686-2

[RichardWA]

Picked up this 686-2 today. A friend who is down on his luck traded it to me for a washing machine. It has been well used, but seems to be in good mechanical order.

Serial # AJN3xxx

The grips say The Pachmayer Gripper on them. The grips appear to be about an inch or so longer than the gun frame. Is this normal? Or are they not the right grips? If this gun came with wooden grips are there stock grips available or good aftermarket wooden ones? I prefer the look of wood grips.

Also, the orange insert in the front sight is chipped. Can this insert be changed?

Thanks for any info

 

[DiscoRacing]

those are not the correct grips... it is a K, L frame round butt... just got one myself awhile back.

 

[Duke City Six]

Yes, by all means get some nice wood. K and L frames use the same grips. For starters, try Hogue (getgrip.com) and Ahrends. I think S&W has round butt too.

 

[DiscoRacing]

here is what the original grips would look like on it

 

[Sevens]

here is what the original grips would look like on it

A 686 dash 2 -- not hardly.
That revolver originally came with large target stocks, very much wood. S&W didn't ship that revolver with those rubber grips until MUCH later. A dash-2 is from the early to mid 80's.

The Pachmayr grip that's on it now is the Gripper SK-G model. I bought a set of those after ordering my 686-3 and had them before the revolver came in. I swapped out the original set of stocks within the first 10 mins I had my hands on the revolver and they've never been back on since.

Pachmayr grips used to be the cool grips. Nobody seems to care for them much these days, but I grew up in the 80s and I still love 'em. I've got Pachmayr grips on many of my handguns.

 

[Sevens]

Oops -- in looking at the picture, no way is that the Gripper SK-G. If it were, they'd fit properly. Those don't fit. May not be for a K-frame.

The 586/686/581/681 are L frame revolver but use any K-frame grip.

Those grips look like mine, but mine fit.

 

[Duke City Six]

By the way, you can often find used S&W wood target grips at gun shows or shops.

 

[Kreyzhorse]

Do yourself a favor, find some nice wood grips for that gun. Any gun show will have a ton of grips to look at and installation is easy.