Smith 686-6 HI-VIZ

Q

Que

New member
In another thread I wrote about a trip to a shop this past Sunday where I was faced with a choice between a 629-1 and a 657. But, before I stumbled across those two guns I examined a very lightly used 5" 686-6 Plus HI-VIZ. The gun appealed to me greatly but after checking the action I moved on and found the 629/657 that took my attention for the rest of the time at the shop. After putting the 629-1 on layaway (I love having a gun on layaway) I couldn't get the 686 out of my mind. Something wasn't adding up about it. So, when I got home I got out the Smith Standard Catalog 3rd Edition and found the gun. The thing that I had missed in the shop was that it was a seven shot. Had I noticed that I never would have gotten to the 629-1 and would have gone with the 686. For some reason that extra round means a lot to me. And despite having used semi-autos almost exclusively as self-defense guns for nearly 30 years, I have already switched one of my home defense guns to a 2.5" 686 Plus seven shot. I called the shop this morning and confirmed that the 5" HI-VIZ 686 was a seven shot. I then took a little drive.

I had two guns on the chopping block for trading, a striker fired pistol (I'm less and less fond of them as time goes by) and a shotgun. The trade-in value for both of them was far more than I had imagined, so the 686 came home with me along with a Stag Arms AR15 lower with just few pennies out of my pocket.

The standard catalog lists the 5" 686-6 HI-VIZ as a "stocking dealers special". Does anyone know exactly what that means? Does anyone have any experience with this gun? The half underlug really threw me as I have always associated a full underlug with the 686. I'm thinking that with the extra inch of barrel and only half underlug the gun might handle more like a 4" full underlug 686, but maybe with a bit more velocity and accuracy.

Below is a photo of the gun. It's in 100% condition but needs a quick polish with some Nevr-Dull. In time this gun could very possibly replace my primary home defense gun, a Walther P99AS .40 S&W.

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wildboarZ

New member
Very classy gun in person. I think they were distributed through Camfour in 2004/2005 to "stocking dealers" of S&W just as the name implies. Not too spendy if I recall, I can't remember what I paid for mine. The bull barrel is more fun than the underlug. Now you need a 627 PC to add to your 5" collection :)
 
Q

Que

New member
The funny thing is that it wasn't until I brought the gun home that I realized it was a five inch. The collector in me really wanted a five inch barreled Smith so it was a nice surprise. The lack of the full underlug threw me off in judging the length. I was paying more attention to the 7 shot capacity, the HI-VIZ sights, and the Ahrends grips.

Everything that I've read about this gun tells me that there weren't all that many of them made, and most anyone who has one loves it and wouldn't part with it. It's really nice when revolvers like this turn up. Revolver sales are nowhere near semi-autos in numbers around here and the revolvers sit there ripe for the picking.
 
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