S&W 586 Range Report
Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2022 4:11 pm
Took the S&W 586 to the my gun club for it's first outing. Of course I couldn't take just one 357 Magnum so my S&W 19 and my Cimarron Pistolero came along for the ride. If I didn't I'd have to listen to them complain when I got back. 
I also took and assortment of different loads I had which including my go to 158 gr. Missouri RNFP I use in my rifles, some factory 158 gr. JHP 357 Mag. and some 38 Special target loads (158 gr RNFP MB loaded way down).
Below are the 3 magnums and You can clearly see the difference is frame and cylinder size. The 586 "L" frame on top and the 19 "K" frame in the middle.
My first impression of the 586 was great. From the factory it had a very nice single action trigger pull. The gun handled my 357 Mag. rifle loads very will, but they do have a noticeable recoil in a hand gun. Then I tried some rounds double action. Ugh - I struggled with getting to the hammer set position (second click), but the trigger pull was way too heavy. Even using the 38 Special target loads (less anticipation factor with light recoil) same problem.
So now I needed to do some surgury and make a tuning adjustment. Off come the grips and i back off the main spring strain screw 1/2 turn. Now that was much better and using double action, I can get to the hammer set position. So after a few cylinders I decided if 1/2 half a turn out was better maybe one more 1/2 turn out was mo-better. Sure enough that really worked wonders. The I proceeded to fire the target below with 12 rounds (target load) from 10 yards rapid fire. The black center is 5.5 inches in diameter.
I took turns shooting all 3 guns with the different ammo I had. What a great day with perfect fall weather. There's no doubt, that 586 is a keeper and will get a lot more exercise.
As an after thought I will make at least one more main spring adjustment until I start to get misfires. That will tell me when I've gone too far. Now I just got to track down one or two more trigger rebound springs so I can tweak that function. My guesstimate is the double action trigger on the 586 is almost as good as that of the model 19 and that was worked on many years ago. So with the right rebound spring adjustment the 586 should be pretty dawg gone good. This is what I love about Smith & Wesson revolvers. Once you understand the action they are very easy to tune and adjust to improve the trigger pull. Now if this were a defensive pistol I'd never make these changes.
Paul
I also took and assortment of different loads I had which including my go to 158 gr. Missouri RNFP I use in my rifles, some factory 158 gr. JHP 357 Mag. and some 38 Special target loads (158 gr RNFP MB loaded way down).Below are the 3 magnums and You can clearly see the difference is frame and cylinder size. The 586 "L" frame on top and the 19 "K" frame in the middle.
- IMG_2263.jpg (233.19 KiB) Viewed 1223 times
My first impression of the 586 was great. From the factory it had a very nice single action trigger pull. The gun handled my 357 Mag. rifle loads very will, but they do have a noticeable recoil in a hand gun. Then I tried some rounds double action. Ugh - I struggled with getting to the hammer set position (second click), but the trigger pull was way too heavy. Even using the 38 Special target loads (less anticipation factor with light recoil) same problem.
So now I needed to do some surgury and make a tuning adjustment. Off come the grips and i back off the main spring strain screw 1/2 turn. Now that was much better and using double action, I can get to the hammer set position. So after a few cylinders I decided if 1/2 half a turn out was better maybe one more 1/2 turn out was mo-better. Sure enough that really worked wonders. The I proceeded to fire the target below with 12 rounds (target load) from 10 yards rapid fire. The black center is 5.5 inches in diameter.
- IMG_2265.jpg (162.18 KiB) Viewed 1223 times
I took turns shooting all 3 guns with the different ammo I had. What a great day with perfect fall weather. There's no doubt, that 586 is a keeper and will get a lot more exercise.
As an after thought I will make at least one more main spring adjustment until I start to get misfires. That will tell me when I've gone too far. Now I just got to track down one or two more trigger rebound springs so I can tweak that function. My guesstimate is the double action trigger on the 586 is almost as good as that of the model 19 and that was worked on many years ago. So with the right rebound spring adjustment the 586 should be pretty dawg gone good. This is what I love about Smith & Wesson revolvers. Once you understand the action they are very easy to tune and adjust to improve the trigger pull. Now if this were a defensive pistol I'd never make these changes.
Paul