Shiny New 686!

I have owned four 686s through the years - a 2.5" , 4" and two of the 6" versions. My current 686 in the pic with Hogue wood grips. The targets were shot with a scope and a rest at 25 yds 6 shots and 25 yds 12 shots. This 686 I have owned for close to 11 years now and it is a keeper!
 

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The 686 is one of the best 357's you can buy, I hope you like yours as much as I do mine.

here's my 6" 686 plus and 4" 586

686586.jpg
 
Must admit as much as I love Rugers I would'nt be without my 686 as a DA revolver! It's in at the Gunsmith at the moment for a rebarrel job & I just can't make up my mind weither to go for another 6" or have a bit of fun & put a 8 1/2 on her to shoot a little Metalic Sil ?
 
Range Report - Failure to rotate?

Well, I finally got the new 686 out to the range today, and shot it after first shooting 50 rounds with the matching 617 (.22LR).

I ran one box of S&B 158gr FMJ (.38) and one box of Federal American Eagle 130gr FMJ (.38) through the 686. No real difference between the two in recoil, if anything, the lighter Federal round felt a tad snappier.

One odd thing - while shooting the S&B, I had a problem with the action hanging up. Couldn't complete a trigger pull in double action. When I tried cocking the hammer, that too was hung. I unloaded all the rounds and put the unfired ones back in - same thing. As near as I could tell, one round was hanging up at the back of the cylinder, blocking rotation! I eventually got it to fire as the only round in the cylinder, but that was odd, and given that the action wouldn't proceed, not good. Has anyone ever had that happen???

At least at this stage, the 686 trigger is definitely heavier than the 617, but that can be because it's new. After checking by unloading that they all fired, I loaded the empty cases of the last cylinder back in it for dryfire practice back at home, which should also lighten that trigger. :)
 
Beautiful gun, Congrats.

P.S. Your right about it looking business like, it has that dont F with me look to it, I like! :D
 
Winchester CleanRange Range Report

I got to the range today with two boxes of Winchester "CleanRange" 125gr soft points. One was the .38 Special version and the other was the .357 Magnum version.

Both were reasonably priced (something like 11.50 & 15.50 for box of 50 at a gunshop). The most noticeable thing is, they do burn clean - both of them were clean, and produced a puff of smoke about 1/4 the size of the normal ammo, maybe less. For indoor use especially, these should be healthier (smoke or no smoke, these are supposed to have virtually no lead volatilization).

The .38 Specials are very mild, at just 167ft-lb. Nice comfortable target load. The .357 Magnums are different - at 521 ft-lb, they are pretty snappy, and a good deal noisier. Also produced impressive flash from the 4" barrel. All in all, still ok though, not painful or anything - they also get the thumbs up. :)

As far as accuracy goes, I am not a crack shot, and also shoot offhand, so am not the best judge of this. Towards the end though, I fired a couple of cylinders in single action, and they stayed in the black. Good enough for me. :)
 
Re: great balls o'fire

Yep - it happens so quickly it's hard to tell, but I'd guess there is a fireball on the end of the muzzle about the size of a basketball... I was impressed *lol*. That's probably not so good for shooting in near darkness, but for range use is ok - like you say - adds to the show! :D

Now I am getting curious as to what some of the max loads will be like (if I can find any cheapies)... any suggestions?
 
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