986 poor Quality

[Leo@tecd]

From the pics you can see why it went back to the Distributor, besides an over clocked barrel jamming the crane, 4 out 7 cylinders are scared from reaming, which means it will have trouble with ejecting.

So I ordered another one from a different source, hoping to get one good enough that I can send to T K Custom for double action only match trigger job.

Hoping to get one good enough to be repaired.

 

[Nick B]

Bummer . I won’t buy any make revolver (except FA) nowadays unless I can examine it first . But with that said last month I bought a 629-6 that was made in December of 2021. It’s absolutely perfect in fit and finish . Whoever did the assembly took their time and did it right.

 

[18DAI]

Good luck getting a good one! We had three of those sold when the shop was a s&w dealer. All three came back and we refunded the buyers. They were very good customers.

The dealings we had with s&w over those guns, led to us no longer being a s&w dealer. All three had over clocked barrels. Two of the three had lousy gritty triggers. And the 3rd was out of time, from the factory.

The Performance Center went out of business in 2014. Regards 18DAI

 

[Leo@tecd]

The poor quality has been going on for a long time, maybe as they move to the new factory they can fix the problem. Sadly my expectations are to simply get one good enough that T K Custom says it is worth fixing.

Got my ship notice for second one, coming out of Ohio, waiting on the Fedex pickup call for the first one

 

[waffles]

It's sad. S&W has some cool modern stuff I'd be into but QC is just abysmal.

 

[chief38]

Sad & pathetic! Just another explanation as to WHY used gun prices on similar vintage models has remained so high.

 

[Mark8]

The poor quality has been going on for a long time, maybe as they move to the new factory they can fix the problem.

Revolver manufacturing will stay in Springfield, and as I understand, there won't be any changes when it comes to revolver production. Apparently some of the machinery is very old and the current plan is to not change a running system.

 

[Baxter6551]

I just received a 442 as a warranty replacement for my cracked frame early 642 and I am very pleased. No issues with quality control I can see. Shoots to point of aim. And no lock !

 

[Coverdog]

That is beyond a terrible job. Who ever sent that out the door should be fired.

 

[stansdds]

Unfortunately, the days of craftsmen building revolvers and pistols is long gone. Revolvers and pistols are now put together by assembly line workers. This works well with the pistols made with MIM and plastic parts, but revolvers, even with MIM lockwork parts, still need attention to detail during the construction process.

 

[psquarejr]

It is pathetic and a shame that revolver ever left the factory, my 986 suffered from light strikes and was returned to the factory and repaired/adjusted under warrenty. It is the only new S&W revolver that I bought that has ever had an issue. From the negative feedback I hear and read from others, I consider myself fortunate that I have purchased several new revolvers and pistols from S&W without issues.

 

[chief38]

As each generation of the Company goes bye, their knowledge, skill level and commitment diminish. This seems to be happening to all industry in America, not just as S&W.

People SAY they are willing to pay more for quality goods but apparently that doesn't pan out as good as it sounds. In today's anti gun world that we live in, I truly believe that even the gun companies are much much more interested in quick profit than making heirloom quality guns. Combine the two and this is what we are dealing with. Quite honestly, with the exception of a very few small mom & pop sized companies, I don't see this changing.

 

[BubbaBlades]

My history with the 986 has been mixed.

My first 986 was a 5" (CWD9xxx) and I have had zero problems with it.

My second 986 was a 2 1/2" (KDD6xxx) and it had problems from day one. It would not fire more than 4 or 5 rounds from the 7 round cylinder. I changed out the factory "tuned" mainspring for a "standard" spring and this reduced the failure to fire rate to about 1 out of 12 rounds (different ammo didn't matter).

The gunsmith at the store where I bought the gun replaced the factory firing pin with a extended length firing pin and with these two fixes the gun is now working properly.

I understand that a certain number of mass-produced firearms will have problems but this is the third Performance Center gun that I have had issues with. I sent back my 586 and 1911 and they were fixed at no cost to me.

I am disappointed that the Performance Center doesn't have a much better quality control program.

 

[H Richard]

I had a 986 that had only one problem. Difficulty extracting fired cases. I polished the chambers several times, but still had problems. Factory or handloads. I gave up and moved it along.

 

[Moon]

The 986 I had was a dud.
The couple of hundred rounds went okay but then it started to fail to fire.
It got so bad as 5 or 6 per cylinder.
I replaced the firing pin with the extended pin from C&S. It helped a little. Finally i became tired of dealing with it and sold it off.

 

[Nightowl]

I have never seen chamfered chamber mouths before. Of course, I have not bought a new Smith since I got a first year .500. I could be I just never noticed before, but I'm pretty sure none of my guns have chamfered chamber mouths.

 

[bigwheelzip]

I have never seen chamfered chamber mouths before. Of course, I have not bought a new Smith since I got a first year .500. I could be I just never noticed before, but I'm pretty sure none of my guns have chamfered chamber mouths.

My PC 686 has chamfers as part of the extra machining done for accepting moon clips.

Sent from my motorola one 5G using Tapatalk

 

[happyfast79]

I just bought 2 new smith revolvers a few months ago and they both had to go back for warranty work, 629 with machine marks up the front of the frame and a 329 with crooked forcing cone, punch marks from where they put in the pins on the barrel shroud and some anodizing issues. Just got them both back and they did a good job with them... should have been good out of the box but at least they fixed it.

 

[Nightowl]

My PC 686 has chamfers as part of the extra machining done for accepting moon clips.

Sent from my motorola one 5G using Tapatalk

Sure, where the cartridges are inserted in the cylinder, not where the bullets emerge. Ie the ball end, in S&W terms. Perhaps I did not correctly describe in my initial post.

 

[Bullet Bob]

"...4 out 7 cylinders are scared from reaming,...)
__________________________________________

I'd be scared of reaming also.

 

[ShivasIrons]

I just sent back a 438 that my gunsmith noticed had a bad barrel. Grooves and lands were messed up. Smith sent it back without a new barrel and stated that it "met specifications". Makes you wonder what the spec is...

I cannot sell something with a known issue, so to the back of the safe it goes.

 

[Lou_the_welder]

I was just looking over my notes on my 986 . My memory is a little fuzzy but I had to put an EFP on mine. (Extended firing pin). The brand i used was cylinder and slide. The original measured .489". And the EFP was .511".
I don't remember if it was because of the bobbed hammer or not.
But it seems to me, because of the extra space between the cylinder and the recoil shield needs because of the moonclip only setup, that this would be problematic in that area, seeing as that the firing pin pokes out just a bit to hit the primers.

Depending on the different manufacturers that make ammo, maybe EFP's should be installed to forego any problems.

 

[gerhard1]

My 986 (5" barrel) had reliability problems from the start. With hard primers, (Winchester and Fiocchi) I had at least had one misfire from light primer strikes with almost every cylinder. Sending it back to Springfield did nothing so I took it to a gunsmith in Stillwater and that helped a great deal. He installed a longer firing pin and a heavier mainspring, and the last time I shot it had one or two misfires per hundred with WWB and is 100% with Remington and Federal as they have softer primers.

That was a couple of years ago and due to various factors, I haven't shot much, and the 986 not at all. It'll be a few weeks at best, but the 986 and my 610 are two of the guns I'll shoot first.

 

[Retired W4]

I was looking at a 5" a while back at a local gun shop. I told them I would be back in a couple months to look again, and it would probably still be there. I thought their price was pretty high. It looked pretty good with a cursory examination but now I will look a lot closer, especially for the clocked barrel.

 

[Leo@tecd]

A second 986 was delivered today, it is a KEEPER, barrel straight, all the cylinders are smooth with no galling marks, timing is good. The crane is a little tight where the crane yoke locks to the frame ahead of the cylinder gas ring. Which requires a firm closing of the cylinder, it would wear in quickly, but I'm sending it off to T K Custom for a complete action job, double action hammer, and replace the Mim parts.

He will check yoke alignment, chamber the cylinders and deliver a 4# DA trigger, then I'll mount my favorite sight EOTECH xps2.

I'm hooked on the holographic sights, no parallax at any distance, and reticle stays sharp while focused on the target. No sweet spot for eye placement, you can watch many pistol shooters doing the head bob trying to find the dot. For me the Eotech's are the fastest sights for transitions.

I like the rubber grips, but I've got chunk of dark cocobolo, that I got from Hogue, cut on the inside but left blank on the outside. Since I'm lefthanded I put a thumb rest on the right side to reduce muzzle rise.

The gun is for man-on-man plate rack match with a center dueling popper to pick the winner. We shoot winners against winners and losers against losers for about an hour, then we shoot random pair single elimination shoot offs until we have winner. Takes about 2 hours and around 100 rounds of ammo. Every Tuesday afternoon we shoot same format with different shaped/sized plates at different distances and different guns, auto, revolvers, pcc and 22lr rifles, and two stage steel challenge. So I've got guns built for every style of match. Great practice, we vary the start position, gun unload hands on table, loaded aimed at start midpoint, sometimes a reload is mandatory, also gun on table shooter facing up range.

This makes getting on the first target fast essential. Distance varies 15 to 25 yards, targets from 8" to 4", round, bowling pin, 4" wide mini poppers.

It is free match and club members can bring a guest, but fairly intimidating to beginners, you get to recover your brass.

 

[ladder13]

Ya, don’t think I’m rushing out to buy any new Smith revolvers today.

 

[reddog81]

He will check yoke alignment, chamber the cylinders and deliver a 4# DA trigger, then I'll mount my favorite sight EOTECH xps2.

A 4 lbs trigger pull in double action? Is that correct?

 

[kamloops67]

Many 686 internationals have uncentered barrels too , I am pretty wary of new S&W offerings now
I do not buy $1000 firearms without putting on my glasses anymore
I’m not slagging S&W , my favourite revolver is a modern smith , I’m just saying you can’t trust them to be good without verifying for yourself
I also would be interested in a 4lb da trigger , maybe be a typo ?

 

[OLDSTER]

I have to say my 686-4 is about close to perfect fit an finish as can be found.

 

[Leo@tecd]

Well things worked out well, Vizards Guns worked with me, sent a prepaid Fedex label to return the defective gun.

4# Double action pull with Federal primers
Evolution IV Revolver Hammer Kit

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ACTION TUNING JOBS - S&W | TK Custom Store