Carmoney

The Wolff mainsprings can be tuned just like the stock springs.

Jon, Sounds like our old nemesis Skip Chambers might have showed up at your match. See if it's free-wheeling intermittently. If so, replacing the cylinder stop and cylinder stop spring might do the trick. Also check the firing pin and spring. If you can't get it figured out, let me know. Mike

You won't live long enough to do it my friend. Merlin, you better watch your back--that sounds like a threat. He only needs to watch his back when picking up moon clips in front of you Mike I believe you're thinking of Hopalong.

The sear springs on the newer MIM-guts Smith revolvers are tiny little coil springs that are held in place by simple detents on the hammer and the sear. I've never seen one break. The more common problem is that sometimes people go messing around inside the gun and remove and replaced the sear spring carelessly, allowing the spring to be bent or squashed when reinstalled.

You won't live long enough to do it my friend. Merlin, you better watch your back--that sounds like a threat.

Hammer spurs are for midnight cowboys.

A very happy belated birthday to bigsexdog. Looks like Dave has been spending a lot of time working on his embouchure.

Yeah, they last a long time. I remember Jerry talking about a couple of his older working guns that had a lot of mileage--I know one of his 27s was well up into the six digits. I haven't kept track of the round count on any of my guns, but my old 25-2 is probably the highest. That gun was well-used when I bought it back in 1987, and it was the primary gun I used during my first 10 years of shooting pins and plates. In fact, Mas Ayoob mentioned my old 25-2 in one of his recent articles--funny that he would remember that gun! The center-pin hole on that ol' heater has gotten a little oblong, but I've kept it tuned up over the years and it's still a great match gun. I had it with me as a back-up at Nationals and Sam shot it at Memphis back in the fall. Bottom line--you just gotta ignore all those little old hens on the S&W Forum!

What about widening the notch in the LPA sight with a small safe-edged file? You've already spent the money on the LPA, you might as well make it work, right?

They're absolutely awful to shoot with magnums. I have a pretty strong grip, and I'm not particularly recoil-sensitive, and I won't shoot the 340PD/SC series anymore with hot loads. I don't want nerve damage in my hands.

I personally would not want a rear sight that wasn't adjustable for windage, but I have no doubt the SDM is well made.

That's the Weigand blade we're talking about, MIT. It may say manufactured by Brownells, but that's Jack Weigand's blade--guarantee ya.

Generally speaking, the Weigand blade is a direct replacement for the stock rear blade, so you should be able to run a front sight at factory height (which varies from model to model).

John, the Weigand unit isn't all that hard to install once you've done a couple, but it sure goes a lot easier if you have the spanner for the windage screw nut and the correct punch for staking the screw and the nut. When installing the Weigand blade, you actually break the stock windage screw, so you have to order the installation kit (which includes a new screw and nut, plus an extra plunger and spring) along with the Weigand blade. The plunger and spring are really tiny, so it doesn't hurt to have a good set of hands while handling that part of the operation. For more on this topic, see my dealer forum.

If you're looking for a really effective way to annoy the living hell out of everyone around you, show up at a steel challenge match with your single-action hogleg.

I have not said that recently. It gives me great hope to know that it's possible to make a huge comeback after being nearly left for dead.

Thanks to the Carden brothers and everybody else in between! I bought myself a 629 for my .44th birthday. Mike

No! All other things being equal, taking weight off the hammer will improve primer ignition reliability. More info on that topic here: http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=80870

I don't think it's necessary to clean a working revolver until it's all nice and silvery everywhere, but I always start any big match with a clean revolver. They don't need cleaned internally very often, and I very rarely take the sideplates off any of my personal competition guns, but it's smart to keep the external stuff fairly clean, particularly the chambers, cylinder face and forcing cone area, under the extractor, and the other obvious spots where the gunk builds up.

If you want a thinner front sight, I strongly recommend buying one from Toolguy. Back when we didn't have the options we do today, I thinned a lot of revolver sights with a file and bottle of cold blue. It's not terribly difficult to do, but it's really hard to make them look good cosmetically. It's well worth the money not to have to dick with it for hours trying to make it look right.

My #1 suggestion for people struggling with the revolver: Hang onto the gun HARD!!

He's so famous, they featured a "Butter Jerry" at the Iowa State Fair.

Craig, you're hearing all sides of the issue here, from some highly qualified wheelgun personnel--just goes to show you there's more than one way to skin a cat (or possum, in Bubber's case)! Truth is, you should probably shoot whatever you enjoy shooting the most, whatever that happens to be.

OK, but I want that chick on the front cover to come interview me in person. I don't think that's too much to ask.

I want to clarify something here, for those just tuning in: 625s are not prone to timing problems. In fact, it's rare to see a 625 that doesn't properly carry up on all six chambers, even after extensive use. What we have seen somewhat routinely on the stainless Smiths is mild peening of the cylinder stop notches, which for a small minority of shooters eventually develops into severe peening of the stop notches, including a built-up "rebound lip" at the bottom of the notch lead-in ramps. This can cause the cylinder stop to jump the notches, allowing the cylinder to intermittently free-wheel and skip chambers. This seems to happen primarily to those who dry-fire their guns relentlessly, and particularly to those who slam the cylinder shut with full force as they run through their practice regimen. The good news--this problem can usually fixed by removing the "lip" and the surfaces eventually seem to work-harden so the problem stops recurring. For most, anyway. The Ti cylinders do prevent this problem from happening in the first place. The Ti material is hard enough to resist the deformation I described above, although for most shooters it remains a mostly academic issue. Truth be told, most people who install a Ti cylinder do so because they think it's really trick!