) The seven shot variant appears to have stronger cylinders than the six. On a six-shot, the bore-to-exterior wall thickness is thinner than the bore-to-bore wall thickness. The cylinder wall thickness is on average .092" between the bore and the exterior wall. (thickness between cylinders runs .118"). So the weaker of these two points on a 686 six shot is not the bore-to-bore wall thickness on the bore diameter circle. But this is still not "the weakest spot."

2) The cylinder stop slots on the six-shooter are directly above the chambers; the slots on the seven-shooter are BETWEEN the chambers. This means a 686 Plus has more metal between the chambers and the cylinder circumference than a 686.

3) With the six shot, the weak point is the machined cylinder stop notch in the cylinder wall. It is directly in-line with the cylinder bore for correct cylinder indexing. The cylinder notch on a six shot is machined to a depth of .047" below the exterior cylinder diameter. That leaves the minimum spot on a six-shot gun's cylinder wall as .045" (.092" - .047").

4) the seven shot is built on the same cylinder diameter. The exterior spacing to the cylinder outside diameter is unchanged (.092"). The interior spacing is reduced to fit another bore (.382") onto the same circle. That means .064" is cribbed from each inter-bore wall to get space. That leaves and inter-bore wall of .054" on a seven shot (1.18" - .064"). The cylinder walls on a seven shot are still thicker than the weakest wall point on a six shot.

5) The stop notch is not machined in-line with the bore on a seven-shot. It is offset and does not come into play in these calculations. The engineers built it this way for indexing, but also that it was at least as rugged as the 686 six-shot.

And that is that.

Here is my 686+. It is my favorite (and my wifes) gun that we own.

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@coolbreezy: I was thinking of adding a new 357 to my stable and I leaning toward a s&w 686 in 4" flavor. I have a ruger gp100 in 6" that I love to death and would never part with it is unwieldly for ccw.
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As others have noted, the 686P is a great gun (I have the 4-inch). If you're buying it for ccw, I'd pick the 3-inch over the 4-inch though.
 
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I chose the 686+ because I wanted the extra round and researched the 7 shot S&W and found no negatives based on cylinder strength. When you handle this gun you realize it is very sturdily built and I have every confidence it will last as long as I will, most likely longer!
 
If you're buying it for ccw, I'd pick the 3-inch over the 4-inch though.
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+1. FWIW the 3" is the shortest L frame barrel that will accommodate a full-length ejector rod, i.e. the rod will push a .357Mag case entirely clear of the cylinder. The stubby ejector rod on the 2-1/2" version cannot do this.

Also, the 3" generally has slightly better resale value than the other barrel lengths due to its relative rarity.
 
The guys at S&W claimed that this 686 was test fired with 40,000 psi proof loads. Note that the cylinder has 6 chambers and 7 flutes. The wall on the thinnest chamber is only 40% of what it should be. If the gun would actually pass proof firing like this, I don't think you'll have any trouble with a 686 Plus.

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They replaced the cylinder with an unfluted one. I like the look.

Newcylinderlsidesmall.jpg
 
I can't begin to tell you how happy I have been with my 686+, it just might be my favorite firearm I own. Of course I'm one of them guys that feels the firearm I have in my hand and shooting is my favorite.
My friends and brother all love the 7 shot revolver and when I took my daughter's boyfriend out back of the house to shoot various guns he said to me:
"It's official you have the coolest toys!"
When I asked him which one was his favorite he replied, "Are you kidding? The .357 Smith and Wesson of course." Before I put it away, he wanted to take one more look at it.
 
Unless you are hand loading crazy loads, you won't have a problem the the 686+.

As a CCW gun, 4" barrel is still going to be a bit unwieldy.
 
The 686 or 686+ will handle any 357 load at or below 35PSI SAAMI standard. It you hand load stay in that range and you should not have a problem. However, people that handload do get carried away and go beyond 35PSI. The 686 was never made to handle hot rounds of this type.
The 686+P is a great revolver. Shoot factory loads and it will out last you.
Howard
 
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