I have a 6" Prelock 686  . I would say I fall into small hands group. I never could comfortably hold onto the factory grip. I went out and got some pacmire grips for it years ago . 100% better. But would be nice to put a nice looking set of wood grips on her. Is the smooth style to damn smooth for a .357 ? Any recommendations ?  Also I see where its always listed as Square bottom vs round. In the 686 there is  both ?  I love the look of the rounded smooth . TIA for any help. WD

Just my opinion but I never liked smooth wood revolver grips.  My hands tend to sweat especially on the range in the summer and I feel like I always have a poor grip so it's checkered or rubber.   Smooth makes me grip the gun too tight.  

I have short stubby fingers and for some reason I like the original S&W target grips over the factory Magna grips.  

I have Pachmeyrs and like them well enough.  I like the Hogues better except that they extent too far at the butt to cover the securing stirrup they use.  

You might like the combat grips with the finger grooving.  They look better on round butts over the square butt style.  You're stuck with square butt I figure?.  

Uncle Mikes grips were pretty popular for a long while too.   Out of production though so you'd be looking at new old stock or used.  



ETA

a 6" and odds are it's a square butt.  A quick look at the S&W site where they sell grips they have the first block asking which you have with pictures of the bare frame.   The square butt  has a definite point at the rear of the frame that points to the rear.   The round butt sweeps back in toward the front and looks like they "clipped" a square butt frame.

Agreed, which is why I prefer the Hogue checkered grips.  They look and feel awesome!

Lots of very nice S&W K/L frame grips from Thailand on ebay. Very nice, inexpensive, and smaller than the target stocks they come with.

Thanks for the replys. I pulled the grips on my two 686's and I have a 6"  square type. And my shorty is a round. The shorty came with S&W labeled round smooth  finger  grip style.  Well I had both of these since the late 80's . got them NIB . I decided to pull the side plate and clean/ lube. WOW    more to a revolver than I thought. I did not take anything out other than the sideplate and pulled the crane and cylinder. I lubed all the contact /slide points with  Breakfree LUBE  . What I did find interesting is I put the crane screw back in on the 6" revolver and it locked it up . I had to back off the screw slightly. Found out this is normal enough .Now my 2 1/5  " 686  crane retaining screw has a spring loaded pointed screw .The groove for the screw was v shaped for the pointed screw. I guess this was a fix/ upgrade. My shorty was actually made or purchased in 90-91 . It has january 90 stamped inside my hand grips. But my 6" I purchased in 86 .   it's a dash 1 and the shorty is a dash 3 I believe . Memory is flakey this early in the morning... I like the pachmyre's on my 6" but wood looks great. I know function over anything else....Thanks again, WarDawg

I have smaller hands and my go to grip for any K,L, or N square butt are Hogue's.

I use Hogue Miculek Competetion grips on my 686 and love them.

yep,   I have my original wooden Python grips but shoot with a rubber grip.    When I sell the thing off it's worth way more with the wooden grips.    I should be able to get my $400 back out of it.

Take a look at Ahrends Grips.
Their retro grips are slimmer than comparable S&W stock grips.

Take a look at VZ grips. They are smaller than the target grips, but a little bigger than the concealment magna grips.

Pachmayr grippers are too small for me, so give those a try.

The vz grips looked really nice in the smooth black cherry. But saying that , the Ahrends Grips.  in the retro red stained maple was kinda what Im looking for. Maybe with the tung oil finish .Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. WarDawg

Another "small hands" vote for Ahrends. I put a set of square butt smooth grips on my Model 19. Beautiful grips that fit the gun perfectly. I did end up thinning them a bit (personal preference); they feel fantastic, even with 158 gr JHPs.

I have small hands and have tried the Hogue, Arends, VZ...

The best grip for revolver, especially if you have small hands is the Craig Spegel grips.  Especially if you go for the boot grips.

Granted, the wait is ONE year.  But it is totally worth it.

There's a reason there is one year wait for the Spegel Grips:

http://www.craigspegel.com/

I like the standard S&W grips w/a old grip adaptor.

I had Hogue FG on my 686, much smaller than the factory wood.

But I sold the gun...