S&W 317 Heavy Hammer Question

[tleach]

Hi all,

Recently my wife and I purchased a pair of Smith&Wesson revolvers, a 617 for me and a 317 for her. My wife loves the air light 317 except for one thing, the hammer seems to require more effort to pull back than my 617, my Taurus 94 or my Rugers.
Does anyone know if this issue will rectify itself after use or if it is something that a gunsmith needs to address?

Thanks!
Terry,
Albuquerque

 

[1BLINDREF]

Dry fire the be-jesus out of it. It will smooth out nicely.

 

[Iggy]

****

 

[tleach]

I would " dry fire the be-jesus out of it" but the manual that accompanied the gun says not to dry fire the gun or the firing ping may be damaged.

Terry

 

[ewayte]

You can dry fire a .22 if you use snap caps or empty cases in the cylinder.

 

[tleach]

Sometimes I wonder why the obvious answer insn't obvious to me. :banghead:

Thanks!

Terry

 

[BigG]

There are another couple of reasons the 317 does not have the trigger of a 617.

• The 317 is a J frame with a coil mainspring and due to the mass of the parts needs a stiff spring to make sure the RF primers are fired.
  
• The 317 is alloy and does not offer the heft that makes a trigger pull seem lighter than it is. One reason people love the big 617 is because it is heavy for a .22 and hangs well when aiming. You won't get that feeling with an alloy j frame.

You want light and easy, there are trade offs.

HTH

 

[Onmilo]

You don't mention exactly what model of 317 you bought for your wife.
If you bought the two inch barrel version, it comes with a short spur hammer that is normally used on the shrouded J frames such as the Model 49 Bodyguard.
The 317 'Kit Gun' version comes with a longer spur standard J Frame hammer and these can be retro fitted to the two inch guns.
This will make thumb cocking the gun much easier.HTH

 

[rcmodel]

The early 317's came from the factory with absolutely horrendously strong springs in them. Something like 18 pounds!

Mine was impossible for my wife to shoot double-action, and she had a very hard time even cocking it for SA.

I have heard S&W later went down on the spring weight somewhat, (12 pound) but it is still way more then it needs to be.

Anyway, Wolff to the rescue!
Put a Wolff 8.5 pound spring kit in it and everybody will love the little gun way much more! I have had 100% reliability with mine for several years now with the Wolff springs.

http://gunsprings.com/Revolver/SmithWesson_RvNF.html#S&WJ

BTW: You will wear it out dry-firing it before it does any good!
It will get smoother, but it won't get any lighter!


rcmodel