Thought I Needed A Repair But Not So Much

[AzShooter1]

I set out to tune my 4 inch S&W 617 for this Sunday's Steel Challenge Match but the repair quickly went wrong. I had been shooting Remington Golden Bullets with no problem but loaded some CCI - SV in my loading blocks to test. I had forgotten I switched bullets. Even though I've shot them in the past with good luck, Wednesday I had nearly a dozen failures to fire in the first 50 rounds.

My trigger pull is set at 8.5 pounds Double Action and 2.5 pounds Single Action. I never really shoot Single Action. This gun is built for speed.

My favorite ammo is Federal BYOB but that's near impossible to get. The Golden Bullets work fine but are hard to find now as well. I do have 10K rounds of them so I want to test my other ammo for backups.

CCI Mini Mags work well, Federal AutoMatch is sketchy with a number of FTFs. The Federal 800 pack works well.

Anyway, after getting to the range I started shooting the SV loadings. After the first 50 I was so frustrated I put the gun back in my bag and headed home to my work bench. Trigger pull hadn't changed so I thought something else was wrong. I replaced the firing pin with a C&S extended one in hopes it would solve my new problem. I also installed a heavier mainspring from Jerry Miculek and brought the DA pull up to 9.5 pounds. Hammer fall is over 55 ounces so it should work with any .22s.

Since I didn't have a chance to go to the range again to test the gun I decided I'd better shoot my Black Mamba Sunday instead of wasting a day. I'll check for reliability again Wednesday and believe I will be able to shoot most of my ammo types but will have to retire SVs for the present.

 

[doubleh]

NIce gun. I have no advise on the SV as I have not had your problem with it but hope your changes work.

 

[sparkyv]

I find that my reset is slow when I use a lighter rebound spring to lighten up the DA pull. Do you find the same, AzShooter1? How do you overcome that when speed shooting?

My trigger pull is set at 8.5 pounds Double Action and 2.5 pounds Single Action. I never really shoot Single Action. This gun is built for speed.

 

[film495]

I'm no gunsmith, but FTF must be hammer strike or the ammo is funny. Are you getting a good strike mark?

 

[AzShooter1]

I find that my reset is slow when I use a lighter rebound spring to lighten up the DA pull. Do you find the same, AzShooter1? How do you overcome that when speed shooting?

I dry fired my centerfire revolvers probably 1000 times a night to build up my finger speed. It took a lot of work. Now I have no trouble with an 11 pound rebound spring. Biggest trick is to make sure you let your finger all the way off the trigger after the shot.

 

[AzShooter1]

I'm no gunsmith, but FTF must be hammer strike or the ammo is funny. Are you getting a good strike mark?

I'm getting a great mark when shooting Golden Bullets and anything Federal makes. I can even shoot CCI Mini Mags and Blazers 100%.

The problem with the SVs really confuses me. Fortunately they work great in my autos.