Caved on the GP100 4" .22/Now Received and Fired

Well I couldn't help myself and ordered one of these today from Davidson's:



Range report when I get a chance.

I have the 6"-I love mine. Barry

I have the same one and really like it. Be sure to keep us up to date on how you like it and how it shoots.

Picked the gun up yesterday and took it to the range. Gun shot fine and the 4" barrel balanced real well. The gun is not the most well finished, lots of tooling marks on the frame interior near the forcing cone and the recoil shield. But trigger is good and the exterior finish is nice. Really like the gun.

Ruger revolvers aren't know for fit and finish. They are, however, built like tanks. I hear people talk bad about the triggers out of the box. Clovispup's new SP101 has a decent out of the box trigger IMO. A little bit of a hard pull, but fairly smooth. Perfect for a carry weapon.

I've never shot one of these, but I have five Smith and Colt .22 DA revolvers and love them all. I hope yours makes you as happy as mine do. :wink:

From what I have heard .22 DA revolvers tend to have a heavier trigger pull due to more hammer force needed to set the primer off.

Mus408 said:

From what I have heard .22 DA revolvers tend to have a heavier trigger pull due to more hammer force needed to set the primer off.

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+1 I've heard, and experienced, the same thing. You cannot use lower power springs in a .22LR revolver the way you can in a centerfire and get the same reliability.

Mus408 said:

From what I have heard .22 DA revolvers tend to have a heavier trigger pull due to more hammer force needed to set the primer off.

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I don't buy this. Maybe for certain gun models, due to the geometry or workmanship of the internals. But this doesn't hold true for all 22 double actions.

sp327 said:

Mus408 said:

But this doesn't hold true for all 22 double actions.

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OK, which one(s) doesn't it apply? My experience is with S&W and Ruger and it seems to be true for both of them.

22/45 Fan said:

sp327 said:

Mus408 said:

But this doesn't hold true for all 22 double actions.

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OK, which one(s) doesn't it apply? My experience is with S&W and Ruger and it seems to be true for both of them.

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My Colt and Smith .22 DA revolvers don't have heavier mainsprings than their centerfire counterparts (which I also own), but then they're full-size guns. The "heavy springs" thing might mainly apply to smaller guns with lighter hammers--especially if they're spurless, which means they're even lighter yet.

Snake45 said:

My Colt and Smith .22 DA revolvers don't have heavier mainsprings than their centerfire counterparts (which I also own), but then they're full-size guns. The "heavy springs" thing might mainly apply to smaller guns with lighter hammers--especially if they're spurless, which means they're even lighter yet.

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I agree on the full size .22LR revolvers having the same main springs as their centerfire counterparts but most centerfire revolvers can be successfully fitted with lighter springs and still remain reliable.

I have a .357 GP-100 I refitted with a 10-pound Wolff mainspring (14 pound is the factory standard) and the reliability is still 100%. My S&W 686 had an action job that included a lower power mainspring and is also 100% reliable.

I wouldn't expect a .22lr GP or K-frame S&W to work that well with the lighter springs.

DA is fairly heavy on the gun (dont have a trigger scale) but smooth with a little stack at the end. The SA trigger is very nice for a brand new gun and I would guess 4-5 lbs. I want to put several hundred rounds down range and then see if I want to do any trigger work. Again for a new gun I am very happy with the triggers.

I have the 4" blued, and the fit and finish is beautiful on mine. The only minor issue was some sharp burrs on the sides of the hammer checkering, but a few strokes with a fine file took care of that. I have a little over 2,000 rounds through it, and everything's been great.

Rugers factory hammer springs for the center fire SP101 are 14#'s the hammer spring for the rim fire is 16#'s.
I too put lighter springs in my center fire and they work fine. I do not have a SP101 22RF so I do not know if they can be lightened. You might try a 14# spring and see how reliable the ignition is.
I have read comments from a Ruger rep about the Ruger LCR 22lr having a heavier trigger pull than their center fire guns.