If you’re in need of a laugh this morning, check out the Ruger GP100 Trigger Job video I posted earlier, which details how I managed to spend an hour and a half doing a “15 minute” spring change. But you know, as frustrating as that was at times, it was nowhere near as difficult as changing the springs on a S&W revolver. You may remember a post I wrote over two years ago about the internals of a S&W revolver complete with illustration.
Now, compared to a S&W revolver, a Ruger GP100 is about as complicated as a hammer, which is nice from the tuning aspect of things. Now that I’ve done it once, changing springs in the GP100 will be a piece of cake, unlike changing springs in a S&W revolver, which no matter how many times I do it will always be a bit of a faff, because I’ve got to take the sideplate off, and say “Klaatu barada nikto” just right or nothing in the gun will ever work again.
However, there is an advantage all that mechanical nonsense. See, the S&W revolver uses a leaf spring for its mainspring, where the Ruger designs use a helical spring. Helical, or coil springs tend to be easier to work with and more durable than leaf springs (all factors being equal) but unless you want to start cutting bits off them are difficult to fine tune. Essentially, with a helical spring you’re stuck with the spring rate, whatever it may be. With the leaf spring in the S&W revolver, you (or even better, a gunsmith) can tune your spring rate quite considerably to make it whatever gets your the right combination of trigger pull and reliable ignition.
So, while the GP100 is a lot easier to work on in general, I get the issue that if the 9lb mainspring and 8lb trigger return spring combo I have in the gun don’t give me reliable ignition, I’m going to just have to go up to a 10lb mainspring (or heavier) to get the gun to reliably light primers. Of course, there are other options as well – for example, if I reduce the mass of the hammer by having it bobbed, the 9lb spring will drive it faster, which would increase ignition reliability. But right now this is all a theoretical discussion, because I’ve not even fired it once with the current set up.
The Ruger GP-style revolvers are a lot easier to work on than a S&W, of that there’s no doubt. But the spring setup in a S&W offers a lot more options in terms of custom tuning. So if you’re looking for a stone-simple gun that’s relatively easy to change bits on, the Ruger is your choice. But if you want to endlessly tinker with things like spring ratios, go for the S&W. Having done both now, there are plenty of advantages to either choice.
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