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Easy Way to Make DA Only?


AusPPC

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I have a 686-6 I am about to start work on in terms of smoothing and lightening the double action for competition.

The problem I have is that once I do this the single action will be illegal (i.e.it will fail trigger weight checks at scrutineering). I know the normal process is to bob the hammer to permanently remove the single action capability, but I want to be able to return the gun to normal factory operation in the future, so any kind of cutting or drilling is out.

So I'm really looking for a reversable way to de-activate the single action.

Here's my question - can I insert a rod inside the rebound spring, that when cut to the correct length, will allow DA operation, but prevent SA operation due to stopping the rebound slide just short of its normal stroke? I imagine the effect would be the same as when a set screw is installed in the trigger guard, stopping the trigger just before it's able to engage the SA notch.

Thanks in advance :)

Edited by AusPPC
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Buy a S & W hammer from Numrich.. $25+ and cut it.... It sounds like your taking the revo apart even if this other mod works... (I've done 3 Numrich hammers, you will need carbide cutters or a bench grinder. WAY hard stuff, that MIM's. Leave your stock hammer untouched....Or spend $$$$ and get the APEX & firing pin.

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The easy way is to do a trigger stop on the back of the trigger or in the trigger guard. You can do a pin in the rebound spring but it's very fiddly to get the length just right and usually tends to change over time as the rebound slide pin bends with use. Pulling hard on the hammer will still cock the single action by bending the rebound slide pin (yes, some jerk off will do it). Then you have to take the gun apart to get the hammer back down.

What I do is drill a hole in the back of the trigger with a 1/8" (3mm) solid carbide drill, not all the way through. Then cut a piece of 1/8" (3mm) steel rod and Loctite it in. Then file to length with the "file some and see where you're at, file some more" method. You can fit a trigger stop in a few minutes this way after some practice. For guns that I want both the single and double action operational, I then stone the single action sear on the trigger down till the single action works too. This way the one trigger stop is correctly set for both. I like to make it so that it won't go off with 2 or 3 thicknesses of paper under the trigger stop, but goes easily with none.

To undo the process, pull the trigger stop and you're back to square 1.

Edited by Toolguy
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> snip < get the APEX & firing pin.

This!! :rolleyes:

Easy to fit ... and ... bet you wouldn't have a bit of trouble selling an L frame Apex hammer when you decided you didn't want it anymore (fits frame firing pin K frames too). Or (like mentioned) pickup an extra MIM and cut it (you don't really want a thumb pad hanging out there while trying to do da only ... someone would likely attempt to slip hammer the gun ... or see what would happen if they pulled back on it hard enough). Revo guys/girls have "higher standards" right??!?? If you do it nice no one will ever want to put the original hammer back in.

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The easy way is to do a trigger stop on the back of the trigger or in the trigger guard. You can do a pin in the rebound spring but it's very fiddly to get the length just right and usually tends to change over time as the rebound slide pin bends with use. Pulling hard on the hammer will still cock the single action by bending the rebound slide pin (yes, some jerk off will do it).

And in the process they are force dragging the trigger nose across the sear faces on the hammer tearing them up.

+1 with buying a second hammer and just cutting off the SA cocking porch.

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What Toolguy is describing is pretty easy and cheep to do especially if you have a drill press. All my competition revolvers are set up this way and after years and thousands of rounds I have not had any problems.

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Thanks everyone, I don't have access to a drill press to correctly make a trigger stop, so will have to experiment.

If I have to sacrifice a hammer to make the DA conversion then so be it :)

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You could try using the rubber (eraser) tip from a pencil and gluing it to the frame. You could set it so that it was still possible to cock the hammer in single action, but it would add enough resistance to make the S/A pull legal. We used to do this with our PPC revolvers.

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If I have to sacrifice a hammer to make the DA conversion then so be it :)

Depending on how light you were intending on tuning your 686's DA pull, you could run into reliability issues if you didn't bob the hammer anyway.

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You could try using the rubber (eraser) tip from a pencil and gluing it to the frame. You could set it so that it was still possible to cock the hammer in single action, but it would add enough resistance to make the S/A pull legal. We used to do this with our PPC revolvers.

I've always been intrigued by the rubber trigger stop, which as you say was popular with PPC setups and used as a 2nd stage. John Pride did this very thing!

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If I have to sacrifice a hammer to make the DA conversion then so be it :)

Depending on how light you were intending on tuning your 686's DA pull, you could run into reliability issues if you didn't bob the hammer anyway.

The 686 is my wife's for PPC 1500 competition, but as it's only a transitional gun (she will eventually have a custom revolver built) I wanted to make the investment and modifications minimal. Otherwise a bobbed or Apex hammer is definitely preferable.

Actually here in Australia there is some debate among the Masters and High-Masters regarding factory spur hammer versus the Apex. There are some smooth DA only setups, some with the spur and some without. I personally like the Apex which I have in my own PPC gun.

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You could try using the rubber (eraser) tip from a pencil and gluing it to the frame. You could set it so that it was still possible to cock the hammer in single action, but it would add enough resistance to make the S/A pull legal. We used to do this with our PPC revolvers.

I've always been intrigued by the rubber trigger stop, which as you say was popular with PPC setups and used as a 2nd stage. John Pride did this very thing!

I found (after a while at least) that I had to cut it down slightly, so that it didn't act as a two stage trigger pull.

At 50 yards, it was fine having the two-stage pull, but at 10 and 15, I found it too obtrusive. I ended up with it set more to limit overtravel, where it also provided enough pressure to increase the single-action pull, not that it needed it of course, oh no...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well I finished the action job on the 686-6 and I learned a few things.

Toolguy, you were right :) Grinding a custom pin to fit inside the rebound spring (to act as a defacto trigger stop) will defeat the single action, BUT, the clearance is so close, and there is still enough flex in the action, such that pushing the hammer back extra firmly will get it to cock in single action. Then you have to dismantle the gun to decock it. As the gun will see a lot of regional tournaments, at some point one of the scrutineers will cock it back hard and inadvertently lock it up, so I had to abandon this idea.

Instead, I ground and polished off the single action notch on the hammer, so that single action is now totally deactivated. To return it in the future all I'd need to do is buy a replacement hammer, which being MIM, means the existing fitted DA lever can be swapped right across. So I kind of achieved my goal of making the DA conversion semi-permanent.

The wife is very happy with the action, very smooth, good reset and came in at 7.5 pounds. I'll let her shoot it a while before I tune it a bit further.

Thanks for the guidance and I hope the above helps someone else.

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