Bobbed the hammer on my Model 10-6 a few years ago. I shot an unbobbed one earlier this week.and had forgotten how much I liked the single action for some plinking type accuracy. My hammer's a .265 width. I'm looking at several possible replacements.that are .265, complete with firing pin attached and appear to be exactly like mine. Seems one of them should be a fairly easy fit in replacement. I had no problems removing the original hammer and replacing it when I bobbed it. Any potential problems here?

As a general rule, if you replace the hammer and use the same hand, they tend to drop in with no problem. S&W's quality control was very good, but that's still the manual machining era, so hammers can vary in the tiniest amount. Just make sure timing is the same before and after changing the hammer. If the timing has changes, you'll want someone who knows how to sort that out take over.

Thanks, I've got 30 days to return it so I'll give it a try. If the new hammer puts the timing off I'll leave it DA only. Got a feeling the time involved for someone that knows what they're doing to adjust/correct the timing will cost a lot more than the hammer..

I have also had pretty good luck swapping hammers on S&W revolvers of the same general era. As GunGeek said, normally the original hand will work fine if swapped to the new hammer. The sear can be a problem, so in some cases I swapped the original sear into the new hammer as well. About 90% of the time, you can make the new hammer work without any complications beyond swapping one or both of those parts.

Thanks GunGeek & wildhobbybobby. Appears to be a clean drop in replacement so far. Dry firing it in single & double action it cycles smoothly, the cylinder appears to line up as it should and the trigger is actually better than with the original. Haven't had a chance to shoot it yet. Will dry firing show if it's out of time?

I would bet it's completely fine. I would probably spend a few seconds making sure all the cylinders are locking up before the hammer falls, then I'd go shoot it.

You could check with a range rod if you're really concerned about it.

Well I’m a bit confused so I have to ask can you explain how a hammer swap has anything to do with the hand ? Lots of hammers swapped out all the time without any concern with timing or the hand

Regards

The hand runs off the trigger. The hammer doesn't directly affect the hand.

My point exactly. I’ve swapped out TH and TT’s for years when I was in the business.

Took it to the range yesterday. Worked perfect with just the hammer replacement. Thanks to all for the info.