Questions about my GP100...

[bent]

I just picked up a used 6" GP100 today. I knew I was going to get one of these for quite a while now, so I had purchased the Wolff Springs "shooters pack". Loving to tinker with things, the first thing I did was take it apart. I installed the 9 pound mainspring and 8 pound trigger return spring and reassembled the gun.

The question I have is: when I pull the trigger in DA, the pull weight seems inconsistent between the six chambers. In other words, two of the chambers seem very heavy, almost like they are binding somehow in the middle of the DA pull. Three of the chambers seem very nice, with a linear pull through the entire stroke of the DA trigger. And the last one is in between the other two - not easy and linear, but not quite binding like the first two I mentioned either.

Am I imagining things? Could it be because of the Wolff springs? The two "bad" chambers seem REALLY bad... noticably worse than the others. I figured some of this out by pulling the DA trigger over and over dozens of times. A rhythm began to emerge:

Good, good, good, mediocre, bad, bad
Good, good, good, mediocre, bad, bad
Good, good, good, mediocre, bad, bad
and so on....

Any help guys?

 

[Tom C.]

It is probably the relationship between the pawl, which rotates the cylinder, and the ejector face. The cylinder locks up on the width of the pawl after it has rotated into position. If the little facets of the ejector which form the locking tabs are a little inconsistent, the lockup is either hard or easy. If you feel particularly brave, you might determine which tabs are locking up hard and very carefully and very lightly stone the surfaces to remove surface imperfections which are causing the problem. Or you could just dry fire the gun for a while to help break it in.

 

[bent]

Figured it out, guys. It turned out that the cylinder wasn't turning very easily. I guess it was kind of dry in one spot on the axis the cylinder spins on and when the pawl would try to turn the cylinder it would bind a little. I just lubed it heavily and spun the cylinder by hand for 10 minutes and now it spins effortlessly.

Here's another question: how do I take the cylinder off the crane? Ruger's website doesn't have instructions on how to do that... it only shows how to take the trigger pack out which allows the crane to come out of the frame. But how do I take the cylinder off the crane? I want to gain access to the axis the cylinder spins on so I can clean and lube it properly.

Thanks again.

 

[don95sml]

I installed the 9 pound mainspring and 8 pound trigger return spring and reassembled the gun.

You may find that the springs you installed do not have enough power to reliably ignite some primers nor to provide a reliable trigger reset. The consensus of the articles I have read is that the Wolff 12 lb mainspring and 10 lb trigger spring provide best reliability. Also, do not overlubricate the cylinder assembly because this, combined with powder residue, can create a buildup that interferes with cylinder rotation.

 

[GP100man]

no need to remove the cyl from the crane , its a pain to do & takes three hands to re assemble !!
i take mine & flush with brake clean on a SS gun (cheaper than gun scrubber) blow it all out with air then lube with rem oil, its lite doesnt gum up or freeze up & dries to the touch so it doesnt attract powder particals
this i do to all my GPs.
as for the springs, the acid test on reliability is a slow deliberate da pull on cci primers the9# ftf half the time on all mine& better with the 10# then 100% with the 12# & ive shined up & shimmed 2 of mine & i like smooth as good as i like lite ,but 100% reliability is a must!!
i settled on the 12# hammer &10# trigger return for mine.
ps :dont stone nothing off the da hammer dawg ruger wont sell you a new one .
dont ask how i know LOL

GP100man

 

[Jeff F]

First off, is this a brand new gun. If it is the first thing to do is clean and re lube it. Then shoot it, shoot it some more, clean it and shoot it some more. It won't even start to get broken in until you get hundreds of rounds through it.

 

[bent]

No, this gun is not new. I bought it from a buddy who bought if from used from a local shop. I am at least the fourth owner of it.

It seems that the problem I was having was that the cylinder was spinning on a dry axis and there was some binding going on. After thorough lubrication, the cylinder spins very freely and the DA pull is smooth.

As for the Wolff Springs - I didn't have even one failure to fire today with the 9 pound mainspring and 8 pound trigger return spring. I was using 158gr DoubleTap GDHP, 125gr PMC HP, and 158gr High velocity American Eagle.

 

[jhansman]

Here's another question: how do I take the cylinder off the crane? Ruger's website doesn't have instructions on how to do that... it only shows how to take the trigger pack out which allows the crane to come out of the frame. But how do I take the cylinder off the crane? I want to gain access to the axis the cylinder spins on so I can clean and lube it properly.

Well, if you are really interested, AGI just came out with a Armorer's Course DVD on Ruger DA revolvers. It oughta have all the info you need.