S&W 617, how low can yo go?

[Tom E]

Nothing fancy, I've got this one here:

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/192807/wheeler-engineering-trigger-pull-gage?cm_vc=ProductFinding

What I suspected. I've had several of the "fish scale" type gauges. They found a new home in my garbage can to be replaced by a Lyman digital.

[DS-10-SPEED]

I have seen several threads on shooters trying to lighten their 617's to the edge of malfunction, why? What sport are you using it for? I shoot SCSA and bowling pins and find a light trigger pull does not work for me. The cycle time between shots goes up for me with a light trigger, the trigger return for the next shot is not fast enough. I think bowling pins reqires faster follow up shots than SCSA, (except for SMOKE & HOPE) about 0.25 to 0.3 seconds between shots. I tried a 12lb return spring for a while then went back to 13 and 14lb springs in all my revolvers. I leave the hammer spring stock because 100% reliablility is a must.

[Carmoney]

Dave, if you only reduce the rebound spring tension without also reducing the mainspring tension, you can quickly wind up with that sluggish trigger rebound that you describe. When the spring tensions are both reduced, and kept in balance with each other, you can create a significantly lighter action while still maintaining nice snappy rebound.

With the 617, you can only go so far. To some extent, it depends on your ammo supply. Some brands of rimfire ammo will continue to function well with reduced spring tensions, and some will not tolerate any reduction in mainspring tension.

[DS-10-SPEED]

Thanks Mike, but for me I find the stock hammer spring and a 13/14lb return to be very easy to pull. Maybe that's why my right hand trigger finger is noticably larger than my left, also that's from shooting DA revolvers for 45 years. I think reliability is more important to me, since the ammo shortage I can't pick and choose the ammo with thin/soft brass.

Edited April 2, 2014 by DS-10-SPEED

[Shadowrider]

We'll I got my 17 back together. I put in a 13lb rebound spring with 2 coils cut off. Trigger rebound is still pretty snappy, I wish I had an 11lb, but all I have on hand is 13 and up. I bent the factory main spring pretty good and I did it before Warren posted up the correct way. I did it off of my bench block so it's a bit sharper than I would have liked. If it doesn't work out I have about half a dozen other factory springs to play with. This is my first go at spring bending so we'll see. I don't have a scale but while heavier than my L and N frames, it's a good bit better than it was. If it runs ammo I'll get a scale and post up what it pulls.