scruffy
Member
Yesterday I went to a LGS to check out a new 686-7 Mountain Gun. Instant lust. Had to have it in spite of it's full MSRP $1,199 tag. TGW Bear Hug grips felt great, sights were awesome with the brass bead front, action was smooth in DA/SA, fit and finish were outstanding, no barrel cant and tight B/C gap. Felt to me more like a well balanced K frame than a standard 686. Took it home, gave it a good cleaning and went to the range this morning.
The Good: Shot 100 rds Federal 130 gr. FMJ .38 special and 50 Federal .357 Magnum 158 gr SJSP in single and double action. No issues, everything functioned as it should. Good primer strikes, shells ejected fine and no debris from the .357s with a .004" B/C gap. Timing and carry up were spot on. I measured 3.75# S/A and 9# D/A. Great trigger and lock up was rock solid with the detent in crane design.
The Bad: After a few shots of .357, the Bear Hug grips needed to come off. What looked and felt great in hand translated quickly into pain. The nice grainy smooth texture didn't provide much grip with those .357 either. On went rubber Hogue round to square conversion grips which eliminated the pain and provided a solid comfortable grip.
The Ugly: Out of the box both .38 and .357 shot 4-5 inches low at 10 yds off hand. Windage was centered and grouping was reasonable (for me) but all shots way hit way too low. I was shooting with a combat hold, gold bead over POA which should have been higher than 6 o'clock hold. Thinking it was me and maybe unaware of a possible flinch, I had a guy at the range (long time good shooter) try 8 shots. His groups were a little tighter than mine but actually hit about another inch lower than me. I watched him and there was no flinch or pulling the gun down on his part. I kept raising the rear sight 2-3 clicks at a time and finally got closer to center after about 10 clicks above the factory setting. Got to hitting steel plates at 50' more consistently I need to use a rest to finish dialing it in. Also, I for some reason I had trouble getting a repeatable grip with the Hogues almost like they were too much grip for the gun. All in all I felt like I just couldn't shoot this gun well which was disappointing.
Called it a day, went home gave it a thorough cleaning and put a set of S&W factory synthetic round L-frame grips which I always like to shoot with on. I'll take to to an indoor range with a rest tomorrow and see how it goes.
The Good: Shot 100 rds Federal 130 gr. FMJ .38 special and 50 Federal .357 Magnum 158 gr SJSP in single and double action. No issues, everything functioned as it should. Good primer strikes, shells ejected fine and no debris from the .357s with a .004" B/C gap. Timing and carry up were spot on. I measured 3.75# S/A and 9# D/A. Great trigger and lock up was rock solid with the detent in crane design.
The Bad: After a few shots of .357, the Bear Hug grips needed to come off. What looked and felt great in hand translated quickly into pain. The nice grainy smooth texture didn't provide much grip with those .357 either. On went rubber Hogue round to square conversion grips which eliminated the pain and provided a solid comfortable grip.
The Ugly: Out of the box both .38 and .357 shot 4-5 inches low at 10 yds off hand. Windage was centered and grouping was reasonable (for me) but all shots way hit way too low. I was shooting with a combat hold, gold bead over POA which should have been higher than 6 o'clock hold. Thinking it was me and maybe unaware of a possible flinch, I had a guy at the range (long time good shooter) try 8 shots. His groups were a little tighter than mine but actually hit about another inch lower than me. I watched him and there was no flinch or pulling the gun down on his part. I kept raising the rear sight 2-3 clicks at a time and finally got closer to center after about 10 clicks above the factory setting. Got to hitting steel plates at 50' more consistently I need to use a rest to finish dialing it in. Also, I for some reason I had trouble getting a repeatable grip with the Hogues almost like they were too much grip for the gun. All in all I felt like I just couldn't shoot this gun well which was disappointing.
Called it a day, went home gave it a thorough cleaning and put a set of S&W factory synthetic round L-frame grips which I always like to shoot with on. I'll take to to an indoor range with a rest tomorrow and see how it goes.
