Looking at 686 deluxe with beautiful wood target grips or the more standard hogue rubber grip. This is a lot heavier gun than my 19 2.5 so 357s should be less punishing with either. Opinions please

IMHO, any grips that feel comfortable in your hand should be fine. I haven't found any magnum rounds that were harsh in a 6" 686. Buffalo Bore or the like might make something hot enough to be bothersome I suppose. If you do long range sessions in hot weather rubber grips or G-10 might be best.

Don't know which grips your talking about but the thin wood grips on my 2 1/2" PC 686+ got replaced with rubber after shooting one cylinder full.

The grips looks awesome,on that .357 Mag.,I did the same thing on my .Bulldog .44 Special,went back to my rubber grips.

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Life is short,live it fully.

Most of my S&W's wear Hogue rubber grips to the range. The wood grips are just for show.

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686+ TALO, 5" bbl.


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686 Lew Horton, 2-1/2" bbl., polished, Badger grips


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Waiting for the break of day

Wood grips would be my first choice. Especially if they are designed well both esthetically and ergonomically.

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My 6" 686 is wearing some Hogue looking but harder material black rubber like grips that were a freebee for renewing my Police Marksman magazine many years ago. Unfortunately I later let the subscription go when the budget was tight. It was an excellent magazine. I wonder if they're still around? The grips are OK. Good enough that I haven't bothered them. Not worth taking a glamour photo of.

Mine came with the rubber grips. They were ok but I prefer the look of wood. Also these grips fit my hand better than the rubber. The 686 is fed light loads so wood is no problem for recoil.

I tend to like square /full butt profile grips on my nose heavy / hard kicking guns (so the heal of the grip is supported by the heal of my palm. ) Otherwise I find myself squeezing the entire grip too hard. With the larger profile grip, I find I get better accuracy. As a side benefit, larger grips tend to distribute recoil better too. Round /compacts are definitely out for all but small calibers and short barrels.
In rubber, I find Pachmayr Gripper or Presentation grips tend to work better for me than the Hogue Monogrips. In wood, I generally use one of the better Thai makers off THEbay to get my round to square conversion grips.

Here is one example on my 625PC.



The 617 on the top is very nose heavy. It also got oversized Thai grips.

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Dave

I'm using the same grips that come with the 686 Deluxe. I find them comfortable, even with magnum loads. The 6" 686 does a lot to tame recoil by virtue of its weight and long, fully lugged barrel.

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Pachmayr Presentation grips for me if choosing rubber, the finger grooves just never seem right for me, I like the factory grips for their girth and no finger grooves and the Pachmayr gives the same feel but in rubber if you shoot a lot of magnums, otherwise the factory wood is fine.
Karl

Could you post a picture of the backstrap so I can get an idea for how thick those are compared to the older targets?

I WOULD DEFINITELY HANG ON TO THE TARGET GRIPS FOR RANGE USE OR DISPLAY......

FOR FIELD USE I WOULD USE SMOOTH PACHMAYERS---UNLESS THE FINGER GROOVED STANDARD GRIPS ACTUALLY FIT YOU HAND.....

RENOWNED PISTOLERO, MASSAD AYOOB, OPINES THAT FINGER GROOVED GRIPS TRULY FIT ONLY 10% OF THE SHOOTING POPULATION. I AM NOT ONE OF THE 10%, BUT PERHAPS YOU ARE........

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'Nam 1968-69.DAV,VFW,NRA Inst.

Here ya go.

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I prefer Hogue hardwoods on my guns. They fit me right and they lower my middle knuckle so that the trigger guard isn't bouncing off it every time I shoot. The only S&W revolver I haven't changed the grips on is my K22 because the recoil isn't there.

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1st smiles,lies.Last,gunfire.

My wife bought me a 686+ PC for our 44th Anniversary and my birthday .. But the grips don't seem to fill my hand and wondering if other grips would fit an "L" frame and if they would be a bit larger ??

I have the Hogue rubber Bantam Boot Grips on my 69 which I like a lot, except for the way they attach. They may be the same shape as the wood. They do get the middle knuckle away from the trigger guard nicely. They are L frame grips so would work for the original poster but I think he wants bigger and cushier. I wish Hogue made the Bantam Boot grip for round butt N frames. I have some Pachmayrs on my 629-4 3" that work well except my middle knuckle is always sore to the touch.

Like many of the others, I prefer the look of the wood grips, but the feeel of the Hogue rubber grips. I replaced the rubber grips on my standard 686 with an expensive pair of wood grips, shot it once with Magnums, and went back to rubber.

I shoot my guns more than I look I at them.

I have wood Hogue stocks on most of my revolvers, but got all at a discount on line, except one from the seconds section on the Hogue site. Fit my hands well.

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Fide Et Amore

The stock wood grips pictured would twist in my hand, shooting 158gr magnum loads or stronger, requiring a reset to my grip after each shot. Plus they stung shooting those same magnum loads.


I replaced those grips with Hogue Bantams, and that made it perfectly shootable for me. My husband is large and has large hands and he loved the improvement also.

We chose the Bantams because that 2 1/2" 686 is in our concealed carry rotation, and works even better for us in that role than the stock round butt on the 3" 686.


The Hogue Bantam in the middle is bracketed by the stock round butt on the left and stock square butt on the right.

Do they make the Batum with out the finger grips ?? just a plain grip ?? Though the one on the right aren't too bad .. but I prefer a plain as that's what I have always shot and am use too ..

Every S&W I shoot wears a Hogue monogrip.

The Bantams are quite small but I'm very fond of them, performance wise. I have them on my 2.75" model 69 (L frame). They enable the 69 to be a valid appendix carry IWB CCW, along with the appropriate holster. I do not like the way they install. They encourage you to forgo removing the grips frequently. That's bad on a IWB gun, at least in hot areas.

It is, as most have said, a personal choice. My choice is the grips that came with my 6", 686. They just "feel" right and don't look to bad either.

Have fun with you choice of a great handgun!

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Mine are just like Bigwheelzip's grips in the picture of her 686 .. They feel like they need to be fuller in my plams .. if that makes sense .. the pad on my trigger finger is too far in and hits about the middle of the inside of the first knuckle .. not on the finger pad like it should !! I have
long slender fingers ..

Are there grips larger then the L's that are on it ??

I hope I explained that right ..

While dry firing mine I noticed myself having trouble pulling the trigger for follow up shots .. I thought my finger was too fast but I wasn't releasing to the full length out of the trigger travel ..

My trigger release on my auto's are all SRT Triggers with barely 1/8th of an inch reset .. not the full length of the trigger pull like on the 686 ..
Will take some use to get use to the trigger being that way ..

DA revolvers have a long reset. Grip distance it usually long for me & I have large hands.

I shoot mine SA (right handed) & with my left hand bracing it. I use the thumb of my left hand to cock the revolver under recoil. It's reasonably fast. My son refuses to learn (try) how to do it.

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Waiting for the break of day

Although I don't own any L frame revolvers, all my N frame guns wear wood. 4 of them wear some Culina Target stocks and the rest are wearing Ahrends stocks. I have a friend that has a 6" barrel 686 and he has a set of Pachmayr Presentation grips and it's comfortable to shoot with them. I find that my Model 27's don't need rubber grips to keep from punishing my hand, even the 3 1/2" barrel guns. My 629-3 Classic also is wearing wood; a pair of Culina round to square conversion Targets and even after shooting 150 rounds of 44 Mag, my shooting hand felt good and wasn't beat up.

Your 686 would look much like this with a set of Culina Target stocks on it, just a little smaller. This is my 629 Classic with the Olive wood Culina stocks.

I like the old S&W combat grips on mine, the original target grips are pretty but too fat in the bottom for my liking.

I have the same problem. I took shooting classes that included stress training, and regularly short-stroked the revolver trigger on follow-up shots. Changed my carry to DA/SA semi to eliminate that fault, and keep the revolvers for range duty.

INHO slick wood grips are only for display, unless you never sweat. Wood needs to be checkered to be functional. I guess if your range session consists of only 10 to 20 rounds per gun it makes no difference.

My 60 and 66 snubbys wear their magnas and TylerT combos for everyday carry. If I'm going to do some serious range practice, I change over to Hogue Monogrips after a couple of cylinders. My 686-4 Plus came with S&W branded Hogue rubber gips, and although I bought a set of Ahrends for looks, the wood surface is too smooth for my sense of a secure grip. They sure look purty, though.

Wood Grips are like fancy hats or shoes, love them. Especially the older S&W coke grips. But for work I go back to the rubber grips for backpacking, day packs. It has a better hold and no worries of damaging them in rough weather.

For home or showing.... or shooting at the range.



For work or travel...



These are my always grips around town or for dog walks.



Nothing says 'Look at me ' like the original S&W grips...

My 686-4 had the original rubber grips that work great, but the wood is prettier. I was really surprised that shooting the magnum loads with the wood grips felt about the same to me. I think if it fits your hand good it just works.