Last Friday I purchased a new 686 Talo, 7 shot revolver, with 6" barrel. *My LGS gave me a brand new in the box revolver; not the one he had in his display case.

Cleaned it and lubed it at home and found that the brand new
cylinder is very difficult to lock shut. What in the world?
I checked for rub markings
on the frame and found that the frame is only showing the usual rub marking
from the nub on the end of the ejector rod. Additionally, although there are no rub markings on the cylinder face or on the forcing cone of the barrel, the cylinder gap between the
cylinder and the forcing cone is so tight, you can not see
a ray of light through it, let alone insert a feeler gage.

Yes, I cleaned thoroughly under the ejector rod star and I
dropped some empty 357 cases into the cylinder and hand
tightened the ejector rod, (which was very tight anyway).

So, I am stumped. It takes about 3 or 4 good snaps to
get the cylinder to latch closed. Then everything works fine
from a dry fire standpoint. The cylinder opens easily and spins freely. I have not taken this revolver to the range to fire it yet.
I am just being cautious.

If anyone has had some experience with a similar situation, your advice would be much appreciated.

I may end up sending this brand new revolver back to S&W,
but I hate to send a brand new, unfired revolver in for a tune up. You would think that a brand new $800.00 revolver would have passed S&W's quality control testing for function?

Thanks again for reading this and for any advice.

Welcome to the Forum. Always great to have new members, especially those who seem to know revolvers as well as you do. The barrel/cylinder (no-) gap could be the problem. I would send it back. You've done nothing wrong.

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

Before you send it back you might want to thoroughly inspect it to find out if there is anything else they missed. Does it look test fired? If so they should have had the cylinder locking problem also.

I have a new 27 Classic that had a similar problem, hard to close the cylinder. The problem on mine was the latch (the little spring loaded pin that the forward end of the extractor snaps into) had some roughness. It wouldn't go in smoothly when the extractor tip tried to push past it to latch the cylinder. I used a brass punch to work it in and out till it smoothed out. If the extractor is being held off center by a stubborn latch pin, it could affect the bc gap a little. My 2 new 586's and a new 686 all have surprisingly tight bc gaps. A tight fit on a .003" feeler on the 686 and .0035 on one 586, .004" on the other 586.

Thank You to everyone who took the time to respond
to my problem with the cylinder not latching correctly on my new 686. All good information.

I will work on the ejector rod latch spring later this evening.

Also, thanks for the welcome to the forum.

I have found that almost everyone I have met in life knows something that I do not know. That presents a good case for
respecting others.

Thanks again.

Robert 1804:

You were correct. The reason my new 686 was having such a
difficult time when I was trying to close the cylinder was a
sticky extractor rod latch and spring. It must have had an internal burr on it.

I worked on the latch and spring last night with a quarter inch
wooden dowel, about 5" long and a few drops of Hoppes high viscosity gun oil. After several hundred + repetitions of depressing the lubricated extractor rod latch and spring, it smoothed out to act like it is supposed to.

Now, my new 686 closes easily with a satisfying, "snick";
just like it is supposed to.

There is no substitute for knowledge and experience.
Robert1804, you did some good yesterday.

There are a lot of really great people on this forum.

I like when a problem is resolved and we find out about it the next day!