SP101 Trigger - where to polish / clean up?

[south_ridge]

All,

I bought a new SP101 this week (.357, short barrel, CT grips). I went in with the expectation of having to do some trigger cleanup work. I took the gun apart last night and was able to polish the mating surfaces on the trigger and hammer, which cleaned up the pull a little bit. Are there other places I should be looking to clean up?

I was going to get a copy of the IBOK from rugerforum.net, but unfortunately they are sold out. So any insight you can give would be greatly appreciated.

I will continue to dry fire a lot and am going to order a set of Wolff springs. I just want to make sure I have all of the right surfaces cleaned up before I start swapping springs.

 

[MADISON]

Shoot the gun for 500 to 1,000 times.
Got to www.gunsprings.com. Use the lowest weight tha will pop primers.
I went with HOGUE grips.

 

[south_ridge]

Is it safe to assume that dry firing accomplishes the same thing (without the enjoyment)? I can put a few hundred rounds through the snap caps pretty easily in the basement.

If nothing else the dry firing exercise should reveal where further polishing is needed.

 

[chris_]

You need to get that guys book (why can't I remember his name???Sowegan? Iowegan?) His book has a great write up on where and where not to. In addition, I grind down the sides of the trigger to get rid of the flat spot and sharp edge.

 

[cwegga]

Yes, the dry firing will do the same thing.

 

[wproct]

As already suggested, lighter trigger & hammer springs, radius off the sharp edges on trigger, and dry-firing a bunch. I also went with Hogue wood combat grips. The sp101 is an awesome little revolver, built like a tank, just gets better with use!

 

[south_ridge]

Thanks for all of the feedback. Unfortunately Iowegan's book is currently sold out so that's why I came here looking for help.

I dry-fired a couple hundred more times last night and ordered a spring kit today. I should be well on my way to a good trigger.

 

[TreeDoc]

I put a #10 main spring in mine, cleaned the inards and relubed. Difference is night and day.

 

[Mr. Sasquatch]

I'd suggest that you first get 2K-3K dry fire clicks on your new gun before you switch to a lighter spring. Let the moving parts and mating surfaces break in and smooth out under the maximum load (stronger spring). Otherwise you may experience light primer strikes.

You can get that many dry fires in a couple of weeks without even noticing it if you just do it every day for 10-15 minutes. Pratice your aim while you doing it to kill two birds with one gun, so to speak.

 

[south_ridge]

Thanks for the feedback. I have been dry firing quite a bit, probably up to around a thousand by now. I have also taken the gun apart a couple of times and did some light polishing on the mating surfaces. Dry firing really highlights which surfaces need polishing.

Polishing the trigger/hammer engagement surfaces made a small difference for me. But what made the biggest difference was paying attention to the end of the hammer strut and where it engages the hammer. That was very rough, and polishing those two surfaces made all of the difference in the world.

I bought a spring kit but still have the factory spring in there. I will probably shoot it "factory" for a while before I change anything.

 

[Mr. Sasquatch]

One more sugestion. Before you switch the main spring save a few cases fired with the old spring. After you have the lighter spring in you can compare the primers before and after. I recently put in a 10# main spring (after ~ 300 life rounds and ~3K fry fires) and there is no difference in the way the struck primes look like. Practicaly the same depth of indentation, yet now my daughter can fire it DA. So there definitely is a difference with the lighter spring.