Iver Johnson revolver?

Mine does the same. I just shoot it single action

Johnson, not Johnston.

opr1945 said:

I took it to a local gunsmith to be fixed. He said the trigger spring is broken. He ordered one(

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First, congratulations on finding a gunsmith that would accept your revolver. Many will decline to work on them for various reasons. There are thousands of Iver parts on E-bay and even Gunbroker. Two things come to mind. You will have to know exactly what part you need or what other guns springs will work. A good book is sometimes a good resource for interchange information. Sometimes not. As far as Iver Johnson goes, Bill Goforth's book is probably the best resource but I doubt it will give you specific interchange information per se. You may be able to infer interchange from what is in Bill's book. Second, when buying used parts you run the risk of buying a used part that is not as good as the broken part you are trying to replace.

They are fun guns and once you figure out how to disassemble/reassemble them (think slave pins) they aren't really very difficult to work on. Be safe, choose your ammunition correctly for your firearm.

That looks like a 2nd model 'automatic safety' revolver. If that's a .38 then gunpartscorp is your friend. Otherwise I would expect any actually skilled gunsmith will be able to fabricate one. In fact with a little effort any garage mechanic should be able to make one after some trial and error. I have, and I'm an idiot. Ask anyone who's taken my advice.

If you have the original spring, you can order some music wire in the same diameter - and I did this for a spring I could not find, and take a couple tries and just match it close enought to work, and you're in business. think I wrapped mine around drill bit to creat the right diameter - and then it had kind of a wierd extension, cause on that pistol, think the trigger spring is also the trigger bar spring or something like that, but yea - it didn't take me more than 2 tries and about 1.5 hours having never made a spring before. Still works, still can't find the actual spring anywhere.

There are kits available online that come with various sizes and styles of small flat springs such as the hand spring uses on Iver Johnson revolvers. You may have to modify a spring or it’s possible none will be exactly right. If that happens you would have to make your own spring. It’s not rocket science but it’s not considered basic gunsmithing.

The upshot is that if you really get it down you could make a large enough quantity to sell online one way or another and probably make a decent buck. Lots of these guns are around and the small flat springs are usually the sticking point for broken ones.

film495 said:

If you have the original spring, you can order some music wire in the same diameter - and I did this for a spring I could not find, and take a couple tries and just match it close enought to work, and you're in business. think I wrapped mine around drill bit to creat the right diameter - and then it had kind of a wierd extension, cause on that pistol, think the trigger spring is also the trigger bar spring or something like that, but yea - it didn't take me more than 2 tries and about 1.5 hours having never made a spring before. Still works, still can't find the actual spring anywhere.

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Are you describing making a coil spring, or replacing a flat spring with round wire, film945? I don't know enough about gunsmithing to tell. If this is a Second Model, then the springs are mostly flat springs. Third Model was all coil springs.

Monac said:

Are you describing making a coil spring, or replacing a flat spring with round wire, film945? I don't know enough about gunsmithing to tell. If this is a Second Model, then the springs are mostly flat springs. Third Model was all coil springs.

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the one spring I did was a coil spring, but - my guess is a little determination and if you have the original part - fabricating one is possible. a machine shop could probably replicate the old part as well - not sure how spendy that would be, but there's always a way

film495 said:

the one spring I did was a coil spring, but - my guess is a little determination and if you have the original part - fabricating one is possible. a machine shop could probably replicate the old part as well - not sure how spendy that would be, but there's always a way

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I have an old (1970's) book called "Troubleshooting Your Handgun" by J. B. Wood. In it, he mentions using round wire to replace flat springs in some guns, particularly these old top-breaks. He shows pictures, but doesn't describe the process exactly. You can still find copies of it cheap on Ebay if it sounds interesting to you.

"Parts kits" show up on gunbroker fairly frequently. You may also find luck at https://gun-parts.com/springs/nov14_2.jpg