Can't go wrong with the 686.

Stick with your first love, the S&W 686. Great gun.

686+. You get 7 rounds of goodness over 6

gp100 with the wood/rubber grip and change the sights to a fiber optic. A little heavy but nice shooter with the heaviest .357 mag loads or the lightest .38 spl. I love mine

I don't understand your comment...

 

"They also don't do some things that Rugers and S&Ws do better."

 

Realistically, they're all wheelguns. What could a Ruger or S&W possibly do that a Colt couldn't?

 

You can get a much smoother trigger pull on a S&W (and a Ruger IMO) than you can on a Colt. Their mechanisms are much more conducive to smoothing up than a Colt I or D frame. Springs on a revolver basically 3 things ensure ignition (the primary purpose of a firearm), trigger pull and trigger reset. S&W, Ruger, and Taurus overdo their springs so while you get good reset and ignition the trigger pull can stand some improvement. When you get into modifying a revolver and swapping out springs you can have 2 of the 3 things very good but not all three. For example, if you want good ignition and trigger pull you're going to get poor reset. You can maintain all three pretty good down to about a 8 lb pull on a S&W or Ruger. Past that point you're going to have to balance the three functions. Colt sacrifices trigger reset on I and D frames from the factory. I'm about 100 years old but I can still cycle the trigger on a stock Python or Detective Special fast enough to lock up the trigger.

 

People lighten triggers by swapping out springs all the time. The fact is smooth is much more important than light. There was some surprise in a thread recently when someone posted that Jerry Miculek uses extra power springs but his actions are very smooth. No way could he (or anyone else) cycle that trigger that fast with light springs. When you get below about that 8 lb pull you are going have to make comprimises in trigger reset or ignition. This is evident when you see people looking for the softest primers so their gun goes off. If you're a good shooter you'll shoot good with a 12, 8, or 5 lb trigger. Going straight to a light trigger is using it as a crutch instead of an edge. Spend some time developing the muscles in your hands and fingers and that 8 lb trigger doesn't feel that bad. When you start to go below that many have the revolvers converted to DAO because they've made the SA way too light.

 

S&W has the best action of them all, stock or modified. Want proof? How many speed shooters use something other than a S&W revolver? Maybe 99% of all PPC guns are built on a S&W. This is even when Colt revolvers were in production and if they were better the pros would have used them.

 

Pythons have this following I just don't understand. Yeah they are good guns and finished nicely but as I explained their trigger pull comes at the expense of trigger reset. They were "handfitted" at the factory which may be why on a percentage basis I've seen more Pythons come new with something wrong with them than S&Ws or Rugers. So being all used by now they most likely have been fixed. Colts have no mystique for me.

 

 

Gotta disagree with you on this. DW's have a very short LOP with quick reset and fast locktime. Was at Quinby's in Dublin, PA on Friday and he had 15-2V (blue) and a 715-2V (SS) in the case.

 

Adios,

 

Pizza Bob

 

I will agree to disagree. Dan Wessons always had good SA but AFAIC the DA left something to be desired. Another issue is that unless you have large hands you need both of them to open the cylinder which is why they've never been embraced by combat shooters.

 

Dan Wesson has always had a loyal following.