Updated with range report:

So it was a balmy 7 degrees and we went to Birchwod Shooting Center, the outdoor range. Not conditions conducive to fiddling with moon clips and .22LR rounds. My buddy will probably post up video in a few days and I'll post a link when he does.

Sadly 3 new Smith & Wesson revolvers and all 3 have issues.

My 610 is again having light primer strikes. I thought I had previously fixed this problem when I tightened the ridiculously loose strain screw, no such luck. Usually 1 round in a cylinder was a light strike, one instance of 2 rounds having light strikes, all fired with a second strike.

The 686 was 100% functional, but a, "Crunchy" and heavy DA trigger pull. Frame drags marks on the hammer are now more pronounced. Shot low, but a good group in single action, double action not so much. It's a hard trigger to stage, there's so much effort initially that I just blow right through the break rather than hold before the break and gently squeeze through.

The 617 had 8 light strikes in 100 rounds, all fired with a second strike. It also has two chambers that are extremely tight and require a lot of effort to insert live rounds into. Other than that I absolutely love this revolver. Great balance, fun to shoot, and shot the center out of the target.

I'll be contacting Smith & Wesson and sending all 3 back for warranty work. Disappointing to buy 3 new revolvers and have issues with all 3. I used to joke about Ruger double actions. But, my 3" GP100 10mm has been 100% and has a great trigger pull out of the box.

Original post:

I've got the two latest home now; the 617 and the 686. Taking them out to the range tomorrow with my buddy Chuke and he'll be filming for his YouTube channel. I'll post a link once he does.

From left to right 617, 686, 610 and 629.


Initial impressions are mixed.

617, dry firing with snap caps there is a lot of cylinder drag making for a heavy double action pull. Hoping it's just a snap cap issue and doesn't happen with live ammo. However, neither my 4" 617 or 6" 17 drag with the same snap caps. Single action pull is fantastic. Overall fit and finish appears to be good and the grain of the grips is fantastic. Overall balance is really good.

686, fit and finish is a little rough and the trigger pull is gritty and stiff. Compared to my unfired and unmodified 686-4 +, it's like comparing a Taurus to a Korth, an L-Frame with a J-Frame trigger pull. One of those pistols that really needs an action job vs. one that I want to have an action job performed on. There's also a lot of hammer drag on the left side of the hammer and the hammer is not centered on the frame, hopefully it can be fixed with some shims. It has the tightest lockup of any Smith & Wesson revolver that I own. Finish on the grips has an interesting grain but is very light, thinking it needs an additional coat of oil to darken it up some. That said both it and my 617 have a very stiff cylinder release. Wondering if this is attributable to the ball detent lockup on the crane.

610, this one I've had for about 6 months now. Fit and finish is absolutely fantastic. With the exception of the grips. Fit along the backstrap was very bad taking a huge chunk out of my thumb on the first trip to the range. I've spent quite a bit of time carefully sanding and refinishing the grips to get them to fit flush against the backstrap. Their Bear Hug grips for the N-Frame are significantly larger and thicker than those that come on the L and K frame guns. Also experienced light primer strikes having numerous failures to fire on first strike and even second strikes. That was fixed by tightening the strain screw and it has been 100% since with a little heavier trigger pull.

629, this has been my woods carry gun for years until I bought a 329 after my second year in Alaska. Always been 100% reliable and has an action job by Nelson Ford at The Gunsmith Inc. in Phoenix, AZ. 100%, not fun with full magnum loads but comfortable with my, "Light Magnum" handload which is a 240gr SWC at 950fps.

I'm happy Lipsey's was able to get Smith & Wesson to bring back the Mountain Guns. I'm happier than Hugh Heffner with a fresh prescription of Viagra that they do not have the internal locks. I'm just not happy with the current lack of quality control from Smith & Wesson. Three new pistols and all have issues. The 610 was easily fixed, but shouldn't have been an issue, really? how hard is it to see that a pair of grips doesn't fit or torquing down a strain screw properly? Hoping the 617 doesn't have cylinder drag with live ammo, if it does it's going back to Smith.

The 686 is the most disappointing. It's a grail gun I've wanted for years, I want it to be perfect and it's not. Finally got one and it has an absolute crappy action. Part of me thinks I should send it back to Smith for the hammer drag issue and trigger pull. But then, I think a custom smith is going to provide a much better trigger pull.

Anxious to see how tomorrow's range session goes.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 2000Z-71,

Looks pretty nice. I always watch Chuke's videos.

Very nice. I love my 610.

Nice guns.

It's a shame they aren't putting out products as nice as their late 90's pre-lock Mountain Guns. Those were all some of best revolvers made. 357mag, 41mag, 44mag, 45acp and 45colt.

That is a shiny Mountain range and I like it.

I really like the barrel profile on those without the full underlug. A very classy, timeless look. Congrats.

Send it back to Smith. Mine has a great action so see what they can do. My 617 has quickly become a favorite. I don’t go to the range anymore without it and a loading block and speed loader.

The other 2 interested me but I couldn’t justify getting either one.

Range report at top.

That is a huge bummer that three of them have to go back. Curious, what ammo were you using in the 10mm? The reason I ask is that I've had several light strikes with Magtech in the past few months in guns that I know work.

I hope you get the issues resolved because that's a beautiful set. You're still missing my grail Mountain Gun, though...the .45 Colt!

Looking forward to the Chuke video...I'm not sure I've seen four different calibers of MGs compared side by side before.

Was using Winchester USA Ready 180gr FMJ. I like I because it’s cheap (at least for 10mm) and actually loaded like a 10mm with a 180gr. Bullet at 1,200fps. No issues using this same ammo in my Glock 20.

Question. On the 22 light strikes, are they light strikes or just bad ammo. I ask because I shoot a ton of admittedly cheap bulk pack and failures to fire are just part and parcel of modern 22 ammo. Across all my 22’s this is the case.

On my 617, because of internet light strikes reports, I pull each case and look at the rim. In every case on my 617 the strike is plenty deep. Clearly it’s the ammo. On one of these threads I recently posted a picture of exactly what I just described. It’s a nice deep indent. Spun it around and it fired. Modern 22 ammo blows in my experience.

As for the rest that sucks. I tend to troubleshoot myself before sending guns back. Shouldn’t have to but it is what it is. Springfield Armory Emissary almost couldn’t get through a full mag after 500 rounds and multiple cleanings/lubes. Ruger revolver wouldn’t get through a cylinder without binding tight. All that is to say, they both went back, got back pretty quickly, and have never bobbled since. I am surprised 3 out of 4 are fucked up (I should hold my judgement pending your response in the 22). My 686 has a great action.

The 610 “can” use moon clips right? Did the light strikes happen with or without? I ask because the only rimless revolver I own is a Vaquero convertible and a new SAA clone. Never had a DA rimless gun.

I purchased a 586 and a 19 since the first of the year. Had nothing but problems with both and had to return to the factory. Luckily, my LGS made it right by me and I lost very little money on the deals.

quote:

The 610 “can” use moon clips right? Did the light strikes happen with or without? I ask because the only rimless revolver I own is a Vaquero convertible and a new SAA clone. Never had a DA rimless gun.

That is a good question as well. Moonclips can do funky things to headspace as the rims on auto cartridges aren't always perfectly uniform between brands. I seem to remember an older shooting buddy telling me this was an issue with the .40 S&W airweight revolvers...guys had to find specific brands of moon clips that were manufactured at varying thicknesses to work with specific headstamps. I would maybe try at least one other brand before sending it back, just to be sure there's not something like that going on.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
I purchased a 586 and a 19 since the first of the year. Had nothing but problems with both and had to return to the factory. Luckily, my LGS made it right by me and I lost very little money on the deals.

I remember you posting about the 19, but the 586 had problems, too? That really sucks. What was its issue?

The 586 had the front sight and cylinder latch fall off in the first 500 rounds. Turns out the front sight hole is out of spec.

The 19 had light primer strikes out of the box. And the front sight fell off.

I've taken to loctiting my cylinder latch nuts right out of the box. Those have been falling off for decades. Front sights falling off is a new one, though. Interesting (in a bad way) that it happened to both your 19 and your 586...I wonder if they're using bad tooling or something, and how many others are out of spec !

Did they ever identify the cause of the light strikes on the 19? I wonder if it might be something similar to what's going on with 2000Z-71's 10mm...

Came close to getting a new 629 Mountain 4”. Had a huge scratch on the cylinder, a little concerning I think on their QC, of course that’s like almost everything now a days.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:


Did they ever identify the cause of the light strikes on the 19? I wonder if it might be something similar to what's going on with 2000Z-71's 10mm...

All the repair order said was “repair and replace yoke”. The gun went back to the factory 12 hours after purchase.

I have a 686 that had to go back to S&W due to a barrel cant when it was new in 2011. Lately I changed to a 5” barrel that I got from Numrich and had cylinder spacing issues with it after the barrel change. Its back at the gun smith right now.

OP, that’s an impressive slate of Mountain Guns and I hate to read of the issues you’ve encountered. Will be watching for a post-trip-back-to-S&W update when it’s available.

You should see the cant on my 640 Pro. It’s kind of embarrassingly bad. It shoots fine and surprisingly to POA so I never sent it in. It’s not a new gun btw.