Recently bought the 686 2.5 performance center gun. Ordered it so I was first one who saw it at the store. After getting home I noticed the trigger was not especially smooth. I have 19's and 686's better. One of the cylinders you can't even stage like the others. It falls to quick. The cylinder was hard to release Also. One of the worst issues was the front of the ejector rod is buggered up. I really expected more from a performance center gun. I have shot a lot if revolvers and taught LE firearms as part of my job 10 years, I thought about selling it to a collector who wouldn't shoot it. I really want to keep it. From past experience I have found a gun that is not consistant in pull on all chambers will never be right. Don't know if it's the way the cylinder is cut or what. Have put off calling S&W until I decided what to do. Was told recently people are having issues with CS. Hate to hear this as they were great to me on a gun couple of years ago. My other favorite gun Sig is going down the tubes in quality and their CS.
Here is pick of the ejector rod.

JR

You can email them & you will be taken care of. I found a 340pd (no ILS) brand new & when I cleaned it I noticed scored lands & a lump in one of the grooves. I emailed S&W & 2 weeks later got it back with a new barrel. CS was prompt & did a perfect job fixing it. Get that thing fixed so it can be the gun it should have been in the 1st place.

Repairing that is a minor fix and S&W's service dept. gives warranty work priority over other types of service work.

What really needs major repair is Smith & Wesson's quality control. They seem to have adopted a Corporate Attitude that MIM and CNC machining negates the need for visual and tactile inspect of product before it leaves the plant. It's evident in both the revolver and autoloader lines. Both standard production and Performance Center pieces suffer from lack luster QC and that is, in turn, plugging up their service department. Non-warranty service work is now commanding obscene (by old S&W standards) lead times. Pile on non-support of older but still relatively new models and Smith is listing to starboard a bit.

Bruce

To the OP, call the CS guys and get a return shipping label. They will fix (read: finish) your revolver and get it back to you in a few weeks. In my case it took four weeks for a repair turnaround because of a plant shutdown. Everyone I talked with at CS over the last five months was very helpful.

Why did I say five months? I just finished a five month wait for a Pro Series gun. It initially showed up at four months, but then had to be sent straight back for issues which should never have left the factory. What Bruce said seems true for quality issues, at least in my experience. I don't trust any new production from S&W without a very close inspection. That truly is a sad thing to say.

I'm happy with the gun I ended up with, but am very disappointed with the teeth-pulling it took to get here.

Edmo

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TRUTH: Don't delete my posts!

Hello. I am new to the forum and sorry for resurrecting an old thread but had some a question about this very topic. I am fairly new to revolvers and am not sure what I should inspect when at my LGS for the very same 686 PC. I have only been looking at price point and haven't "inspected" the various available pieces at each store more than to say mild handling. Any words of advice on what to look for?

Thanks, Tony