SP101 - Trigger job or just keep shooting it?

Varminterror said:

Not at all. The job I described above takes about 4hours in total.

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My point was, if a revolver needs all that work the manufacturer should have done it that way in the first place. Triggers 50 years ago were amazing compared to today. The reasons are arguable but they were better by far. They could be today too if they cared.

ArchAngelCD said:

My point was, if a revolver needs all that work the manufacturer should have done it that way in the first place. Triggers 50 years ago were amazing compared to today. The reasons are arguable but they were better by far. They could be today too if they cared.

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They weren’t that great 50yrs ago either. Better than today, but really not as great as most folks pretend they used to be. And relatively far more expensive. I wasted a lot of money paying for NIB vintage revolvers earlier in my life because I was foolish enough to believe in this. Better, but not so much worth the difference, and in most cases, not unattainable in current models.

So for current production revolvers - Want a DA revolver that comes out of the box with a perfect trigger? Get a pile of about $2500 together and part with it.

Or, get about $600-800 together, spend $500-600 on a Ruger, Taurus, or Smith, and pay the rest to a smith, and have a great feeling trigger and a smoother running action at a fraction of the cost.

So it’s really not a matter of how much Ruger, Smith, Taurus, or any other manufacturer “cares” about their products, it’s about the tolerance of the consumer. Most folks don’t want to pay three or four times as much for a handfit revolver just to plink around or hunt whitetails.

Nice.

Just that easy!

"My experience is limited to the S&W K-L frames. I tred to allow mine to work in 500-1K rounds but reach a point that I say "fudge it" and drop them off. From the factory they are decent yet a bit of stoning and polishing by the 'Smith made them far more fun to shoot early in their life. For the $125-$200 that was worth it to me"

Couldn't agree more. After seeing how much better one could be after a "tune" never could go back to suffering with a less than enjoyable shooting experience. This applies to all that I have had from Colt Pythons to Rugers and Dan Wessons.

TomJ said:

I picked it up from my gunsmith yesterday and am glad I spent the $100. Previously the trigger weight was off the chart on my tester and is now just a hair over 10 pounds. More importantly the grittiness is gone, and it's a smooth trigger pull. I'll have a chance to shoot it this weekend.

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That's great! You'll shoot it and enjoy it more now.

I have an instruction sheet on doing a trigger job on an SP-101. I found it on the net but can't seem to find it now. I did the trigger on my SP and now it is awesome. Is it a S&W trigger. No, but its good. So far my record is 22 dry fires double action before a penny laid on the barrel finally bounced off.

I did have some trouble at first. So did the original owner who cut coils off the springs and never made the gun any better. So I ordered a set of springs from Wolfe for it and went to work. It took it all apart and polished everything per the instructions. The gun was still stiff the operate. I took it apart and put back together at least 10 times. Then I noticed something.

When I had the trigger group out I saw what looked like a rub mark on top of the trigger housing. I thought about it for a while and then the light went on. The bottom of the hammer just clears the trigger housing when the gun is assembled. I looked at the bottom of the hammer. That part isn't polished that well because you don't see it. Mine was a little rough. So I took a file and smoothed the bottom of the hammer and put it all back together one more time.

WOW! What a trigger pull I had now. That dang hammer had been barely rubbing on the trigger housing. And now after all the polishing its like its on bearings. Well almost. But what a difference that made. And I used the heaviest hammer spring I had and used a factory trigger spring I had. I like trigger that snaps back fast. So the SP-101 can be smoothed up at home with just simple tools and the price of a spring kit. You can do this yourself.

If no one can find the online trigger job for the SP I will scan in the page I printed off if it is OK with the Mods and post it here. But they gotta say so first.

There is the SP101 Trigger Job previously referenced by Stonebuster2800:

https://www.sp101trigger.com/

There is a video that M-Carbo that offers kits with springs and shims at:

https://www.mcarbo.com/ruger-sp101-/-gp100-trigger-spring-kit.aspx

Here is a video showing the interaction of the hammer and trigger:

https://www.sp101trigger.com/trigger.html

a video on the GP/SP tuning:



and another:



AND:

https://gunner777.wordpress.com/2008/08/24/ruger-gp100sp101book-of-knowledge/

RugRev said:

There is the SP101 Trigger Job previously referenced:

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No its not. I found that one. No detail on doing the work like the one I have printed off.

I am not sure if this will work. Here are the instructions for the trigger job. It was on the net in the public domain so I can't see where it would be a copyright violation.

See next post. Sorry about that.

OK lets try this. These same instructions will of course work with the GP-100 guns.

stonebuster said:

It's impossible to answer your question with any certainty because every gun is a little different.

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ding, ding, ding, ding, ding we have a winner! ^^^^^^^^^^

Every gun is different. But with a large sample size you can get some-sort of idea.
Sorry I know that's not what you wanted to hear (or read)

@stonebuster & @Hondo 60 - the sentiment, in this case, that every revolver is a law unto itself really doesn't apply. While it is true that some revolvers might get smoother, and some might get worse when "wearing in" the action by dry firing, it is ALSO true that "wearing in" a revolver by dry firing will never yield a result as smooth as having an action job done by a knowledgeable and talented revolversmith.

Lots of shooters are content with factory actions as they come off of the shelf. Lots of shooters are content with "worn in" actions after a few thousand dry fires. But neither changes the fact a tuned action will be smoother, and can be made to run more reliably AND with lighter trigger pull with a simple action job.

Varminterror said:

@stonebuster & @Hondo 60 - the sentiment, in this case, that every revolver is a law unto itself really doesn't apply. While it is true that some revolvers might get smoother, and some might get worse when "wearing in" the action by dry firing, it is ALSO true that "wearing in" a revolver by dry firing will never yield a result as smooth as having an action job done by a knowledgeable and talented revolversmith.

Lots of shooters are content with factory actions as they come off of the shelf. Lots of shooters are content with "worn in" actions after a few thousand dry fires. But neither changes the fact a tuned action will be smoother, and can be made to run more reliably AND with lighter trigger pull with a simple action job.

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I've no doubt there's no comparison between the results you'd get from a good gunsmith vs what a novice like myself could do. A good revolver smith isn't easy to find sometimes. I needed a side plate screw for a model 10 and took it to a smith I was referred to. He pointed out the yoke screw and said that's the same as the one I needed. I disagreed with him and he proceeded to bugger up the yoke screw with an improper screw driver "to prove it to me." So choose your smith carefully. I have learned quite a bit about my revolvers by doing some simple mods though. To me it boils down to how good do I need to get it. Some folks spend $2000-$3000 sending their $600 SP101 to a custom shop and nothing wrong with that if it makes them happy. I'm better served to spend the cash on training/ammo because most of my guns are already capable of shooting better than I can.

I have done three GP-100 and one SP-101 trigger jobs involving smoothing internals and doing a Wolff spring change. The spring pack comes with three hammer springs and a lighter trigger return spring. I changed out the trigger return spring for the 8 lb spring. The hammer spring I used the middle one which was a 10 lb hammer spring. The factory one is 14 lbs. I never had a problem with light strikes and the pull was dramatically reduced. The SP101 was only used for target use so a reduced weight was not a concern. If it concerns you then use the factory spring. The hammer return spring is unnecessarily heavy in the factory weight.

I have done trigger work on more S&W I,J and K frames than anything, but I do have a SP101 4in in .32 magnum. I have the Wolff kit for it, but opted to keep factory springs in it. Mine left a lot to be desired when compared to a S&W or even a GP100 or the older Six line by Ruger. I took it all apart and looked for burrs and crud. I hosed it all out with Kroil and lubed what needed lubing and re-installed the trigger pack. I stoned the hammer strut sides and I polished the ball end of the strut that inserts into the hammer. I greased the ball end with stainless RIG grease and rebuilt it all and cycled it a bunch. I didn't interfere with hammer hooks or sear angles. It made a marked difference. A good cleaning and eyeballing to eliminate problems goes a long way.

"I've no doubt there's no comparison between the results you'd get from a good gunsmith vs what a novice like myself could do. A good revolver smith isn't easy to find sometimes. I needed a side plate screw for a model 10 and took it to a smith I was referred to. He pointed out the yoke screw and said that's the same as the one I needed. I disagreed with him and he proceeded to bugger up the yoke screw with an improper screw driver "to prove it to me." So choose your smith carefully." Stonebuster.

How true! There is no formal education and/or testing requirement for someone to call themselves a gunsmith. Had a big name shop once screw up a revolver when I told them to chamfer the cylinder for speedloader use. Instead of a slight bevel with 45 degree cut guy used an 11 degree cutter for forcing cone and went deep. Another shop a guy did some actions jobs that turned out ok. Third time around he had his kid do them he was hoping to make into a gunsmith. Innards were butchered with no true angles. Could have done better myself without even knowing what I was doing.

I had a professional action job done and down to a 12 pound spring and have had no problems. I think the 14 pound is just what is needed when the action is variable and likely to be a little coarse.