I’m going to fix my pistol’s light strikes if it’s the last thing I do!
My new/old S&W L-frame has the most delightful trigger of any pistol I ever owned! As well it should, since it’s easily the nicest pistol I’ve ever owned. And I was dizzily in love, to the point of spending a sizable percentage of my monthly income on commercial ammo. This not being sustainable I was finally driven to set the reloading bench back up and start cranking out handloads.
And thus discord invaded our happy home – that delightful trigger was the product of a light aftermarket mainspring and came at the cost of not wanting to fire the primers on handloads in double action. Things came to a head during Ian’s last visit when the strain screw chose that unfortunate moment to back out and suddenly right in front of Gun Jesus the pistol basically didn’t work at all.
While that particular problem was simple enough to fix, I became determined to solve the greater problem while my mind was on it. In our last exciting episode I installed a hopefully-more-stock mainspring. I must admit that the new spring appeared pretty much identical to the one it replaced, but also at the time the effect on the hammer was … startling. So startling in fact that I almost had to have done something wrong, the hammer was bizarrely difficult to lock back and the double-action trigger was awful. But it did pop caps on handloads 100% so I was only intermittently inclined to look that particular gift horse in the mouth.
Fortunately (Unfortunately?) a minor adjustment of the strain screw unintentionally fixed the misaligned mainspring – which I can’t even visually identify, so no I can’t go back – and suddenly I had my wonderful trigger back – and a renewed inability to use handloads in double action. The new mainspring, properly installed and adjusted, did no good whatsoever. Probably it’s the same light aftermarket thing as the one it replaced – as I said, it certainly looks the same and does not look like a stock spring.
So I perhaps foolishly took some advice from Youtube last night and tried shimming. One width of roll flashing had no effect on ignition at all but this morning …
…we’re going to try three. There’s lots of roll flashing, and since D&L are going to the biggish town about 35 miles away for a doctor’s appointment I have all morning to shoot to my heart’s content until I get it right.
If I can’t shim it into serviceability I’ll just have to do more research until I can find a source for a stock spring. The pistol works for defense as is, since it’s reliable with commercial ammo. But I can’t shoot it a lot until it can shoot handloads. And I would really prefer to shoot it a lot, if you know what I mean.
Then, this being the first of the month*, this afternoon it’s battery day, and bracketing those things is laundry. So a lot of back-and-forthing shall be found in the land.
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*2020 is half over! Rejoice?
Couplea quick questions, and please forgive me if it sounds like I’m asking ‘stupid newbie’ questions.
Your primer pockets are clean so there’s no chance the primers are not bing seated all the way in?
Your sure those are LP primers and not LR primers?
And you are seating them to the point where you feel them ‘bottom out’ in the primer pocket?
And, finally, do you have any brand new cases that you can try using? Ones that have absolutely new and sparkling clean primer pockets so that you can eliminate dirty pockets as a cause?
I always clean the primer pockets. I don’t even own any large rifle primers. I use a priming tool that lets me feel exactly when the primer seats in the pocket. And also the problem isn’t intermittent. So yeah, I’m certain the problem is with the pistol and not with the primer pockets.
I’ve found Federal primers the easiest to fire. They’ve worked in a couple of guns with light strikes. But I agree that a gun I counted on every day needs to work with any ammo.
Occams Razor. Could the problem actually be the primer you are using? If old they pick up humidity. You being being in a dry, arid desert environment would have the opposite. The explosive is applied in liquid form. Old and dry would cause it to flake in the primer. They would have to be old to do that. Did they get wet and dried without your knowledge? Rat piss? I understand the frustration. Commander Zero also brings up a very good point. Primer seating gets me once in awhile even after 30 years and I dont know how many thousands of rounds. Good luck.
One does suspect the culprit is the spring, but….are you sure the mainspring strain screw is actual “factory” length, and has not been shortened by someone?
I’m pretty sure I have a couple spares, I’ll check one for length when I’m down in the dungeon later.
I did wonder the same thing, though there was no sign of tampering. So since I was mail-ordering parts, I ordered one. They’re identical.
An interesting point I didn’t consider. All my primers are years old. I can certify that they’ve never been wet, but they’ve certainly been very hot and very cold. Seems to me, though, that at least some of them would go bang – and when I increase the spring strength to where they all go bang, at least some of them should refuse. Yeah?
The actual compound used in the primer would not leak out. It would bunch up in places. Not the middle because of the crimp. A heavier hit from the hammer would surely make it go off. More damage to a greater area. Without taking several primers apart it is only conjecture at this point. Please, never take a primer apart. Ever. You seem to have solved the issue since adding the shims so it might all be moot now. I always vacuum seal my excess primers on the shelf.
Hi Joel. Midwest gun works shows that mainspring in stock for 5.25 plus shipping. Says it’s a genuine S&W part. Also has a Wilson combat kit for 13.95,comes with mainspring and custom weighted trigger return springs. Apparently this spring is the same in all K,L,and N frames. Other complaints about this on the web.
Hope this helps. Take care,Al.