The Gun Counter

I recently bought a S&W 686, SS, 4" barrel. Got to shoot it on Saturday.

First, an aside: A friend set up 4 railroad tie plates hanging from a frame.* 7 yard line, 14 yard line, 21 yard line. You get 9 rounds. 4 from the first 2 lines, 4 from the second, 1 from the 21. If you get 4 hits on the first line, you move back. 4 hits from the second, you move back. 1 pt for a hit from 1; 2 pts for a hit from 14; 5 pts for a hit from 21. He was timing it to break score ties. Everyone was shooting 9mm semiautos. I was the only one to get 9 hits. That was a lot of fun.

After we were done I got out the 686. It was great fun. The plates really danced when 357 hit them. And something about the revolver action made it even better. Maybe the fact that slide wasn't operating made it easier to control? 6 shots as fast as I could acquire the next plate moving down the row and back, and one miss. I need to play with this a bit.

Anybody else have thoughts on why the revolver was so much more fun? Fire away!

*Don't shoot tie plates, at least from 7 yards. Some splash back got me in the nose. From my reading afterwards, you want smooth AR500 from at least 10 yds. I believe even more firmly now in eye protection. We all had eyes and ears.

No real opinion except that revolvers feel and shoot different than autos. I shoot autos better, so have more of a sense of accomplishment when doing well with a revolver.

One thought on the plates, where the mounted straight up (90° to the ground) or angled. One range I trained on had the plates angled forward to that round reflected into the dirt and not back towards the line. IIRC we were able to shoot at 7 yards safely, but no closer.

Angled forward. Though right after, we went to look and two of them had the wires that had held them at an angle shot off. Might have been one of those.

For me it's a matter of ergonomics. A revolver just seems to fit my hand like a glove in a way that no semi auto ever has. I have both and carry both but there's no question that I prefer a revolver . I know you sacrifice a lot regarding capacity but there's also something to be said for comfort.

I can shoot my GP100 and S&W Model 19 better than any semi-auto. I took a friend shooting a while back, offering to sell him a 686+. He owns only semi-autos. He was shooting the revolver quite high; the gun always shot spot on for me. At one point I asked if he needed a new target, then said, "Oh, wait, you haven't hit that one yet, have you?" LOL He didn't think it was funny.

You love revolvers because you are a man of taste.

I got a Ruger Redhawk, 4". If I had more ammo, I may have been able to splat some prairie dogs from 100 yards.

I don't know why Rugers get such a bad rap compared to Smiths, either. I'd take a new production Ruger over a new production Smith any day of the week.

I just had to leave this here:

randy wrote:I just had to leave this here:

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I had those Pachmayr grips on my GP100. I replaced them fairly recently with their new Diamond Pro grips. I like them a lot.

Nice! First gun I ever bought was a 4" 686. Well, followed very closely by a 4" 617 (10 shot steel cylinder). I like them very much.

I prefer the balance of the 4". With the 6" the full lug is too much, makes it a little too muzzle heavy. I'm more accurate with either revolver than I am with any semis I've shot.