Finally took the side plate off my S&W

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sabbfan

sabbfan

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Gilman, IA
I’ve had my Smith 69 4” 44 mag for a little over a year now and finally got brave enough to take the side plate off. I’ve been disappointed with the trigger, it was heavy enough my trigger scale wouldn’t read it and honestly not near as nice as my Ruger GP100 or SRH. I’d been debating a trigger job for it but decided to put the Wilson Combat spring kit in it. And it actually was pretty darn simple once I got in there! Put the reduced hammer spring and the 13# rebound spring in and it now measures just under 8# double and 2.5 single. So much better! Just got to wait til the weather improves to make sure it will light off the Winchester primers I use. Overall a great improvement and I’m glad I decided to tinker with it myself.
 
I decided to try that and had issues in a 625 with a reduced weight spring set. Primer ignition was spotty, especially CCI and Winchester. I put the OEM springs back in and it is back to 100%. Trigger pull was fine originally, but I wanted to check and see if I liked a lighter weight.
 
I have replaced springs in a few. When putting a reduced power rebound spring in you really should polish the rebound slide & the frame where it rides. That way your reduced power spring will also have less work to do. I reload with CCI primers and they all go off. I usually yse a 14 or 15 pound rebound spring and shoot for a trigger pull around 9 pounds, but a very slick 9 pounds
 
I've been doing action jobs on S&W revolvers for 40+years. The trigger weight for a competition gun is very different from that on a carry gun.
Competition guns are set up to give 100% ignition with Federal primers, but usually aren't reliable with others. Since all my and my customer's comp guns are run with handloads, that's not a problem.
I use Jerry M's springs and have learned where to polish and how much to polish. Installing an extended firing pin in those guns with a frame-mounted pin makes all the difference.
I gave up trying to get the best DA pull with the factory mainspring. The shape of Jerry's spring allows for a far lighter DA pull without a ridiculous amount of "stacking".
Not long ago, a friend was checking out my revolvers and tried dry-firing my M-29. The hammer wouldn't cock. The trigger stop I'd installed wouldn't let the hammer go back far enough to catch the SA sear. I'd never noticed that, because I'd never fired it SA. It occurred to me that I'd never fired any of those revolvers SA.
Three N-Frames

Three N-Frames

N-Frames
 
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Here’s an update, was able to sneak out to the backyard this morning and try it out and am happy to report I had 100% ignition with my reloads using Winchester primers. I shoot all of my DA revolvers double action and now I can say this Smith finally feels like I hoped it would! All my others are Rugers so I’ve never messed with a Smith, now I won’t be intimidated to maybe try some polishing to see if I can make it run even better.
 
Japle said:
I've been doing action jobs on S&W revolvers for 40+years. The trigger weight for a competition gun is very different from that on a carry gun.
Competition guns are set up to give 100% ignition with Federal primers, but usually aren't reliable with others. Since all my and my customer's comp guns are run with handloads, that's not a problem.
I use Jerry M's springs and have learned where to polish and how much to polish. Installing an extended firing pin in those guns with a frame-mounted pin makes all the difference.
I gave up trying to get the best DA pull with the factory mainspring. The shape of Jerry's spring allows for a far lighter DA pull without a ridiculous amount of "stacking".
Not long ago, a friend was checking out my revolvers and tried dry-firing my M-29. The hammer wouldn't cock. The trigger stop I'd installed wouldn't let the hammer go back far enough to catch the SA sear. I'd never noticed that, because I'd never fired it SA. It occurred to me that I'd never fired any of those revolvers SA.
Three N-Frames

Three N-Frames

N-Frames
Click to expand...

Are those orange front sights bought or are they home grown?
 
S&W revolvers are generally oversprung. The springs need to transmit force for the trigger reset and to drive the firing pin forward positively and their weight is leading to the heavier trigger pull. The springs also need to overcome the resistance that friction gives them and no action job is complete without reducing that friction by polishing in the proper places and these spots can be seen after the trigger has been pulled about 500 times. The rub marks are on friction points.
The next step is to check if the hammer or trigger needs shims and that is just the beginning of a labor of love.
Of course, there are a few guns that have an internal finish that does not leave anything to be desired.
SW-lockwork.jpg
Korth-inside.jpg
 
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Changing the springs as you did is a good way to get a better trigger. If you don't know what you are doing it should be the only thing you do. DO NOT USE A DREMEL on your gun. That just makes gunsmith happy when they have to fix your work.

I do all my own gunsmithing now but that's after over 40 years of shooting and working for two gunsmiths that taught me what to do. I still your Jerry Miculek's video on how to do an action job. There are things in there that many gunsmiths do not know or just don't tell you about.

My competition guns are highly modified but my carry guns have just been polished a bit.
 
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