Revolver experience needed

[nun2kute]

I, love my 1911's, but I must admit I'm drifting a bit. I have two S&W 629's in 44 mag that are a blast to shoot. And I have not had any problems with them at all, questions but no problems. Now I recently acquired a Model 25 in 45 Colt. Luckily I had brass on hand and some Hornady 250g XTP's so I put 8.6g of Power Pistol over a CCi LP primer. Have not Crono'd anything yet, but they seem to get there pretty quick. My pup loves chasing them. This morning while playing on the hillside, I had three light strikes. No BOOM ! First one by itself then one normal Launch then two in a row. I need to do some investigation with my trigger pull gauge still, but the trigger seems real light to me. All three lit after the second pounce. Now I can trouble shoot a 1911, tare it down to little pieces and clean it and make a good guess about what it needs, but I'm not entirely sure where to go with a wheel gun. Can I tighten some spring to make the hammer hit harder, or should I just change primers ? Other than pulling a trigger and changing grips, I have no experience with revolvers. Can anybody point me in the right direction ?

[Ozark mike]

I have personally never held that model in my hands but my opinion is the main spring could be to light either set up from age or some one replaced it in the past to lighten hammer and trigger pull. I would make sure you have the factory main spring in the gun first it's the spring between the grips. Then I would make sure all moving parts have a little oil so they move freely

[johniv]

Were the light strikes in DA or SA?

[onelight]

Is the main spring tension screw the screw on the front bottom of the grip frame tight.
Particularly if the gun was used it may have been loosened to lighten the trigger.
Something else to check is how much end play you have in the cylinder.

[Bazoo]

Three ways folks lighten smith revolvers trigger pull.

They turn out the strain screw at the bottom of the front strap. Old timers used to do this. Or they swap mainsprings for a lighter one, or mod the one they have. This requires a replacement. These two gives light strikes unless tuned specifically to the primers used. The third does not affect striking power but will result in poor reset, that is replacing the a triton block spring with a lighter one. 15 pounds is stock on all models I think, you can go down to 11.

[ShooterAZ]

Check the strain screw first. FYI, I have had some light strike FTF issues with CCI pistol primers before. Seems like they are harder than some others. Switching to Federal primers solved that problem for me.

[rfd]

use federal primers, lots of folks have had issues with light strikes on cci primers, including me and an S&W.

[bedbugbilly]

Never handled your model but do own a number of Smiths. I have a Combat Masterpice - DOB of about 1956 and I had the same issue with it as you are having. I removed the grips - checked the tension screw and it was of course screwed in all of the way - pulled it out and the end looked like a normal one you'd find - but - it was considerably shorter than what it should have been. As noted . . . a lot of folks played with the tension screw - and yes - the one on the inside of the grip at the bottom. I ordered a new tension screw - put it in and walla! No more misfires/light strikes.

[Greg S]

Check these items...

1. Fully seated primers
2. Debris in hammer slot not allowing hammer to fully drop
3. Loose strain screw. Two ways to adjust, blue loc-tite if not fully tightening the strain screw (non-permanent) or file the strain screw to the proper length for desired tension of mainspring and fully tighten. (U tube vid by Jerry Mc.. of changing S&W mainsprings)
4. Weak mainspring

[Winger Ed.]

I'd take the grips & cover plate off and clean it real well first.

Sometimes old oil & grease turns hard over time and will slow down the hammer's travel.

[nun2kute]

Haven't taken anything apart yet. Light strikes where in SA. My non-digital trigger guage broke consistently at 2.25 Lbs. I did look in the trigger slot and found nothing visible that I thought would deter hammer strikes.

[Plate plinker]

Thats awfully light. Other post are telling you what to look for. The factory mainspring has a significant arch, but the aftermarket lighter spring are nearly straight even when under tension from the strain screw the aftermarket spring has little arch.

[Budzilla 19]

Had a couple of Smith’s came into the shop with light strikes and FTF in SA mode. Strain screw was backed off on both, quick easy fix! May not be your problem but a definite place to start!!! Just my .02

[TNsailorman]

I use Federal primers on all my handguns, revolver or automatic. They have a reputation of going bang every time as long as the gun is set up right. The only time I have had problems with light strikes was when I first started competition many years ago and sent a really nice S&W N frame to a high dollar well known "pistol smith ". I ended up having to put factory springs back in it to get it to shoot reliable. Double action pull was measured by a friend at 5lbs and single action would not register reliable enough to get a good read. You just touch it and it was gone. Lesson learned. A 2 1/2 lb. trigger pull is pretty light even in single action mode. I consider a 3 1/2 lb. pull to be about as low as I want to go in single action as I do not want to hear click and no bang. I have had several N frame S&W's over the years and I have never had a Federal primer fail me. I am a bit of a nut when it comes to my reloads. When I first get a batch of brass I do the following before I load them the first time: I de-prime (if they have been fired), I uniform the primer pocket(to correct the depth and make sure it is flat), I de-burr the flash hole, I tumble the cases to clean them good, I re-size the cases, I trim the cases to a uniform length, I chamfer the mouth both inside and outside. Then I proceed to primer the case and load it. One thing your don't want in competition is a light strike or a hang fire, either of which can cost you a match. It could be even worse in a life and death situation. As mentioned in earlier posts, a light strike can be caused by a strain screw being incorrectly adjusted, old hardened oil and fuzz or grit, or someone doing a "trigger job" incorrectly. On a revolver, my experience has been that it is better to smooth an action a little than to lighten the trigger pull. Most S&W's that I have had (nearly all of them really) are just fine as they came from the factory. Colts are good also, just a little different feel to them. By the way, I shoot double action mostly. I seem to shoot double better than single action. my experience anyway, james

[bmortell]

both a new and used smith ive had light strike cci primers with stock spring and strain screw tight. I did the empty primer cup on the strain screw trick and they worked. didn't get federal primers cause, well I already had a lot of cci and my store don't sell them and don't want to pay shipping on em. the new one didn't light strike at first but it turns out that's only because the stock grips smash against the spring making it slightly stronger, which im assuming was a happy accident.

[edp2k]

Trick:
if someone did shorten the string screw too much, instead of buying a new one,
take a spent small pistol primer, remove the internal anvil, back he screw off,
put the primer cup over the end of the screw, and tighten.

Instant and cheap fix.

[Petrol & Powder]

I've seen a lot a Bubba "gunsmiths" back off the strain screw in their lame attempt to "adjust" the trigger pull. That's the first place I would look. That screw should be bottomed out and snug. As others have stated, some people shorten that screw, if that's the case the quick fix is to place a spent primer sans the anvil over the tip of the screw to add a little bit of length back.

[nun2kute]

I put the trigger gauge to use on one of the 629's and came up with 3.5 lbs. That is about rite to me. The strain screw is tight but I have no idea how long its supposed to be, and the main spring on the mod. 25 doesn't look ... well, asymmetrical ? Correct ? It doesn't have a smooth arch to it, looks bent in one spot. So I will be ordering a new one along with a strain screw just to make sure it is proper length.

[Froogal]

Those CCI primers are suspect. I had a large bunch of those that were duds. I started out using Winchester primers, went to CCI, and now I'm back to Winchester. Out of many thousands of rounds, I've experienced only one Winchester dud.

[slughammer]

I put the trigger gauge to use on one of the 629's and came up with 3.5 lbs. That is about rite to me. The strain screw is tight but I have no idea how long its supposed to be, and the main spring on the mod. 25 doesn't look ... well, asymmetrical ? Correct ? It doesn't have a smooth arch to it, looks bent in one spot. So I will be ordering a new one along with a strain screw just to make sure it is proper length.

Try measuring the strain screws on your 629's, they should all be the same.

A crook or a curve is the way people bend them to make them lighter. Along with this, folks sometimes clip coils off of the trigger return spring; so that's something else you should check for.
Curved vs Straight
https://i.imgur.com/Wlm7Mn9.jpg

Can your trigger pull gage check the double action pull weight? I've tuned many of these S&Ws for competition, range, hunting and defense.
I would measure 2 things related to the DA pull and I could tell a lot.
1. Measure the total DA pull weight. (8lb, 10lb, 12lb, ++++)
2. Remove the hammer spring and measure the force of the trigger return spring (at the trigger, with the spring still in the gun) (4lb, 5lb, 6lb)