Square to round butt

[SLT223]

Round butted S-Prefix 28-2....I love this gun! I say go for it your 681.

 

[Muley Gil]

Years ago a really good gunsmith friend of mine round-butted a couple of Smith revolvers for me. Was not a lot to it.
He mounted a set of Smith two-piece thin wooden grips, traced around the edges of the wood with a scribe, removed the grips, ground the grip frame almost down to the scribe marks, filed and polished away the file marks, sharp edges, etc., and I think did something with the hammer spring tension screw ( I could be wrong on that ) and was done. I think it took him less than 2 hours for the whole operation.
Have been shooting both guns a lot for the 25 years since the work was done. No problems.

This is how I converted a number of K and N frame revolvers. As to the mainspring screw, I deepened the hole in the frame. The job indeed only takes a few hours. Of course, a revolver with a smooth grip frame is easier.

As noted above, the biggest problem is the location of the serial number on the butt.

I have sold a couple of the SB to RB revolvers that I modified. I received the same amount of money for one of my conversions as I would have selling a box stock Smith.

 

[Arquebus357]

If you were planning to do the job yourself, I can help. I've done a few. The tricky part is adjusting the strain screw arrangement because the conversion removes some metal from the front strap where the screw lives. The serial number should be fine. After all, S&W converts the square butts to round butts.

 

[stu1ritter]

Am I correct that the amount the strain screw would protrude after round butting would easily disappear under a set of rubber grips and not matter?

Stu

 

[Jebus35745]

Make the 686 what you want, there are a lot of them. I really don't see a regular 686 becoming a collector gun. All that is needed is to remove some metal, not welding, bending and major reconstruction. Most gunsmiths charge abt 75.00 to do it. Larry