Hey all

I have a S&W 686 SS 357 w/8" barrel. I absolutely love the gun..best trigger on any wheel gun I have ever felt or owned and it is super tight.

Here is my problem..I am not going to use it to hunt anymore so I don't need the 8" barrel. I want to replace it with a 4" so I can carry it more often.

Can anyone give me an idea what a gunsmith would charge for parts and labor to swap the barrel? I don't have a relationship with a 'smith in my area and am wondering if it's cost effective to swap or just sell the pistol and buy one with the barrel I want?

Any ideas/input would be appreciated.

Thanks

Scott

don't replace the barrel,  replace the gun.  since you seem to like revolvers, go to a gun show & pick a dan wesson pistol pak for about 400$ & then swap the barrels as you please

by replacing the gun, i did not mean selling the smith, but adding the dan wesson to the group.  h.gif

S&W should change out barrels for you, but they will also put the entire gun back into stock, standard form when they do...if your trigger work is not within factory spec, best do not send it to them. Any decent revolversmith can do it, but finding a barrel may be the most difficult part.  S&W will not...to the best of my knowledge...sell magnum barrels or cylinders although they will install them for you. (The reasoning behind this is to prevent some schmuck from converting his pre-war .38 Special into a .357 magnum) Yes, you can sometimes...rarely... find new S&W magnum barrels and/or cylinders for sale, but they are not a glut on the market. CDNN had some 686 cylinders a while back as I recall.

And the 629 is a .44 magnum, so if, indeed, you have a 629 and not a 686 you will be severly challenged to find a barrel for it since there are not the numbers of these guns out there that exist with the "K" and "L" frame .357's. Of course, another option is to have the barrel shortened, but that is a whole 'nother story and will require replacement of the entire front sight assembly. I have had three revolver barrels shortened in my life and only one job was satisfactory to me, but maybe I am just unlucky.

Me? I would sell or trade this gun and get what I wanted...the trigger is not as big an issue as the bucks you will spend for a barrel swap, and you will come out cheaper. JMO

Sorry...you are right it's a 686. I have a 629 also and get em confused somethimes.

I think you are right about just selling it or trading it out. I found some new barrels but they run about $140, so $140 + labor = buy a different gun.

Thanks for the help

Scott