Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns J frame S&W DA trigger pull ???

Is it possible to lower the DA trigger pull on a J frame S&W by a few lbs. and still be dependable ?

Not sure what the weigh is now, but it must be about 12 lbs.

Can this little revolvers trigger be lightened without sacrificing dependability.

I've put bullseye spring kits in SA Ruger handguns with no problem, But don't know about DA guns.

I think a qualified gunsmith is the one to see. Bottom line, it still has to go "bang" EVERY time.

I'm setting this up for my Wife, who is 69 and has weak hands.

Thanks for any advice.

Virgil B.

By "a few pounds" .... perhaps a pound or two as J-frames just don't respond to action work like the larger frames. But, they can be smoothed up with some judicious stoning and polishing. One thing you can do however (that doesn't directly effect detonation reliability) is lower the weight of the rebound spring. This can be accomplished by cutting a coil or two off the factory spring or (my suggestion) simply replacing it with a lower weight spring. This will make the trigger return a bit lazy compared to the factory weight spring, but I suspect this won't be an issue for your wife.

Here's a decent spring kit:

https://shopwilsoncombat.com/Custom-Tune-Spring-Kit-SW-J-Frame/productinfo/321/

About 4 revolvers ago, I dry fired the heck out of a J frame immediately after buying it (to the tune of a few thousand trigger pulls over the first week), but in hindsight, I wasn't sure if my finger got stronger, or the pull was really reduced. That left me perplexed, so..

I've been doing some buying/selling/ consolidating of guns here lately since I'm going to be losing access to the family "farm" (a.k.a. my shooting range/ hunting ground) when my dad sells it off. In the last several months I bought a new: S&W 60, 63, and 617 and decided to go about this trigger pull reduction/ smoothing thing a little more scientifically. Everyone says if you just "shoot it a lot", it will smooth out and become buttery smooth.

Weighing both single and double action pulls before and after with my Lyman trigger pull gauge, I first dried fired each of the new guns 2,000 times or more. (Yes, I used snap caps with the rimfires). Results.. they sure felt lighter to me. Turns out, the trigger pull gauge says... Zero difference. I now suspect this is people building up the muscles in their trigger finger giving them the illusion of a lighter, smoother pull.

On the model 60 and 617, I totally disassembled them and did the light stoning on all the areas recommended by all the videos I could find. Results.. zero difference. After this, I didn't even bother on the 63. Incidentally, I accidentally learned some lessons the hard way on the difficulty of putting a couple springs back in.. most notably the spring for the hand!

Then I acquired some multi-spring kits from Wolff. I charted the differences on a spreadsheet I made up to track the results- unfortunately, I accidentally deleted the numbers for the 63, but they essentially mirrored the 60's- in spite of the centerfire vs rimfire. The ratio of spring weight to trigger weight reduction wasn't necessarily linear, but there was a reduction pretty much every time on both single & double action when I dropped the poundage on either spring.

I checked for reliability by firing double action, since the hammer doesn't hit quite as hard as it would firing single action. What I found with all three guns was that at either 13 or 14 lbs on the trigger "rebound slide spring" (a.k.a. the trigger return spring) was the bottom limit. Any lower and you get too sluggish a return. That spring has no real affect on how hard the hammer strikes the primer.

Then I fooled with the hammer springs. On the J frames- they use coil springs- the 8.5 lb worked reliably with both the 60 & 63, and the 8 lb even worked on the 63, but I got an occasional double action misfire on the 60, so I went back up to the 8.5 lb.

Another lesson I learned the hard way happened the first time I took the 617 to the range and put about 300 rounds thru it. Now, as most probably know, the K frames use a leaf spring. Near the end of my shooting session, the double action pull was really starting to lighten up, then I started getting some misfires, which started growing in frequency as I went on. When I got home, I measured the double action pull and discovered it had dropped from 11 3/4 lbs to 8 lbs. I thought that part was great and a result of my "smoothing it out by shooting", but was perplexed by the new problem of a misfire per cylinder that wasn't there when I started shooting. Turns out the factory mainspring "strain screw" will back out. I tightened the screw back down all the way and.. the DA pull was right back to where it was from the factory. But, the next time out, reliability was back to 100%.

So, next on the K frame 617, I bought two Wolff Power Rib mainsprings- the "factory equivalent" and the "reduced power" one. I had read on several sites that the reason people had problems with the Power Rib was that the factory screw doesn't fit the groove in the back and that the solution was to buy a hardware store, 8-32 x .5" headless (recessed pocket for a hex head) set screw and use that. I first tried the Power Rib "factory equivalent" that advertises it reduces trigger pull while producing reliability. Sounded kind of hokey, but it worked fantastically and it really did both!

I experimented at the range by popping off the grips, backing the hex screw off a little, slapping the grips back on, firing multiple cylinders, then repeat until I started getting misfires. Then I started going back up until I had no misfires, then adding a little more just to be sure. So, I finally found that great trigger pull that S&W K, L, & N frames are famous for, with 100% reliability.

Before figures:

617.. DA= 11 lbs 8 oz, SA= 4 lbs 10 oz. NOT impressed AT ALL.
60... trigger gauge only goes to 12 lbs, DA= well beyond that, SA= 3 lbs 9 oz.
63... trigger gauge only goes to 12 lbs, DA= well beyond that, SA= ??

After figures:

617. DA= 7 lbs 15 oz, SA= 3 lbs 0 oz
60... DA= 9 lbs 4 oz, SA= 2 lbs 9 oz
63... ???

I haven't tried it, but I'll be installing an Apex trigger kit in my J frame. Product info and videos on how to install at the link. They claim it will reduce trigger pull weight by 3 pounds.

Click Here

This. I installed this kit in my wife’s M36 and it dropped the weight of pull but maintained positive trigger return and ignition.

Thanks guys!

This is the information I was wanting.

I'd like to be able to reduce the DA trigger pull on my Wife's J frame by 2, maybe 3 lbs and still be 100% dependable.

Sounds like this is doable with Wilson or Apex spring kits.

I'll talk to a local gunsmith about installing a kit.

Virgil B.

The hammer rebound spring on a J-frame resides inside a small, rectangular block which slides along in contact with the internal wall of the frame. You can remove some resistance to the trigger by polishing that block and the area of the frame where it makes contact.

Send your revolver to Ahlman's for their action job and they'll set the trigger pull to the weight that you specify, if they consider it to be "reasonable".

I have them do an action job and ream the forcing cone on my non-collectible revolvers. I sent them 2 S&Ws, a 4" 66 and a 4" 624, and liked their work so much that to date I've sent a total of 18 Rossi, S&W, and Taurus DA revolvers to them along with 3 Ruger SAs.

www.ahlmans.com

Talked to a local gunsmith.

He's going to put a spring kit in our J frame and smooth the action up for $45.

He's three weeks out on work, so I made an "appointment" to bring the gun in, in three weeks, so my Wife won't have to be without it until then.

We measured the trigger pull, and it averaged 11 lbs. He says he can get it down to 8 lbs. and be 100% reliable.

Sounds good to me.

Virgil B.

Have your wife try the S&W M&P EZ .380.

She likely will be much happier and increase the likelihood of an accurate shot.

I teach including several older women every year. They love the EZ .380. It was designed for women with weaker hands and will be much easier for her to shoot accurately than a revolver, especially under stress. Make sure to buy the model without the thumb safety

Let your wife try a Ruger LCR. I think she'll find the trigger much easier to handle.

Jeffbird;

I bought my Wife a S&W EZ W/O thumb safety, before we bought the S&W Airweight J frame 38.

She sill had problems functioning the EZ, so she liked the J frame Airweight better, plus it is lighter, smaller and easier for her to conceal.

Cariboujack;

My Daughter has the Ruger LCR, and we were considering this option as well, but, my Wife liked the feel of the S&W better, and likes the option of hammer cocking.

With the trigger pull reduction, and shooting 148 grain wad cutter target ammo at 800 FPS, for reduced recoil, it should be ideal for her.

Thanks for all the feed back!

Virgil B.

Wanted to add;

We had bought my Wife a Glock 42 previous to the S&W EZ.

We had a weak primer failure to fire wile practice firing, and discovered she couldn't operate the slide to clear a malfunction,

Thus the EZ took it's place, before the J frame took it's place.

This has been an on-going search over the last 30 years, to find the ideal gun for my Wife, including a Colt Mustang, LCP and several others.

Virgil B.

Ruger has an LCRx that has the hammer that's visible and she can pull it back. Still has a good double action pull. Something to think about.

Bought a Wolff spring kit from Midway I think for my wife's model 60 a number of years ago. Made a HUGE difference in the DA pull, and has never failed to fire yet.

Wolff is the spring kit my local gunsmith is installing in "our" S&W J frame airweight.

He said he like this kit, and had good luck with it.

Virgil B.

Any time a hammer spring is reduced accuracy goes away since a primer needs struck hard. But at close ranges for protection all you need is for all shots to fire. The rebound slide should be polished and lubed and the spring changed. Never fool with the strain screw. I have had to repair 1000 where some yo-yo filed the screw off. For carry you can install a reduced power hammer spring as long as it never fails to fire. Some good springs are faster and impact is not lost. I buy wolff springs since they last better.

Sounds like a good plan to me. Have a good friend that is a pistol smith. Showed me the do’s and don’t’s on S&W pistols. Hasbeen

I work at a range and I find the problem with most shooters is they want a hammer "just in case" and then they always fire SA since "it's more accurate" and they never practice DA. A hammerless has to be shot DA. I've found it's easier to shoot well if you just do a smooth pull through instead of trying to stage the trigger.

Got my Wife's Airweight J frame back for the shop.

The trigger turned out GREAT! My Wife can now run it DA comfortably.

We test fired it, and it's 100% reliable with the DA pull at 8 lbs. now.

My local Smith ended up using a Wilson spring kit, and honed (stoned?) the trigger sear, etc.

Virgil B.