I recently purchased what was advertised as a LNIB 686+ TALO with a 3" barrel. I thought I did a pretty good job of looking it over belore purchasing, but in my excitement, I apparently missed looking at the crown, which has a much thinner chamfer (if that is what you call it), at the bottom of the muzzle than it does at the top.

I haven't shot it much yet (just once at short range), so I don't know if it actually effects the accuracy of the gun or not. Assuming it does, and I want to get it fixed, would S&W do it for free under warranty and in a reasonable time frame, or should I buy the tool from Brownell's (about $100) and attempt to fix it myself. Frankly, doing it myself does not appear too difficult; I am generally pretty good at this type of thing. I just don't want to send it to S&W and have it sit for months...but on the other hand if S&W would fix it in a reasonable amount of time and at no or little cost, I would prefer to defer to the experts!

What do you think I should do?

Shoot it and see how it does. Unless there is a noticeable dent or chunk missing, it is hard to tell without shooting it.

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Science plus Art

The angle of the crown is not nearly as important as the corner it makes being square to the bore.......

SO, even if the angle looks dumb, as long as its square, it'll shoot!!!

Shoot first, ask questions later. If it groups well, leave it alone. If it doesnt, call S&W and see what they will do for you.

I agree with the above , and shoot it, thats the proof in the pudding.......before you buy ANY tools, jig, fixtures, etc., try and locate a GOOD snith that just may have the proper crown cutting tool, insuring the the crown is cut concentric, square to the bore, and NOT the out side as many finishers end up doing to get the "look"..it's the FUNCTION (accuracy) that counts

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dan
NRA Benefactor,PMA

Some years back I bought a nice 66-2 that turned out to have the barrel turned a bit too far. I sent it in to the factory and they corrected it. What they and I missed however, was that the muzzle crown was somewhat egged-out, either from the factory or bad cleaning practices.

After some thought, I went after it with a Brownell's chamfer tool w ith the proper pilot. I had to go deeper than I wanted to clean it all up, but did get it done. Now it has a recessed crown like a Ruger GP-100, but shoots very well. Prior to this I couldn't get it to shoot well at all. No new barrels were available, so it was my only real option.

The only critical area of the Crown is where it meets the bore. If that area is smooth and true the outer portion is merely a cosmetic issue. Personally, I'd inspect it under a lighted magnifying lamp and see what is going on. If the critical area is good and the gun shoots true, leave well enough alone.

Simple test... Clean the muzzle end of the barrel. Go shoot the gun.

Look at the pattern of carbon/crud that forms on the muzzle radiating out from the rifling. It should be a nice symmetrical "star".

If it has a nice, even, symmetrical pattern you're good to go. If it's un-even, re-cut the crown.

So I shot this revolver a couple of more times - with the same result - I couldn't get to group. The last time I shot it was probably late 2014, for after that, I entered into my "military period" which lasted almost two years, during which I bought and shot an M-1 Garand, a Remington 1903a3, a Beretta M9, a Sig M11-A1, and a Sig manufactured AR-15. Of these guns, the Garand and the Sig are major disappointments in that the Garand shoots about 8 MOA, and the Sig and I don't shoot well together either. They may be going down the road.

Anyway, earlier this year, I got back into revolvers, shot the 686 again, and it still wouldn't group. So I thought, this is ridiculous, and sent it back to Smith. They had it about 6 weeks. When I got it back, it came with a note that they found not only a bad crown, but bad rifling as well, so they replaced the barrel. Shot it the other day, and now it shoots very well. Got to love a 3" 686!

Thank you very much, Smith & Wesson Customer Service!

Glad to hear it worked out for you in the end, even if it took a while.

Mine shot fine but I hated the lack of a chamfer on the muzzle so I did it myself. Groups a tad better now too.

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686-6 TALO, muzzle chamfer, before


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686-6 TALO, muzzle chamfer, after


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Waiting for the break of day

PS: Forgot to mention above - - - just for laughs, let a really good Marksman shoot the gun with the same ammo before doing anything. If he consistently groups well, you know it's not the gun. Not saying this is so, but it would just be a prudent thing to do.