My first S&W (686-4 TC 6" 1995)

Benni82

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Hi,
today I got my first Smith & Wesson. It´s a 686-4 Target Champion, 6" barrel, according to @Kernel Crittenden (again thx for that!) dating to 1995.

It’s a (re?)import from the Netherlands. Got Belgian proof marks. Also it got a "wischo" proof mark, and as far as I know wischo was a German company. So maybe the revolver was already in Germany before coming to the Netherlands.

All in all its in very good condition. Unfortunately it has a little magnum groove(? do you say that in English? in German its "magnum rille").
Also the engravings are very hard to see. Don’t know what happened there. Maybe someone tried to polish the revolver a bit too much. My Knowledge is, that 686 TC are glass bead blasted and so should have a frosted finish. Especially the drum is nearly shiny, overall the frosting isn’t as distinct as I expected it.

Also the timing seems not to be 100% perfect. If I pull the hammer slowly it gets to the end and I have to spin the drum just a little bit more to get into final position. If I pull it fast this doesn’t happen.

In 2 days I will bring it to the range and see how it will perform. Loaded some 158gr TC with N340 from 6.8gr over 7.1gr, 7.4gr to 7.7gr and let’s see which one performs best.

Also already got a set of Wolff’s rebound springs. After bringing it to the range I will completely disassemble it, clean everything, polish/stoning rough parts and reassemble it.
At the moment I think about getting the Wolff standard power mainspring as I don’t want to risk no shoots so deciding against reduced power mainspring. What I read even the standard power mainspring should be less then S&W factory spring.
But then there’s the thing with the stdpwr MS touching the rebound slide on round butts. Should not happen on square butt or with square butt strain screw so let’s see what I find when opening it ;)

Attached a few pictures, hope you enjoy it.

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..... All in all its in very good condition. Unfortunately it has a little magnum groove(? do you say that in English? in German its "magnum rille").. ....
If by this you mean erosion to the topstrap, that is normal. Flame cutting will only go so far, then it will stop. The topstrap of an L-frame is thick. Flame cutting looks ugly but it is not a problem.
 
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If by this you mean erosion to the topstrap, that is normal. Flame cutting will only go so far, then it will stop. The topstrap of an L-frame is thick. Flame cutting looks ugly but it is not a problem.

added few more pics. couldnt upload them in intial post, now yours is in between ;)
there you can see what i mean, the groove on the frame above the gap between drum and bore.
 
Looks like Karl Nill grips. I just love that grip manufacturer. They are the best! Great looking handgun. Enjoy and be safe.

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Is there any chance to "refresh" the engravings or to make them more visible? E.g. with any kind of black color wich sits into the engravings or anything like that?
 

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