Hey guys,
Just thought I would put together a quick review of a new S&W 686 SSR I just picked up.
Background: IDPA shooter, shoot 625s and have a Ruger match champion to compare against as well. This will be used a competiton gun
Ordered it new from Gunbroker, came into the shop and I checked it over - looked perfectly good. I did not notice any obvious signs of poor QAQC or anything on a quick look over before leaving the shop.
Gritty trigger with a DA pull in the 10.5-11.5 range somewhere. Very distinct wall at the back of the pull that once you reach you have to overcome to set it off.
Came home and first order was to change the red ramp front sight. Not a hard job - DX interchangeable that I have changed on my 625s a bunch. This is where some weirdness started. I pulled down on the sight and it sort of popped out like it was supposed to but was stuck. I tapped it with my hand and when it let go......the detent and spring yeeted out into the room and there was a massive puff of yellow/white powder that came out onto the flood and was in the channel that sight was sitting in.
At this point I noticed without the sight on that the "ramp" that the sight mounts into was dented in at the end. Like when they were trying to intstall that tiny pin in the ramp, it got crushed or hammered. The red ramp itself looked totally level at the store but when I found it on the floor after it popped out, it was bent to the side a little bit. No sign at all of that tiny little pin. After an hour I found the detent and spring - both coated in white/yellow crusty stuff that looked an awful lot like glue of some sort.
So when I pulled out that sight, the spring and detent - with no tiny pin in there - went thermonuclear across the room.
Installing a different sight and oiling and putting the detent and spring in (no pin yet, it is coming in the mail), the sight sits flat but if you look close you can see the left side where the ramp is dented up. Does not seem to affect the sight of the gun. The detent and spring push against the sight and push it forward into the frame of the ramp and it holds perfectly fine.
That was the first issue and luckily the worst lol.
Inside the gun was totally dry.
Has a Wolff main spring from the factory with a full length strain screw.
Polished up the internals, put in a TK lock delete, installed LPA rear sight, installed SDM front fiber, replaced the rebound with a 16lb, strain screw tight, greased everything up lightly inside, put back together and trigger pull was MUCH smoother without the grit or much of the hitch at the end of the pull (still there but not as noticeable) but the weight was still in the 10lb range.
Took it apart again and VERY gently bent the main spring in just a little bit - back together and trigger pull at 8.5ish.
Flexhoned the cylinder a couple passes only to test with live ammo.
Range day today and color me impressed.
Ran 100ish rounds through it. Mostly PMC (hard primers I have heard) and some Fiocchi.
Had 2 light primer strikes in the first 18 rounds. Took it all apart at the range and checked strain screw - nice and tight. Took out the main spring and VERY gently flexed it back just a tiny bit.
Back together and 80 rounds more without a single light primer strike - everything looking solid.
Empties dropped out of the cylinder without much help from my thumb on the rod at all.
Accuracy was fantastic, very smooth operation.
Trigger pull on the gauge when i got home is 9lbs but is smooth enough I do not notice at all.
Compared to the match champion the trigger pull is much shorter to set the gun off on the SSR. I think the match champion is smoother throughout the pull though. Mechanics feel roughly the same between then aside from the cylinder release. I like them both for what I plan to use them for.
Hitting a couple local matches within the next 2 weeks so the SSR will get some on the clock work.
v
