All steps in the right direction. Andrew said at the symposium, that they were more projects coming. I will probably never think of a revolver as a fighting gun, unless I have to. Even though I carried one, or more, daily for 15 years plus. I have a 5" 686 set up as my field gun when I am out on the property. Stuck a Dawson F/O front sight on it for the dark woods, so I probably won't be getting one of these. Plus, I'm an old guy with a bunch of revolvers.

I do like the one piece thicker barrel, detent lockup, stronger and frees up the cylinder a bit, like a PPC gun. The other custom touches are nice. I will have to see if I can get one or two of those front sights, they are nice.. The grips uuhhh not so much, but better than what they have now.

I am really glad for new shooters that want a nice revolver, finally something that looks good and should shoot good. They need to come out with a 617 version so new shooters can really afford to practice. I might even have to check one of those out. Maybe after SW sees how these things sell, they will come out with some on their own.

Still a great job S&W, Lipsey's and Andrew.

My LGS said don't hold my breath about ordering any new S&W No Lock in California. 2026 if ever...

I emailed Lipseys and their reply was the 686 will ship in "March".

I posted some where above that I Emailed Lipsey's and they said they are working on getting these rostered.
Still, it is California so the dealer may be right. Hopefully they aren't discontinued before that happens.

When will these Mountain Guns hit dealers?

Post #153 says March

The wait is killing me. I haven’t been this excited about a new release pistol ever. Placed an order with my local lipseys dealer the second I heard about them. I really hope a March release date is correct.

They made a few mdl 617 mtn guns.........All gone before I could get one.....BD Greene a member here has several and has posted pics in the past.

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S&W Accumulator

Today I got my name on the list for the
2025 S&W Mountain Gun 357 S&W Mag.

First on the list. We’ll see how that goes.
March 2025 you say.

Lipsey's stated that these are not limited run guns.

Please reference where it’s not a limited run
gun.

I’ve searched and can’t find it. Shops around
here thought it is a limited run.

Looking forward to you reply. Thank you.

At end of video:

Thank you. I see “it is not a limited run”
at -0.04 (near the end of the video).

Just in case the Lipseys guys are looking for ideas am I alone in thinking that besides a no lock 617 mountain gun that an N frame 8 shot Mountain gun in .357 would be desirable?
If willing to go that far how about a square but 5" with real checkering on the topstrap and barrel rib and marking them inside the yoke cut REG MAG above the serial number.

Cool, thanks for the info. Maybe us poor Cali surfs have a chance.

I hope Lipsey's, or a competitor, get the 627 MG done, because it's an absolute no brainer. Hell, call it a 628 Highway Patrolman w/a bead blasted finish, just get it done.

LGS just called. My 629 MG should touch down tomorrow or Saturday and the 686 MG should the following week. Can’t wait.

Exactly my thoughts as well. Looking forward to a new 357 and the 45C down the road a bit


41

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This ain't no coon hunt

I'd like a 5 shot 625 MG for heavy 45lc loads.

629 landed. No quality issue whatsoever here. Action is gorgeous, as is the rest of it. There’s markings under the extractor I haven’t seen before, but this the first new Smith I’ve bought in 23 years. Grips are very comfortable. This will be a fantastic shooter. I have a batch of 200gr plated RN over 7.0 of 231 to test it this weekend.







EDIT:
FWIW Worth B to C gap is on the tight side of .004"

Congrats!! If the 357 MG's ever hit the stores for MSRP, I will buy one. So far there are none on GB, and the one 44Mag MG on GB is marked up to 1800. I won't pay above MSRP for an already expensive revolver.

I was told my 686 MG will ship next week or week after. That 629 above was done at $1150. I have no reason to think the 686 will be marked up.

Does anyone know what the Model revisions are, wondering if the Model numbers advanced or stayed the same.

The above gun is stamped 629-9 in the yoke.

Mine showed up this morning only minutes before I arrived at the shop. The owner hadn't opened the box yet. I got to handle it for a few minutes before my LGS agreed to return it due to a canted barrel. Canted enough to be obvious looking down the sights and when the cylinder was opened you could see a gap where the underlug did not meet the frame. Also there was a somewhat large chip out of those special grips, right where the underside of your middle finger rests. Grips felt great otherwise. I liked the contour but could feel that missing chip. Non-existent QC.

I checked the timing. That was good, as were both the single and double action trigger pull, so the moving parts appear to be good.

I guess I'll get to try it out in a few weeks... or so.

Thanks for the first impressions! Please keep us posted with how it works out.

The 629-9 Mountain Gun appeared on my neck of the woods as well. I snagged mine last night. No quality issues on mine. I’ll have to measure the forcing cone to cylinder gap later.

I spent the morning loading 100 rounds of my favorite 44 Magnum load and will take it out later to test its accuracy.

Here’s a few closer photos of the Bear Hug stocks and the main spring, which is not the ribbed one. I may change that later.

The stocks Bear Hug stocks are nice! Miles better than the thin Altamont stocks S&W typically uses. Being Walnut I can feel they’ll be prone to scratching.

I took them out for now to try a set of Culina Cocobolo stocks I have laying around.

Here are the first shots of the new 629 Mountain Gun rocking Culinas. What do you guys think? Keep these or revert to the original stocks?

Wow! That is a good-looking gun. And to answer the question in your second post, I would keep the original grips on it. I think they look better, but that's personal preference...I greatly prefer the look of wood that is not overly polished or coated.

If it was mine, I would keep the original Bear Hug stocks on it. It was such a long wait and super special occasion for these models to be release by S&W and coming from factory with these stocks was a first. They are the best for this gun in my opinion. Unless you want to save the originals, or if they don't feel that great in hand. It's your gun after all. Culinas also look great, of course (they are Culinas! how they could not look great)

Something else I wanted to add, thanks to the photos you and others posted here, I noticed something I haven't before: the hard chromed trigger and hammer instead of the usual heat-treated ones. Super cool.

You do realize that those guns are manufactured in Massachusetts? As are all S&W revolvers. They kept revolver manufacturing in Springfield, along with their forging operations.

Yup! The hammer and trigger are flash chromed, and that feature was specifically requested by Lipsey's and Jason Cloessner according to a few interviews I've watched. Stainless guns look nicer with stainless/silver parts IMO.

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AKA SixToEight

Please post the results of the cylinder gap measurement when you have the time .
Thanks

Darryl and the rest of the team specced the stocks for a set of reasons; you can watch their podcast for details. That said, stocks and hand fit are often very personal, so what matters is how well you shoot with them. To me, the cosmetic issues are somewhere between trivial and modest because of that and the fact that darned few people should see them.

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NHI, 10-8.

Dear Smith and Wesson,

You have a revolver with which Colt cannot compete. A 9 ounce difference is insurmountable.
Would you Knuckleheads please see fit to index the barrels properly? Does anyone there do a final inspection? For pity sake, you do this for a living. Act like it.

Yours truly, Yendor.

Attached Images

image.jpg (211.5 KB, 53 views)

Not when you have to knock around a mad squirrel when the gun is empty!

But where are the decisions being made?

Is it really a 686 if there's no bbl lug? I'm having a hard time thinking it is.

Whatever it's called, it's 1000x better. I think full-lug barrels are the most disgusting looking design ever to grace a firearm.

I'm sure they had an epiphany about the lock as soon as they turned on the lights in the new building.

I think we have Andrew Gore to thank for that. When he started at S&W two years ago the second sentence out of his mouth was "When are we getting rid of the locks", according to the interview I watched. Having the dude in charge of revolver design be a die-hard anti-locker is what it finally took for the change.

The barrel doesn’t have the hourglass contour/taper that the originals did. It just comes out of the frame skinny. Not quite as refined as the original, but oh well.

Check out the photos on the S&W website. There is a very noticeable taper to the barrel as it leaves the frame. It's just tricky to show all the lines with lighting conditions on a stainless revolver. The taper is definitely there.

https://www.smith-wesson.com/product...9-mountain-gun

Well, we all have our likes & dislikes.

But the lug adds weight to keep the muzzle flip as low as possible. It also adds stiffness to the bbl, also altering the harmonics to a more positive side of the ledger.

But with 50 years being with or around guns, your opinion on the lug is the first time I've heard that. I don't intend that as a slam of any sort, just stating a fact on my part. We all like what we like, IMO.

Probably that and something to do with the pay off of capital for the lock project. I’m not discounting his contribution, but if he spoke up 20 years ago, I doubt it would have been economically feasible to reverse the process. Nonetheless, they have done the right thing in more ways than one. No lock is least of it to me. This is the first time since forever they put real quality wood grips on a revolver and the brass bead patridge is simply awesome! They even mounted it with a solid stainless pin. I’m honestly impressed at the msrp with these features. Made it a no-brainer for me. Just look at the higher priced models that don’t have these goodies. I like the direction in which they are moving. Again, I’m not discounting Mr. Gores contribution.

A few observations,
First, looking at the .44 with grips removed is that circular cut inside the gripframe sonething new ?
Also while I didn't notice it until another pointed it out but the barrel does appear to be less of a bell shape near the frame.
On a positive note at least they notched the frame edges to mate to the narrow rib better, IIRC they stopped doing that with the 629-3 Mountain gun.
While I love the seven shot 686-5 Mountain gun can't help think that an 8 shot N frame .357 Mountain gun would be awesome, give it a real checkered top strap and a sb gripframe and mark them in the yoke cut REG MAG+.

Lastly on the subject of the grips, while they are better than the rubber Pachmayers that came on the 629-2 and current Altamont offerings which are too long, thin and square in the heel they'd look alot better with a set of SW medallions, better yet deep SS escutcheons, GA or some other interesting wood would also be nice, the walnut looks a bit utilitarian IMO but the reality is I'm swapping rubber onto it for field use and Culinas for showing it off to my friends and trading those ones provided or filing them in the spare grips drawer.
In a perfect world theyd give the buyer a choice of several different styles, if someone offered a set that mimicked the old 44 Magnum Cokes theyd sell like hotcakes, closest I've seen so far are the Eagles.

Closing thought, I suppose when they changed to the rounded rear sight leaf they ceased milling straight through the topstrap, that channel gave a very good reference point for aligning the barrel rib to the frame, this makes me wonder if this might be part of the problem with all the misaligned barrels that it's harder to notice at a quick glance.

I have a 1989 Mountain Revolver, 29-2. And, lighting considered, it still looks to have much more of a bell taper. As did the 28, and 27, etc.
Not being a snob or suggesting the current ones should be held at arm’s length with two fingers and dropped in the garbage. Just couldn’t help but notice.

In reference to post #175 above by Pappy John,
"my LGS agreed to return it due to a canted barrel. Canted enough to be obvious looking down the sights and when the cylinder was opened you could see a gap where the underlug did not meet the frame".

Not saying your examples barrel wasn't off center but be advised I just opened the cylinders on a 629-2 MG, 629-3 MG, 27-2 and 28-2, all have a visible gap where the ejector rod shroud meets the frame, if the yoke arm is open they look off center from the muzzle, with the yoke arm closed its actually wider on the guns left side by eye .
Just wanted to point this out as a frame of reference.

Use whichever stocks are the most comfortable for you when shooting.

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VCDL, GOA, NRA

My point is that I don't think that the lock decision has anything to do with the move to Tennessee. Revolver production, and I'm going to bet revolver design also, remain in Massachusetts. The forging operation also remains. They forge many things there from golf clubs to auto parts. If you've ever seen it, you would know that moving it anywhere would be a gargantuan undertaking. There were a lot of reasons for the move out of Springfield but THE biggest was it has become difficult and expensive to do any kind of business here. S&W needed to do a lot of modernizing to their infrastructure and it made more sense to do it in a place more business friendly than Springfield. They were just following the rest of the manufacturers that moved south.