Saturday - April 25, 2009

Tuning the Ruger SP101, Chapter 2

The Trausch grip is a good bit beefier than the factory grip. It seems to be made of the same kind of rubber. It’s a bit longer, a bit rounder on the back, and has a better thumb cut out on the left side. My wife, with her small hands, prefers the factory grip but could use this one if she felt like it. For me, it fits my hand perfectly, so I think I’ll keep it on.

The Wolff spring kit was a breeze to install. I bought the whole kit and kaboodle, including the optional 11lb mainspring. $15 delivered or something like that. First I put in the lighter trigger return spring. I thought that was going to be a bear, what with all those little parts in the trigger assembly. And up until now the gun has been hard to take apart. Not any more. The Militec-1 treatment I did the other day has slicked up all the mating surfaces, and the few drops of TetraGun oil has done the trick. I can take this gun apart with a paper clip, and that’s exactly what I did.

You don’t have to take the trigger assembly apart to change the trigger return spring. This is the same spring who’s other end powers the assembly latch, so what you do is ... hold the trigger assembly in your left hand, rightside up with the facing left. Use your thumb and the web of your hand below your index finger to hold the latch lever, pawl lever, and transfer bar in place. Depress the assembly latch plunger about 1/16” with your left index finger. Use a paper clip to push the assembly latch plunger retaining pin out. It pushes out from the left side. Relax the pressure on the plunger and it will slide right out. Take out the spring and the trigger lever plunger on the other end too. Clean out the hole and Q-tip a little oil in there. Wipe and oil both plungers. Replace the trigger lever plunger. Replace the factory spring with the aftermarket spring. Put the assembly latch plunger back in, with the flat side up. While holding the whole trigger assembly, push this plunger in, and slide the retaining pin back in.  It actually only takes about 30 seconds to take things apart, swap springs, and put them back together again. Assemble the gun as before, and try things out ...

... and we may have a problem. The new trigger return spring is rated at 8lbs, while the factory spring is rated at 10lbs. Perhaps 9lbs would be best. With the 8lb spring, the trigger pull is very nice, lockup timing isn’t changed at all, but the trigger return is so light that you can feel each little part in the mechanism move. So it feels crunchy. And if you don’t completely let go of the trigger, it’s going to stop halfway back through the return. That’s called short stroking, and it’s not a situation you want. So take things apart again, and put the factory 10lb spring back in. Ok, now let’s try replacing the mainspring. Too easy. To take the gun apart, first you take off the grips, then you manually cock the pistol. This compresses the mainspring and lets you slide a paperclip through the hole in the mainspring bar, so when you pull the trigger the spring is locked up. And the whole assembly just falls out of the gun. To get the spring off the bar without hurting yourself or sending parts flying, you take a metal fork and slide the tines into the spring coils near the bottom. Put the nose of the mainspring bar down against a magazine on a table, and press the fork. This compresses the spring. Slide out the paperclip and gently remove the spring and it’s retainer. Put the new spring on and go through this routine in reverse. It takes about a minute, and that’s only because things are well oiled and therefore slippery.

I put the 11lb mainspring in. Put everything back together. And ... wow. Greased lightning! The trigger pull is smooth and even from one end to the other. Sure, you can still hear the parts clicking through their paces; it’s a Ruger and that’s how they are. But the pull is effortless. I don’t have a gauge, but I’d guess the double action pull was maybe 12 pounds at most. Single action is very light, maybe 3 pounds? The weight of the pistol is not enough to set it off, but it isn’t much more than that. I was able to pull the trigger nearly 200 times in a row without too much strain. Nearly double the number of pulls I could manage with the factory mainspring.

This is what you have to do with a new gun these days. The factories put in major overkill springs so that little kiddy fingers won’t be able to fire the gun, just in case. No little kiddies around here, so I get to make the gun work like it ought to. Cool.

Now it’s time to put together some ammo and see how it shoots. I’ll be taking my springs, paperclip, and a screwdriver to the range, just in case the 11lb spring isn’t enough to fire off some of the harder primers (CCI brand). According to all the Ruger forums, the 12lb spring will always work, or I could file down the face of the hammer a little to allow it more swing room so that it hits the transfer bar harder, which they say could allow me to drop the mainspring down to the 9 or 10 pound versions. We’ll see. Right now this little Ruger has a trigger that’s nicer than any I’ve ever pulled on any S&W, including a mid-60 K-38 Masterpiece. For you non-gun nuts, that means it’s damn good already.

I could also shim the trigger and the hammer, which the holy IBOK says will make things even better. But you can’t buy them. You have to make them yourself. And while I don’t care that that would cost me $15 in parts and tools, it would be a pain. So I’ll leave that project for another day. Or another lifetime.

Posted by Drew458     on 04/25/2009 at 02:32 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
• Comments (1) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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