View Single Post
 
Old 08-16-2009, 10:06 PM
Smithhound's Avatar
Smithhound Smithhound is offline
US Veteran
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: SE Tennessee
Posts: 1,193
Likes: 0
Liked 308 Times in 108 Posts
Default

I bought my 686-1 in the mid '80's, almost immediatly I had lock up problems with it. After much trial and error and some research I found that the only ammo that was reported to cause this/or did was Federal 125g JHP. Apparently, to me anyway, there seemed to have been an issue with the primer material. Everything else worked fine, it would just choke on the Fed's.
As I was heavily into reloading at the time (still am) it did not cause me any concern, nor has it ever recurred. Do not know if it was just that lot of ammo at the time or what, but i quite using 125g's for flame cutting on the backstrap reasons.
Ever since (and I still have the gun, unmodified) I've used a minimum of 140g's and have fired thousands of rounds with no problems.
While there may be some 10k of an inch set back in the hammer bushing that could cause primer flow on that model i've always thought it was much ado about nothing.
Having said that, I must say that I did not carry that gun as a defensive weapon, I'm not in that line of work. If I were and nagging doubts about reliability plagued me I would have. But in this day and age I would be surprised if any LE organization still used 686's. Semi autos having taken over that world I would be surprised if many 686's are carried on a 'life or death' basis.
MHO, throw rocks as seen fit.
RD
Reply With Quote