hexidismal
Member
Here's a little backstory first. My S&W 686-5 6" has had a little problem for some time now. It's a tad hard to explain without actually demonstrating it. Basically when the trigger was not released crisply after a pull, it reset only to the point where it would, on the next attempted pull, only turn the cylinder about a half turn and not cycle the whole action. Once done, the timing was off and would continue to do this until fixed by either manually positioning the cylinder into place or manually cocking the hammer. Hmm ! 
Well, the gun did function mostly alright, as long as the trigger was allowed clearance to "snap" forward after a complete pull. I took it to the smith I had originally bought it from and he took a quick look at the internals and said.. "Well, we can probably clear that up if you have me (PAY ME to) do a trigger job". 
I don't like this smith.. Anyway, I kind of bought it his story that it might be something about the overall balance of springs, or an issue with their length. My other initial suspicions were maybe a worn hand or something. I used the gun in this condition for some time, because it wasn't really a big problem, and my normal trigger release speed was generally sufficient to not get it caught up.
I've been doing a lot of my own trigger jobs lately (I'm currently learning gunsmithing) So, I decided to take it apart and see what could be seen. I found the problem.. and it was certainly not what I expected. And a trigger job would NOT have fixed the problem.
The 686-5 for those who don't know is the last pre-lock revision, and uses an MIM hammer and trigger.
Here's what I found when I inspected the trigger itself. First a picture of the "Healthy side"
Now lets see the other side.
As you can see the MIM trigger had at some point had some of the metal cracked away. The broken rough edge and subsequent wear had created a surface that was not easily passing into the engagement face of the cylinder stop. Thats why a quick forceful trigger rebound was able to push it past the bevel onto the hook, but a slow release was allowing it to get caught up.
Here's a "super macro" photo of the damage.
Final thoughts.. I need a new trigger, and MIM parts = BAD !
Well, the gun did function mostly alright, as long as the trigger was allowed clearance to "snap" forward after a complete pull. I took it to the smith I had originally bought it from and he took a quick look at the internals and said.. "Well, we can probably clear that up if you have me (PAY ME to) do a trigger job". I don't like this smith.. Anyway, I kind of bought it his story that it might be something about the overall balance of springs, or an issue with their length. My other initial suspicions were maybe a worn hand or something. I used the gun in this condition for some time, because it wasn't really a big problem, and my normal trigger release speed was generally sufficient to not get it caught up.I've been doing a lot of my own trigger jobs lately (I'm currently learning gunsmithing) So, I decided to take it apart and see what could be seen. I found the problem.. and it was certainly not what I expected. And a trigger job would NOT have fixed the problem.
The 686-5 for those who don't know is the last pre-lock revision, and uses an MIM hammer and trigger.
Here's what I found when I inspected the trigger itself. First a picture of the "Healthy side"
Now lets see the other side.
As you can see the MIM trigger had at some point had some of the metal cracked away. The broken rough edge and subsequent wear had created a surface that was not easily passing into the engagement face of the cylinder stop. Thats why a quick forceful trigger rebound was able to push it past the bevel onto the hook, but a slow release was allowing it to get caught up.
Here's a "super macro" photo of the damage.
Final thoughts.. I need a new trigger, and MIM parts = BAD !
