I have a 4” 686 plus and I’m having a devil of a time finding a holster for it. Any suggestions? I ordered one from 1791 through Amazon and the gun would not fit. You could have beaten it with a rubber mallet and it still wouldn’t go in. I am looking for a leather OWB holster at a reasonable price. I understand that a good holster is not cheap, I just can’t find something I like so far.
686 plus holster
- Thread starter JBB
- Start date
I modded an S&W factory K-frame holster to allow a 2.5" 686+ to fit.
The last pair of digits on the holster are 32, where 3 means K-frame, and 2 means 2" barrel.
It's long enough for a 3" K-frame to fit without the muzzle poking out.
At first the L-frame would not fit, and it looked like the culprit was 1" long portion of the welt in the trigger guard side of the holster. The leather would hit the frame (below the address) in front of the trigger guard. I took a sharp 1/4" wood chisel and trimmed the welt using a push cut motion. The 686+ fit fine after that.
I doubt if that's a universal fix since holsters are different, but maybe you can look at yours and see if the welt is what's blocking your 686 from going into the holster.
There are two pics of the holster in post #19 of this thread:
https://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=609522&highlight=woods
The last pair of digits on the holster are 32, where 3 means K-frame, and 2 means 2" barrel.
It's long enough for a 3" K-frame to fit without the muzzle poking out.
At first the L-frame would not fit, and it looked like the culprit was 1" long portion of the welt in the trigger guard side of the holster. The leather would hit the frame (below the address) in front of the trigger guard. I took a sharp 1/4" wood chisel and trimmed the welt using a push cut motion. The 686+ fit fine after that.
I doubt if that's a universal fix since holsters are different, but maybe you can look at yours and see if the welt is what's blocking your 686 from going into the holster.
There are two pics of the holster in post #19 of this thread:
https://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=609522&highlight=woods
Last edited:
IMhO finding a good holster is incredibly frustrating. Good for you for not trying to cheap out.
Just as an aside, I do NOT think 'Uncle Mike' holsters are cheap, they're quality products at a good price. Some of the more famous brands would be Galco, Bianchi, Fobus, DeSantis etc.
Midway USA has a feature called 'Holster Finder' that I've found very useful. The Midway site is:
www.midwayusa.com
Good luck. Once again finding a good holster, IMhO is WAY harder than finding a good gun.
Just as an aside, I do NOT think 'Uncle Mike' holsters are cheap, they're quality products at a good price. Some of the more famous brands would be Galco, Bianchi, Fobus, DeSantis etc.
Midway USA has a feature called 'Holster Finder' that I've found very useful. The Midway site is:
www.midwayusa.com
Good luck. Once again finding a good holster, IMhO is WAY harder than finding a good gun.
There are hordes of 'em. Have a look here. Not stupid expensive either. More than making one though.
https://www.craftholsters.com/smith-wesson-model-686-4-inch-owb-holsters
https://www.craftholsters.com/smith-wesson-model-686-4-inch-owb-holsters
I would suggest looking at Simply Rugged holsters. I have a couple of them. They list their standard "Sourdough Pancake" model for a 686+ for $80. They are excellent holsters. I just started a thread in this forum showing off one of their carved holsters.