On GunBroker and in my local area, I've noticed some pre-lock 686s with a pinned front sight and some without.

I want to swap out the front sight for a fiber-optic, so a pinned front sight is a feature I like.

My question is which dash numbers come with this feature?

I know the 686-5 has this feature, but I've seen a no dash 686 with a pinned front sight and a 686-1 with a pinned front sight. Both with flash chrome triggers and hammers with the firing pin on the hammer, so I'm certain they were older models and not the 686-5.

At first I thought that maybe the previous owners had a gunsmith modify their 686s. However, the front sights were the standard red ramp, so that doesn't appear to be the case.

I don't know which dash numbers were available with the pinned sight (my SCoSW probably would tell me but I'm too lazy to look it up) but I can tell you that several earlier dash numbers came both ways - pinned and integral.

I had a 6" no-dash with a red ramp front and white-outline rear sight but wanted to dedicate a 6" 686 to target shooting and preferred a Patridge front sight and black rear sight, so I shopped for some time before finding a nice no-dash with the desired sight combination on GunBroker. While doing that shopping, I know some of the ones I did not buy for one reason or another that had that sight package were later dash-numbers but I can't tell you what they were.



The no-dash that I bought is the middle one on the right. The -3 Classic Hunter on the left also has a pinned front sight, but it is a Baughman ramp. The -4 PowerPort at the top right has a pinned Patridge front sight but it is unfired and I don't want to shoot it. I installed the target trigger and hammer in the no-dash gun; it came with flash-chromed standard parts.

Ed