I looking at two 686 revolvers at LGS. Both are pre- lock. Both are same price. Both have 6" barrel. One has red ramp sight and the other has partridge sight. It seems to me that the partridge sight is rare. Most S&W revolvers I see have the red ramp.
Does the partridge make it worth more or less?

I sent my 6" 686 back to S&W right after I bought it NIB in the 80's for them to install a patridge sight. Cost was $65. That's how much more a 686 with a patridge front sight would be worth to me over a red ramp.

__________________
NRA Certified Instructor & RSO

The red ramp on the 686 6-inch is not worth much - very hard to see because of the flat angle of the front sight. I don't know if that matters to you, but it is one gun where the red ramp never did much good for me. If you're going to shoot the gun much, you might prefer the patridge blade.

Adios,

Pizza Bob

__________________
NRA Benefactor Member

I prefer the sight picture with the patridge, but YMMV

__________________
Some collect art; I shoot it!

While the red ramp looks good in the lights from the gunshop, it can disappear in the sunlight. I thought they were great until the first time I went to the range. The spray sight black will help. Any colored sight will tend to shoot toward the light. The Patridge is much superior for target. I would get this one. It is worth more to me if I can hit with it. The Call bead is probably the best if you want a colored front sight. It is flat and light from the side does not reflect much. The fiber optic sights look good to me but I have no experience with them.

Another thought in favor of the patridge front sight is that if you don't like the "all-black" sight picture, it's a very simple matter to apply flourescent orange paint to the rear (vertical) edge of the patridge sight. In that location, it doesn't rub off even if you holster the gun. I did that with a 617 and really like the results. I have a S&W mod 610 with a fiber-optic front sight, and the model paint is just as bright outdoors as the fiber-optic sight.

There are threads on here about how to do it, but basically after degreasing the blade with acetone, I use a coat of flat white Testors model paint, followed by a coat of their flourescent orange. Looks great and is easily removable with solvent if you want to go back to black.

Lou

__________________
NRA Certified Instructor & RSO

I have a 625JM that had a brass bead Partridge sight on it. I put a Hi-Viz green fiber Optic on it. Easier for old eyes to see. I just got a 14-3, with Partridge sight. Could not see it too well. Painted it bright lime green. This helps when shooting black steel plates. Paint does wonders on many sights, and is reversible at any time. Bob

I put sight black on all my colored sights and greatly prefer the sight picture of a Patridge. I'd jump on that one for that reason, but in my experience they're extremely rare to boot.

While I do much prefer the Ramp style, I do own Patridge sighted guns as well and have no problem with them.

I shoot for a living...my using guns have plain black sights. My target guns have Patridge fronts. There are exceptions (Tritium on a carry gun, maybe), but if a gun is going to be shot a lot, get the Patridge.
Bob

Not really a Patridge, but same principle...flat black blade (this one slightly undercut to reduce glare).


Nice Patridge installed by the factory years ago on my M68.

If I could only have one front sight, it would be a Patridge. The red ramp does have its advantage but it is limited to better visibility when hunting in wooded areas where there isn't a lot of light on the gun. There's a reason why almost every handgun sold for the intended purpose of target shooting comes with a Patridge, even if the intended target has a black bull - it provides a much more easily defined and repeatable sight picture.

Ed

Is anyone going to say that it is "patridge", not "partridge"?

Quote:

Named after inventor E. E. Patridge, a 19th-century American sportsman.

Fine, I'll say it. :-)

***GRJ***

As others have pointed out, for range/target shooting the black patridge style rules. For the woods and field, I like the red ramp. Many people today prefer some sort of fiber optic front sight for the field, and it is great, but I think the red ramp is more durable (BB puts on asbestos suit).

See post #4.

__________________
Oh well, what the hell.

When I typed it in patridge my spell checker changed it to partridge .
Sorry

I aim better with the patridge sight than I do with a red ramp. Most semi auto handguns have a blade front sight. Red ramp is outdated in my own opinion.

James

?????????

Not a big deal but I don't see it in #4 - and I am not surprised a spellchecker changed it, either!

***GRJ***

Patridge for a range gun and red ramp for a field gun is the way I set up my revolvers.

Patridge for me. I hate any colored sight other than black. I just plain old see the black sights better. I wished I could put them on everything.

red ramp for carry/quick access and Patridge for "Target" work, for me.

Kudos to Pizza Bob. Even I might remember it now.

S&W made a 6" M686 with a Patridge front sight, but it also had a Power Port. The product code was 104272. That is one of the few factory standard Patridge sights I'm aware of on a M686 that was not a Performance Center gun.

With the -5 and later M686's the standard ramp front sight was pinned, so it could easily be replaced. Prior to that the front sight was integral to the barrel. To replace it with something else required machining.

BTW, Patridge, since it was a guy's last name, should always be capitalized. Like Watts, or Hertz, or Colt.

__________________
~ S&W aficionado in training ~

...or McGivern or Call

__________________
NRA Benefactor Member

I prefer ramps whether they have an insert or not. I've actually never had a gun with a Patridge on it.

I've never liked the sharp edge on a Patridge and the way it drags on the inside of a holster.

But that's just me.

S&W put the Patridge front sight on a lot of their K-frame .22's from the '80's on. Like the M17, M617, and M648. Also, many of the M16's. It was also standard on the "Model of ..." guns, which were mostly N-frames, but but a few L-frames too.

__________________
~ S&W aficionado in training ~

There were some early standard production 686s made with Patridge front sights. Here's a no-dash 6" withput a PowerPort. Sorry the sight is out of focus but you get the idea.



I don't know how many were made with that sight but you don't see them often.

Ed

"Red ramp or partridge sight?"

I saw a partridge in my pear tree last Christmas.

I got an early-production 686 back soon after they first came out. It had a patridge sight. I dunno, I guess I'll chime in and say that I like the red-insert sights on many S&W revolvers. I like patridge too. I like a gold bead. I like a fiber-optic. I like black ramp sights. They all work pretty well.

I have an early 586 with a Patridge sight that is integral with the barrel. All of the red ramp sights on the standard guns seem to be integral with the barrel. I have seen some 686s with black Patridge sights and all of them were pinned. They do not show up often.
Later guns and specialty guns seem to have the pinned sights. I think some L frames might have the interchangeable front sight, like what came on the early DX .44 Magnums and later 627s.

__________________
Richard Gillespie
FBINA 102

That's interesting. Sometimes those pins can be near impossible to see. Polished flush and blued.

Early M686's with Patridge sights, and it's looking like more that a few. I wonder if there's anything in the SCSW on that.

__________________
~ S&W aficionado in training ~

S&W made a 5" 686 with a Patridge front that was a limited edition for CA Police PPC shooters back in the early 90's. Bill Davis sold them. Awesome revolver.
Bob

I don't think anyone has mentioned that Patridge sights are often undercut to go further to reduce glare. Black ramps are usually grooved for the same reason. I've always wanted undercut Patridge sights on my Pythons that have black ramps, but it wasn't important enough for me to change them. If anyone knows, they can tell whether a true Patridge sight is undercut, which is what I've always believed. Some friends had some factory 686s in the 80's that we're undercut. I know the sight was factory, but we were all competing together and someone may have added the undercut, as they all used the same local gunsmith for action jobs other work.

That sharp edge can help you if someone grabs your gun. Easier to make them let go.

See OIF2's post - the picture of his .45 - but really, I think the Patridge design is a square post, and the addition of the undercut does make it something else, as he says.

I remember those early 6-inch 586s with the Patridge blade integral with the ramp and rest of the barrel. A friend of mine had one - and it was a Holy-terror! That thing was one of the most accurate revolvers I've ever been around. For some reason he decided he needed something else... and sold it before I could buy it away from him.

Your lucky, my spell checker puts in totally off the wall words like patronage for patridge.
I bought my 586 from a FFL that sold guns on the side out of his house. Didn't know anything about guns at the time, assumed my revolver would come with a red ramp sight cause that's what I saw in the gunshops, and thought they looked cool and would give a good sight alignment. I ordered a 586 6" and when it came in it had patridge sights on them. I was kind of bummed until I shot it. It works really well and I've never seen another 586 that had them so I liked them even more as time went on so I'm glad it came with them. If I had a choice, I'd pick the patridge sights.

I actually like the partridge, but hate wiping poop off my barrel.

I think the red ramp sucks. When I was young and had good
eye sight I didn't like them, 50 yrs later I like them less. I can't
think of anything they could have put on them that would be
worse. The blade front gives much better sight picture for my
eyes.

Same here! I have a red ramp on my 686, I would prefer a black Patridge.

I also don't like the new fiber front sights.