686-5 Need Info About Cylinders

[granderojo]

I want to change games & use my 686-5 .357.38spl 7 shot for a new game (6rds max) .38spl. I've gotten mixed stories and am hopeing for some knowledgable & correct advice. The question is, Will a 6 ahot NEW style cyilnder ASSEMBLY (ratchet,ejctor,etc) be a direct exchange, Slide 7 off the yoke & new 6 back on? I understand about checking clearences, end shake, timing, ect. Thanks for your time & help with this question.

Edited April 9, 2007 by granderojo

[Bubber]

I want to change games & use my 686-5 7 shot for a new game (6rds max). I've gotten mixed stories and am hopeing for some knowledgable & correct advice. The question is, Will a 6 ahot NEW style cyilnder ASSEMBLY (ratchet,ejctor,etc) be a direct exchange, Slide 7 off the yoke & new 6 back on? Thanks for your time & help with this question.

granderojo, I have done it but I had a few 7 shots to play with and found one that worked. I had a 686 -5 6 inch that I had purchased a 686 old syle cylinder with rachet for, my 6 shot 38 super conversion. I also had an old 586 cylinder that went on a 686-6 4 inch. The action needs to be smoothed up some but they go boom. I made sure that the cylinder indexed to correct spot. good Luck. rdd

[10mmdave]

I had the same good luck Bubber did, i had a 6 shot 6 inch and a 7 shot 5 inch, swapped

cylinders fairly fine, 5 inch trigger was still great but the now 7 shot 6 inch needed some work.

Did have a fairly large cylinder gap on one of them but it shot fine

(course ALL the new S&W 686's I've had have had huge cyl. gaps )

Not sure I would do any swap out without a range rod to check barrel and cylinder alignment,

somewhere, someone talks about a difference in the bolt circle dimension of the charge holes

for older and new models, I have a 586 no dash and a 686-6 that measure the same but

you never know.

So in all, yes you can change a 7 shot to a 6 shot, there will probably be some modifications

to be made and you might want to really think about getting the barrel set back if you have

a gap over .015 ( ) but that's the biggest problem.

Oh !! one other problem, the rachets aren't cut on the new Brownells cylinders,

you'll need to cut those also, you can do it if you go slow, and you can always buy I new ratchet if you don't