Dumb modifications

[zachomega]

Part of me thinks, a gun is somebody's property, they can do with it what they want.

But sometimes you see stuff that just leaves you scratching your head.

My first gun (you know, before i knew better) was a s&w 686-3. I got it for an okay price in a used case. I had my heart set on a wheel gun. And it is/was an excellent gun.

It showed a lot of wear and i knew enough to ask about that. I was told the gun was originally one of those midnight black 686's. But the original owner didn't like the finish and used a chemical to remove it.

In doing so, they left small pits in a few places on the gun.

It actually looks like they may have bead or sand blasted it. The engraved parts are still all there. Although the logo clearly has been hit a bit harder. Again, it is clearly there.

The surface finish is now kind of porous. This of course makes cleaning the gun an absolute pain in the ass. This was probably just an unforeseen consequence of however they removed the dark finish.

I fear trying to polish it will only make the situation worse so i just leave it alone. Why mess with a functional gun? Right?

I just don't understand why somebody would do this.

It is kind of the most senseless modification I've seen. I've seen other modifications done poorly, but they were at least addressing problems that made sense.

-Zach

[raxar]

Some high-temp paint will solve your problem.

[Noah_Zark]

IMO, polymer grip stippling with a woodburning pen is right up there. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

Noah

[jthrelf]

They call that bubba'ing

[Emptymag]

Putting suppressors on guns seems like a pretty dumb thing to do.

[Ricochet]

That's like when I see long range deer hunting scopes on an 8" barreled AR pistol.

[Bang]

A little googling says the 686-3 blued are from 1989. One blogger says they are not particularly rare....thousands were made....it was an actual bluing process that penetrated but did not hold up too well because stainless is softer than the normally employed gun steels.

This is a surprise to me...first I've heard of them. Have you considered buffing, since the damage has been done anyway? Or, if too aggressively sand blasted, then at least it should provide good "tooth" for paint.

[DucatiRon]

I Cerakote so it would be a no brainer to me. Refinish and enjoy.

[Daycrawler]

IMO, polymer grip stippling with a woodburning pen is right up there. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

Noah

That's the first thought that came to my mind as well. Somethings just cant be undone, and stippling is one of them.

[MARINE DIVISION TWO]

686 was Stainless.The 586 was Blued ! Got my 686 sitting in the safe !