A Review of the S&W Model 681

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gerhard1

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This is without a doubt, my favorite handgun. If I had to get rid of all of my handguns but one, this is the one that I'd keep. It is rugged and reliable, and yet at the same time, it is reasonably light weight. Here is a stock photo of one that I found on another website. Mine is similar right down to the Magna stocks, except that my revolver has a Tyler T-grip and now sports a lanyard attachment of a slightly different type.

www.imfdb.org_images_f_f8_Sw681.jpg


Today, I took it out and put just over 100 standard velocity 38 special rounds through it. I had been reluctant to do this as my gunsmith had done such a good job of cleaning it when he put the lanyard attachment on it that I didn't want to dirty it up. But I bravely bit the bullet (no pun intended) and took it out to my range where I set an IDPA target up and started blasting away with some older 158 gr LSWC rounds that I got from Bullseye in Wichita. It was all fairly close-range, about five or six yards at the max, (typical self-defense distance) and for the most part I did not use the sights.

Accuracy in my hands was more than acceptable, which did not really surprise me, as this was the gun that I used when I took Bill Regina's service and snub-nose revolver class in Wichita about four years ago. I tied for first place in the final qualification shoot, with ksccw member 357Mag's wife being the person I was tied with.

Being as how this is the gun I would take with me on any outdoor jaunts, such as up to Alaska, or if I ever go to sea, I shot with the lanyard attached to the gun and around my neck, and ran into a slight problem. I was using an old air force surplus holster with the hook attachment for the web pistol belt and found that the lanyard cord would get tangled with the hook on the holster. This may take some experimenting to deal with and I might have to switch some stuff around. I'll figure it out.

It might be noted that it is a fixed sight revolver. This I feel, adds to the ruggedness for there are no adjustable sights to knock out of alignment, and as I don't intend this to be a target gun, it can get banged around a bit without this worry. Besides, I don't think that adjustable sights are needed on a gun that has the primary function of close-range defense.

Having carried this particular model off and on for over thirty years, I find it to be a darned good choice. It is, as I said earlier, very rugged, and reliable and has a very smooth DA trigger-pull. This one is a keeper.
 

SPDguns

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I LOVE these guns. They are incredibly rugged and dependable. I carried one for years. With all of the new hi-tech, hi-cap, hi-brow semi-auto's on the narket, the revolvers is now the most overlooked gun on the planet.
 

gerhard1

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Being as how this is the gun I would take with me on any outdoor jaunts, such as up to Alaska, or if I ever go to sea, I shot with the lanyard attached to the gun and around my neck, and ran into a slight problem. I was using an old air force surplus holster with the hook attachment for the web pistol belt and found that the lanyard cord would get tangled with the hook on the holster. This may take some experimenting to deal with and I might have to switch some stuff around. I'll figure it out.
The problem that I highlighted has been solved (I hope). It was a two step process involving a bigger piece of material for the lanyard itself, and, believe it or not, a small section of a soda straw. Cutting the straw so that the piece would be long enough, I simply put it over the ends of the hook, closing them off. And I am having a man from Kansas to make an OD lanyard for it that is much bigger around than the quarter inch cotton clothesline cord I was using before.
 

gerhard1

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A 3" 681 would be very high on my list. (If they ever made one).
I am not aware of a 3" 681 ever leaving the factory, but at one time during the Clinton administration S&W did make a 3" 686 for the Customs service. And if I am not mistaken they still make a 2 1/2" 686.

Personally, I prefer the 4" myself.

Oh, and rather than surplussing them, the Customs service melted them down. :puke:
 

Glock 'em down

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The Smith & Wesson model 681 is the very weapon I took with me to CLEET way back in the summer of 1990. I qualified with it the very first time with a 78.

After a few other qualifying runs, my score climbed every time to the mid 80's and finally to my best score which was somewhere in the upper 90's.

Mine was actually shooting to the right just a little bit, so I told the coordinator, Glen McEntire about it and he said, "ok, lets go see the gunsmith. He can sight it in for you."

I said, "sight it in? But it's a fixed sight gun."

He smiled real big like the cat that just ate the canary.

We walk into the gunsmith's shop, McEntire told the smitty, "hey this guy's revolver needs sighted in." The smitty grabbed a piece of a wooden broom handle, laid the gun down on his bench and proceeded to pound on the barrel of the gun with the broom handle! :ooh2:

I said, "hey, HEY, HEY!!! What in the hell are you doing?!" :scream:

Hey pulled a bright and shiny Smith & Wesson glossy blued model 27 with a 3.5 inch barrel out of his holster, laid it down in front of me and said, "if I leave a single mark on this hogleg, that 27 is yours."

I told him, "pound away my good man!"

After he was finished, it shot spot on and no, there wasn't a mark on it anywhere.

I miss that ol' magnum. Hell...I miss 'em all. :cry3:
 

gerhard1

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I am not aware of a 3" 681 ever leaving the factory, but at one time during the Clinton administration S&W did make a 3" 686 for the Customs service. And if I am not mistaken they still make a 2 1/2" 686.

Personally, I prefer the 4" myself.

Oh, and rather than surplussing them, the Customs service melted them down. :puke:

I just checked the S&W website and it appears that they do.
 

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