Carmoney

Problem solved--thanks all!

Sure.

I have a work conflict (which I am hoping will clear, but it might be last-minute) but Sam is signed up for the match. I need to get some ammo and moonclips to him--is anybody coming through from the east on I-80 who could cart some ammo out there? If not, could I ship some ammo this week to someone who can get it to Sam at the range on the morning of the match? Drop me a PM. Please and thank you!

Yes, around .06" It's not a hyper-critical dimension, though. The spacer just needs to keep everything in the right alignment so the cylinder can open and close normally.

Kramer!

OK, so this is the modification we did to mate the M29 donor yoke to my M27-7 heater. See that stainless spacer between yoke and frame? That's what we made. (Nothing exotic, just turned down the OD on a 5/16" flat washer, and held it on the belt sander until the thickness was right.)

I can't tell where the fracture started. I've messed around with it so much that the broken surfaces all sorta look the same to me. I suspect it's nothing more than metal fatigue over 15-20 years of heavy use. I actually am quite gentle with my revolvers--my reloading technique does not involve the wham-slam moves that I see certain other shooters do. Even at full speed, I open them gently, and I close them gently. I suppose it could have been caused by hot gases gradually cutting down from the cylinder gap, maybe? This gun has never seen more than a few magnum loads, but I have shot a whole bunch of competition ammo (typically about 140 p.f.) through the thing. I have dealt with a lot of revolvers over the years, and I don't believe I have ever seen this particular failure happen on any of them. I'm going to chalk it up as a fluke event, I guess. One thing I have learned from this--there is a reason S&W insists on installing these at the factory. There is nothing much involved in the actual "fitting" process, and they pretty much drop right in--but they apparently have made a ton of variations of yokes! The stainless one that Toolguy sent me had a yoke barrel that was about .2" too short--not sure what kind of gun it came from--maybe a 625? The blue yoke that MRBerg gave me was designed slightly differently (it came from a damaged 29 Classic), and initially it didn't work either. But earlier this evening a machinist friend and I were able to fix it by fabricating a .06" stainless spacer to go between the yoke and frame. I came home, adjusted the endshake slightly, and went out and shot 5 or 6 moonclips through it. The ol' gun perked along just fine, so I think I'm back up and running. I am going to test it more this week (including our local Tuesday night USPSA match) to make sure everything is good before I trust using it at the Free State Championship next weekend in KC. I have other guns I can use, if necessary.

I am very gentle.

Right now I have a conflict, but if it clears at the last second, will you take a late sign-up the night before? I would love to shoot those stages!

My friends came through for me--thanks Toolguy and MRBerg for helping a brotha out.

No idea. I wouldn't think my minor loads would be blasting out a whole lot of gas. That gun does have a lot of rounds through it, maybe it just got tired.

Warren, I love Pintos! My first car was a Mustang II, which is pretty much the same thing as a Pinto. I promise I would give that SS yoke a really good home!

They don't show any "new style" N-frame yokes in stock at the moment.

This is a new one for me. The yoke barrel on my S&W 27-7 broke clean off. Any idea where I can get one of these? I lost my contact at the factory.

You're welcome, Warren. I'm glad to be part of this conversation--as others have mentioned, it's not every day that something truly new and innovative happens in the revolver world ("this thing of ours"). I will continue to provide updates as I gain experience with the RevUp hammer package. Whatever I post will be my honest and objective assessment at the time. Warren and I are shooting friends from way back--I have shot matches with him, purchased products from him, and visited his shop--but I have never requested or received a discount or freebie on any of the stuff he makes. I can't be bought! Seriously, I continue to believe this RevUp kit is something that many revolver people will find valuable.

Over the past couple days I have been test shooting my new 627 with the RevUp kit installed, and comparing it to my older 627 that is set up identically but with a Carmonized factory hammer. Both guns are sighted in at 15 yards, and all my test shooting has been free-handed (no rest) at that distance. The actions on both guns feel really good--but they are different! Right now I am not shooting the new RevUp gun as well as my old one. Could the new 627 not have the same intrinsic accuracy as the older gun? Possibly, but not terribly likely. I noticed that if I want the new RevUp gun to shoot tighter groups, I have to concentrate on really bearing down hard with my support hand. (And keep in mind that I use a pretty strong grip already.) The best way I can describe it--the ignition point is later in the action cycle than I expect it to be. So maybe I'm starting my "post-ignition push" a little too soon, and throwing the shots off? I'm not really sure, but I have the feeling that it's somehow related to my follow-through process. I think this is probably a matter of simple acclimation. I've been shooting my own revolver actions for 35 years, and now I'm trying something that feels distinctly different. I think it's going to take some adjustment time to overcome all that hard-wiring.

Sounds good, Dave.

I left in whatever FP spring was included in the kit. I think it's a Ron Power. Sems to work fine. Sam is flying in, and planning to shoot one of my guns, so pretty good chance one of us will be running the new RevUp 627. My little box arrived today from Brownells, so the gun is all set up now. Just need to loctite all the screws and get it sighted in.

Isn't the whole point of the JM grip is that it lets your hand slip and slide around on it while you are shifting the gun from hand to hand and back again? You know, until you decide to apply your steel-vise-like Jerry strength once you get your hand back where you want it?

I personally find the LPA product to be rather unsightly on a S&W revolver, but they work perfectly well. Fiber-optics in a rear sight is a dumb idea, in my view--the last thing you want to attract your focus is the rear sight blade. Weigand blades are OK, but they have three flaws: (1) hassle to install, (2) wiggle around, and (3) the edges turn silver when the anodizing wears off, and you can't touch them up with cold blue. I would like the Weigand blades a lot more if they fit a little better and they were made out of steel.

OK guys, I'm back with another report. Yesterday morning I finally got around to doing the rest of the action work on my box-stock 627 with the Rev-Up kit installed, and tuned the mainspring tension to the point where I expected it to feel nice, but still give me 100% ignition. So far so good, right? No, not good. I was getting too many clickers. (Q: How many clickers is too many? A: More than zero.) The crazy part was that even when I increased the mainspring tension several times--to the point that the DA was starting to get way heavier than I like, I was still getting the occasional misfire! This despite centered primer indents, minimal endshake, good moonclips, etc., etc., etc. I finally set the gun down in frustration and went down to the lake. Today as I was driving back north I was thinking about what could possibly be causing the problem. Then I remembered the bad luck I have had with every type of aftermarket S&W firing pin ever made. So this evening I pulled the sideplate and popped out the FP that came in the Rev-Up kit. Lo and behold, there was a telltale ring worn into the bluing where it obviously had insufficient clearance in its channel. So I put in a factory Ti FP from the old stash I set aside years ago, adjusted the spring tension back to where I thought it felt decent, and ran five mooncilps through it. Frickin' thing ran 100%. So then I tweaked the mainspring a little until the action felt even better. (As you all know I don't do the whole loose-screw=and loctite nonsense.) Five more mooncilps out back--still 100% ignition. Then five more moons--100% again. So here's my little Pro Tip. If you're having trouble getting your DA pull weight to a nice level with the Rev-Up package, consider the possibility that your entire problem is being caused by the goddam aftermarket firing pin. With all due respect to my industry friends who make and sell the aftermarket pins....in my experience they are all inferior to the older-generation dome-nose factory Ti pins. (Ideally one that measures .495" if you can locate one.) I'll be back with a field report after my shipment from Brownells gets here. I had to order a Hogue cylinder release and a fiber-optic front sight to make it like my other match revolvers. I'm very happy with the Rev-Up kit so far, the minor FP glitch notwithstanding. I think a lot of people are going to have great results from using it.

Probably Don Golembieski.

Probably. It won't take me long to do the rest of the work on the gun, having done hundreds of them over the years. The only problem will be finding all my tools and parts. I think I saw my cylinder chamfering stuff not long ago....I might even have some cutting oil down there. If not, I know where I can borrow some. Wonder if I have another NOS Millett rear sight? Hmmm.......not really sure. I haven't done a real action job in like 10 years.

OK, I took a fresh 627 out of the box just now. The DA on this gun was the typical 25-pound ratchety-ass sandbox that we often see on "Performance Center" S&Ws. Absolutely terrible. Then I installed the RevUp kit and adjusted the strain screw until I figured I would get 100% ignition, and did absolutely nothing else to the gun. As expected, the action immediately improved ten thousand percent. Then I shot the gun out back, and experienced an issue. On the fourth shot, the trigger didn't return. Had to nudge it with my fingertip until it snapped back forward. Put in another moonclip and tried it again--same thing, on one (but only one) chamber, the trigger stuck. NOW--this is definitely not the fault of the action kit. I haven't gone back inside to look, but I can tell you right now the problem is a piss-poor fit between the hand and one (but only one) lug on the ratchet. I'm sure S&W left it that way, since they employ no actual fitting process whatsoever these days, and the problem was disguised by the heavy factory rebound spring. (A few hundred dry-cycles would probably fix it.) When I have more time, I will finish tuning the rest of the gun, and I think I'm really going to like it. I'm also going to fit a proper-length strain screw so I can bottom that sucker out. You guys already know how I feel about playing "Loctite Roulette" with a match gun! Don't ask me how much the hammer tension weight measures. I don't even know where my trigger pull gauge is at the moment. Probably buried under that big dusty pile of crap on my bench. I can tell you that on this gun, the 11-pound rebound spring felt okay, but that could change once I get the other stuff done. My impression is that on a gun with decent fitting between the hand and ratchet lugs, and a cylinder that spins smoothly on a properly-aligned yoke barrel, the RevUp kit should be pretty much a drop-in competition action job as advertised. I anticipate some of you will probably see me shooting this gun at matches this season.

My RevUp hammer kit has been here for a week or so. I went ahead and ordered a new 627 PC as a test bed. I can use another 627 anyway, since Sam has one of mine out in Colorado and my 27-7 is over at Mojo Joe's getting a new trigger stud installed. This will be interesting. It's been something like 10 years since I did action work on a revolver. Wonder if I can find all my tools and stuff down in the dungeon?