SteelShooten

If you essentially have to make your own spring, gotta wonder if there is enough space to make independent half-springs (for the hammer and trigger respectively) so they could be tuned independently.

I have enocuntered problems with FC 9mm brass providing inadequate neck tension so....this is not too surprising. I reload oodles of range brass for general purpose 9mm use. I have found quite a few FC cases that won't hold a 124gr bullet well enough to resist being twisted apart by hand. A couple simply telescoped with moderate finger pressure applied. At first I was worried that something had gone awry with my sizing die but narrowed it down to these occasional shells. The bullets from the disassembled loads were installed in other pieces of brass and did not repeat the failure. Not all FC brass does this. There doesn't appear to be a good way to predict (before they get sized) which shells won't work. I don't use FC 9mm brass in my revolver anyway. As to the light strikes, you mentioned that the revolver has been tuned by a smith, what ammunition did the smith set this gun up to shoot?

The older cranes had a square slot milled around the post on the crane. A square nosed screw went into that slot to retain the crane. It was a stronger design. S&W changed to a V groove and a spring loaded plunger. As others, I assume this it to avoid the labor of fitting. The problem with the newer design is that the plunger provides very little bearing surface. When the crane gets pushed hard, it cams the plunger back (into the screw) until the plunger bottoms out. You can see the crane protrude from the frame if the cylinder is opened and then slightly pressed forward. Under those circumstances, there is just the very tip of the plunger holding against the lip of the V groove and while the plunger is hard, the crane is not hard metal. If the edge of the V groove mushes, the crane can push past the plunger and out of the gun. This leaves a scar perpendicular to the V groove that I don't know how to fix without replacing the part. People I know who have had that happen sent their gun back to the factory to have it fixed. Knowing of this issue, I took the plunger and spring out of the screw in my 617 and reinstalled the screw with a length of drill-rod to replace the plunger and spring. I ground the tip of the drill-rod to a chisel point (approximating the angle of V in the crane) and then fitted it to the gun by reducing the length (grinding the flat end) until became the correct length. If you put the crane in the gun and look into the hole, I suspect the V is not centered relative to the screw hole. The chisel point should be slightly better than the conic on the original plunger. To finalize the length for the drill rod, I took the cylinder off the crane and installed just the crane so it can swing very easily. Then I started the screw with new rod and checked for binding as the screw was turned. Initially it bound the crane before the screw was fully installed so I shortened the rod and tried again. Fitting the drill rod required patience and it can slightly complicate reassembly, but think it does a good job of avoiding the problem described by the OP. I specifically did this for the 617 because the speedloaders for rimfire require more push than any of my other revolvers. It seemed like a good precaution because its the only revolver (I shoot several other S&Ws) where I might even be close to driving the crane out of the gun.

What sources are saying Winchester 38s "having a larger gap"? For the longest time, Winchester 38s have had a .020/.022 wide relief, making them incompatible with the .025" clips I have. I've essentially used the Win brass for speedloader-only guns. It was not worth getting weaker (thinner) clips that wouldn't work well with anything else. With the increase in 7 and 8 round guns that favor moonclips , I think Winchester may have made a change and increased the width of the relief on the more recently made brass. Sorting through my Winchester brass, I found a newer case and tried it in a moonclip. It does fit a .025" clip reasonably well. Older brass does not. R-P, Federal, GFL all work well with the .025" clips. I also have some 10 year old S&B that fits really well. Recently manufactured S&B brass is often too tight; width is OK but the undercut diameter is large. Maybe they meant that Winchester was making their gap larger (than before).

Understand that when S&W sells a revolver, it goes to an unknown customer who may put whatever commercial ammunition into the gun that he happens to have. So, factory new, the gun should be expected to light off just about any small pistol primer. The trigger will be correspondingly heavier than it may need to be, for assurance. Ruger apparently wants extra, extra assurance if the springs they put in their guns are an indicator. Jerry controls his ammunition carefully and will prefer to tune his gun accordingly. He knows that with the trigger re-worked, he should not be too surprised if it won't pop a CCI primer. He won't send it back to Smith on that basis, whereas Joe-average-shooter might be highly dissatisfied if the case of 'whatever' ammo doesn't work in his new gun. A response that "well it only works with -this- load" probably would not be too well received.

I have a 617-4. I only dry-fire when prepping for a stage, otherwise not. While this must add up, I have no idea how many times its been dry-fired; probably thousands. There is no evidence that the firing pin is contacting the edge of any chamber. It would not require much change in the location of the firing pin in the frame (when S&W machined it) for this to have been different. The answer appears to be "it depends"

I've seen this happen. Not quite as serious as your pistol but bad enough. I can offer some observations on 40 S&W brass: I load for a Scheumann barrel in an STI pistol. Even with a U-die, I had some cartridges that stopped short of chambering. After doing a chamber check on a batch of ammo I was often left with about 5% that either failed to drop all the way into the chamber or failed to drop back out without assistance. These were marked and set aside so they wouldn't end up with match ammo. There were several headstamps that failed to chamber after they had been sized. Consulting my loading notes.....a bunch of Winchester & PMC, some Speer, Federal, R-P, S&B, Fiocchi, Aguila. Depending on how reluctant they were to chamber I actually pulled them apart. There are several different Winchester 40 S&W headstamps. The older ones have "WINCHESTER 40 S & W" the newer ones have "WIN 40S&W" There are also several different PMC headstamps. "-PMC-" "∙PMC∙" and font changes with just "PMC". Federal has variations too. This is important because the headstamp lettering changes indicate the shells were made in different stamping dies. The really important characteristic is -inside- the shell where the case wall transistions into the case head. I found many of the rejects had circular cracks ("annular" is the proper word) in the flat area near the inner wall of case. At first I thought it might be lines left by the stamping die but I was able to poke a thin strip of steel shim stock into some of the cracks and photos taken with a digital microscope confirmed that the case wall was beginning to tear away from the case head. I'm finding that newer brass has a larger radius inside and this is a critical improvement. So I started to do a quick visual inspection on all the 40 S&W range brass that I load. Anything that appeared to have this interior crack in it was put aside. This is not hard to do with a good light source and seemed time well spent. The number of cartridges rejected at the chamber check dropped to less than 2%. None of the rejects in the newer batches were so bad that they wouldn't chamber, just not cleanly. I load several other calibers and none of them have issue. (there are some 9mm headstamps I reject on sight but I never found cracks) I also decided that if the brass is so badly bulged that it won't chamber, I'll scrap it. I -could- resize it make it fit, but I now interpret the original bulge as a warning. I would not recommend the bulge buster. I'm not slighting the equipment, but I am against the philosphy of trying to force bad brass to work. IF the case is partially torn already, pushing it into a sizing die does not repair the damage, it hides it. 40 brass is cheap. Some of it really is junk that I'm not interested in betting my gun or my hands on. The challenge is coming up with a system that works for you which can weed out the garbage.

I used a GP-100 to shoot local steel matches for a few seasons. They hold up well to hard use. The trigger was always pretty smooth in double action. Ruger polished the internal parts in tumbler that left a clean glasslike surface except where they grind the final sear surfaces. Cleaning those areas up went pretty quick. The real stumbling block to having a light and reliable trigger in the Ruger GP revolver is the absurdly heavy firing-pin spring they use. The firing pin is retained by a cross pin that is blended into the frame so its a challange to remove the firing pin or its spring. To do a proper job of removing the factory pin requires the services of a machine shop. There is no need to blend the replacement retainer pin to match the contour of the frame but I'd definitely consider the original pin as sacrificial. Also Ruger has not really embraced the idea of racing firearms. If you are on good terms with a smith who works on Rugers and who can get/make the appropriate parts then you are halfway along on your project. I thought about getting a beater to tinker with but right about that time, revolver prices started to, shall we say, appreciate. I found an old k-frame and shelved the idea of tricking out a GP. Good luck with your project.

I bought a 627 Pro this summer. Nothing wrong with it beyond a minor cosmetic mark on the barrel. Heck, it was even correctly sighted in (totally unexpected based on previous experience). However, another shooter who bought one of the first 929s and it had a barrel that never should have left the factory. The breech end of the barrel was not square and what passed for a forcing cone was somewhat radical. They did fix it for him.

For certain brands of brass anyway...and its not a bad thing. How well the brass is held by the clip depends on groove thickness AND diameter. The groove diameter on Starline brass is about .010" smaller than most other manufacturers so it pretty much demands purpose-built clips. Not having an abundance of Starline brass, I tried Revo-Supply 025 clips on Federal, S&B, Fiocchi, & R-P brass with good results. Fiocchi were tightest. PMC and CBC were quite loose. One problem is how consistently said manufacturers make the groove. Occasionally I'll pick up a cartridge that doesn't want to be the last one going into the clip. That one gets to be the first one in the next clip and I'll find another to complete the mostly loaded clip I have in hand.

Altering the slide lock lever may help. You might also slightly adjust the slidestop spring to reduce the down force it exerts on the slidestop.

McGivern would likely have shot double-action anyway.

I suspect the instructions from your engineers are more about trying to minimize entrained hydrogen in the weld area, especially if you are preheating. If they are sharply controlling the amount of heat propagating from the weld, the goal is to minimize the heat effect. It doesn't eliminate it entirely. Not a job I feel comfortable giving to the local fab shop.

The common 'big-box' stores do stock Grade-8 bolts but the selection is limited. Buy spares. Even the Grade 8 bolts will get chewed up by direct rifle hits. Plow-bolts are another option. Also, if your targets are AR500, do not weld directly to the plate. The steel will be softened near the weld where it was heated by the welding process. Its commonly done for pistol targets without obvious problems but rifle is much harder on the steel.

My 97 broke its firing pin also. Not due to dryfiring though, just snapped. Examination of the broken ends indicated it had been broken, yet continued to work, for at least the last range session. I only found out it had fractured when I was cleaning it. CZ was also very pleasant about sending a replacement.

A couple of the local shooters have cans and have brought them to try our winter (off season) stages. One model is impressively quiet and we gave up trying to get the timer to register. Instead of worrying about getting too close to the shooter, we simply do our best to snap the clip on the back of the timer about in synch with the shooter's last few shots. It yields a result that is 'close enough' since we aren't playing for big stakes. The only time this doesn't work is if the gun pukes before the stage is done. If we needed greater precision, a stop plate would do the job but the timer has to have a jack for it.

This. I also slightly (and I do mean slightly) adjusted the original spring so it applies less tension on the catch.

I have had a firing pin bushing in a Ruger that was soft enough to sustain what looked like a dent in the recoil shield. The spent primers stood proud a little bit where they impressed into the dent. For a while is was not a problem but as the entire bushing began to sink, the wall of the recess became exposed (crisp edge) and it would sometimes scrape the protrusion on the spent primers and -that- would tie up the gun. Does it get worse with more potent loads?

Raid the kitchen and cut a narrow strip of aluminum foil. Measure it with your calipers (usually .001 to .002"). -IF- there is a gap between the crown of the firing pin bushing and the recoil shield, a single thickness of foil will fit between your block and the firing pin block. If the foil slides in and out easily, cut a new strip from the wall of an empty beverage can (usually about .003" when flat) and check again.

I suspect the end cap design was S&Ws response to some state regulations concerning threaded muzzles on handguns. A local shooter had 627. He was using the factory single-port comp and jacketed ammo. In the middle of the match he suddenly had a very difficult time hitting what he aimed at. A bullet had snagged the end of the comp and bent it. It was still on the barrel but it wasn't helping. Subsequent shots were being deflected by the muzzle device. Jerry's choice of porting versus the factory comp may, in part, be for reliability.

The MecGar mags have run well for me. So far the only thing I 've had to keep an eye on is the folded sheet metal floorplates. They seem to be a bit soft. The front of the floorplate will occasionally be bent up slightly (from hitting the ground after mag changes) just enough that I've had to straighten it or it won't seat reliably if I just casually install the magazine in the gun for LAMR. Its only happened a few times but it is something I look out for now.

200gr FMJ (MTG or Zero) 4.7gr W231 Win. Small Pistol primers COL 1.195. 5" bbl I got about 830ft/s out of that combination. Work up carefully. My notes indicate primers started to flatten past 4.8gr

Love it. I do have a question though: What does the ~1.3x reload turn into when part of a match; or does it stay that quick? I have had bizzare differences in split times (for the reload) under match conditions compared to the what I see in practice. Probably has something to do with not always coming up to a 2-3yd target.

That's where I'd start looking. I discovered I had a batch of bad primers by being alert to what my brass looks like. They looked OK when loaded but sometimes developed a pinhole split when fired.

Don't pull the speedloader back from the cylinder after it triggers to release. Either let go of it or 'wipe' your fingers down to the cylinder and let it fall away as the cartridges drop into the chambers. We have a local shooter who cant break the habit of lifting the loader during the reload and he has trouble with drawing one round out of the cylinder or not getting them all the way in before trying to close the cylinder. He understands that its a process that doesn't improve by being rushed but after beep...... You have to cut the skirts down to almost nothing before they can't be loaded w/o a block. Hold the loader vertically in your right hand and six rounds in your left hand, all nose up. Guide cartridge bases into each seat location and grasp them in a cluster with your thumb and middle finger. As you push the center post up through the cartridges, they will straighten out. If you keep the bases in their seats, twist to lock them in when the center post won't go any higher.