Ouch--I 've bruised my trigger finger. Ruger Sp101 trigger job ideas.

[rintinglen]

It took me a while but Last November, I finally got the 327 SP101 I'd been hankering for. What with the holidays, work and (boy do we need it) rain, I have not been able to give it a good work out. Well Sunday I finally managed to do so. I ran about 125 rounds down range, double-action, and that trigger pull has to be fixed. I mean really.
It goes way over my old Lyman trigger pull gauge and I know it can be better.
So fellas, what have you guys done that has helped smooth and lighten your trigger pulls to make your pet SP101's more user friendly?

[hhilljr]

I have the 4.2" version of this revolver, and can attest to the very heavy trigger pull. I purchased the Wolff replacement spring kit, which has three hammer springs and one trigger spring. After installing the heaviest of the hammer springs, which I think was labeled 19#, and replacing the trigger spring, the single action pull is about 3.75 pounds. The double action still exceeds my RCBS pull gauge, but it is much better. Cocking the hammer single action is noticeably easier. I went with that weight hammer spring to ensure it fires every time. If it proves reliable that way, I might drop down to the next lighter spring. I'm trying to lighten the DA pull, the SA is fine now and I'd like no lighter.

[Kraschenbirn]

Wolfe Spring Kit and a bit of careful polishing here and there got the job done for me. Haven't gauged the pull but it feels (to me) about the same as the wife's early-70s Diamondback.


Bill

[NSB]

Wolf kit in my gun and it's 3# single and 9# double. Easy to install.

[huntrick64]

I would encourage you to buy Gary Bunker's IBOK (Iowegan Book of Knowledge) for the SP101 / GP100. Follow his instructions and you will be amazed at the results. I have done this on several GP100s and my stainless 357 sp101. It will do far more than shoot better, it will also disassemble easier. Not real sure where to buy them now, I bought mine directly from Gary. He goes under the handle of IOWEGAN on the ruger site. You might as well buy his other books while you are there. Single-Six, Black Hawks, etc. Cost is minimal, gain is huge.

[NSB]

I can't imagine how much easier the SP101 could be to disassemble. An idiot could do it in about five minutes. There are free Youtube videos showing how to do it also. Nothing against Gary Bunker, but you don't need a book to take the gun apart. It's probably the easiest to take apart revolver I've ever owned.

[Tackleberry41]

I used a guide I found on google and a set of springs. Mine felt like it had sand in it when I first got mine. Now its really nice.

[bassnbuck]

I ordered a wolf spring kit and houge grips three weeks before I bought my 3 inch 101. When I got the gun home I changed springs and grip. Never shot it "as is".

[P Flados]

Got a 4.2" SP-101 327 at the end of last year. Yet another happy Wolff customer.

17113 RUGER SP-101 RP REVOLVER SHOOTER'S PAK

Just type the number above into the RAPID ORDER ENTRY box, put 1 in for quantiy and drastic improvement will be on its way.

https://www.gunsprings.com/index.php

[Boogieman]

Picked up a new SP101 2 weeks ago, trigger pull was smooth but heavy, put in a Wilson Combat 10 lb. hammer spring & trigger return spring. polished the hammer strut, SA & DA pulls much lighter & it still sets off every brand primer I've tried. Search Ruger SP101 trigger job guide for complete instructions.

[FergusonTO35]

I had a 3" SP .357 for awhile. Sturdy little gun with good accuracy but had the worst trigger pull of any firearm I have ever owned, even worse than the zinc cheapies. When I bought a 1967 S&W 10-5 and found out what a good double action pull is like the SP lost it's attraction. Traded it for th same price I paid for it on a really nice 1979 Marlin 1895, a very good decision!!

[gnostic]

Wolf springs will no doubt improve the trigger pull on a target gun. Notice, Wolf Springs tells you, not to lower the weight of hammer springs, if the gun's to be used as duty, or self defence weapon.

Whenever I mess with the springs, I begin getting an occasional light hammer strike, particularly when shooting double action.

[OptimusPanda]

I used to have one of the 4" .357mag sp101s. The double action must have been nearly 20 pounds (or it felt that way). From the get go it was just a range toy so it was mostly a non issue as I rarely fired it double action.

[Thundarstick]

Please please keep in mind the 327 Federal uses small rifle primers that take a harder blow than small pistol primers! You will never get a 327 gun to go as lite as a 357/38 gun with factory ammo because of this. I found this from first hand experience. I've learned to stage my shots with both the SP101 and GP100 with a heavy trigger and it works for me.

You can't use your experiences with 357s to extrapolate onto the 327 guns. Apples to oranges in a sense!

[NSB]

Please please keep in mind the 327 Federal uses small rifle primers that take a harder blow than small pistol primers! You will never get a 327 gun to go as lite as a 357/38 gun with factory ammo because of this. I found this from first hand experience. I've learned to stage my shots with both the SP101 and GP100 with a heavy trigger and it works for me.

You can't use your experiences with 357s to extrapolate onto the 327 guns. Apples to oranges in a sense!
Not completely true. I use SRP in my .357mag loads. They all work in my gun and the springs have been lightened. You'd need to try a couple primed cases in your gun to see if they'll work or not. I've been using SRP for several years now....since the primer "shortage" struck for about the third time a couple of years ago. So far, no problems with using them. I only recently tried some SPP in the same loads and so far, no difference in POI with the change in this gun with the same loads only changing primers. Anyway, it's a pretty simple test to see what your gun will do with them.

[rintinglen]

I have ordered a set of Wolfe springs from Midway, and a set of shims from Shively Sales. I'll pull this thing apart, do some polishing and try some lighter springs.

[Harry O]

I have two of the SP-101's and have used Wolfe springs in both of them. The lightest of the 3 hammer springs would not reliably ignite the primers in either gun. 2% to 5% would fail to fire. I switched to the middle spring and it was reliable in both of them. On one of the GP-100's I have, I had to go to the heaviest Wolfe spring to get reliable ignition. Even then, the trigger pull was lighter than the factory spring. The others settled for the middle spring. Start light and let your gun tell you what it needs.

[rintinglen]

Please please keep in mind the 327 Federal uses small rifle primers that take a harder blow than small pistol primers! You will never get a 327 gun to go as lite as a 357/38 gun with factory ammo because of this. I found this from first hand experience. I've learned to stage my shots with both the SP101 and GP100 with a heavy trigger and it works for me.

You can't use your experiences with 357s to extrapolate onto the 327 guns. Apples to oranges in a sense!

The number of factory 327's I'll be shooting approaches zero. I have loaded about 1400 rounds so far, though not all have made it down the barrel. I have 2 Single Sevens and this 4.2 inch SP101. I don't own a single small rifle primer. I have been using CCI regular pistol and Winchester Small Magnum pistol primers.
Remington and Winchester standard Small Pistol Primers will be pierced about 1/6th of the time.

[Thundarstick]

It's true that if you reload you can go low for the hammer and get away with it. My wife's Taurus snub nose is an example. I gave it the Wolfe spring treatment and it only eats H&R mags with SP primers. Factory 327 Federal ammo is very unreliable with this setup, but she can shoot it!

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

w ...

[chuckbuster]

check out
trigger shims.com

Lance has the Wolff spring kits also. Great guy to work with
Kevin

[Sean357]

http://sp101trigger.com/
This helped me, and worked well.
As far as I've been able to find out, the IBOK is no longer available for purchase. I can't remember the blog name but someone has the full IBOK for the GP100 posted. It says with Iowegans approval. I accidently wiped my old phone but may be able to find that again.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[rintinglen]

While I have it apart, I'll give it a light polish to see if I can knock off a little of the grit while the new springs are going in. One thing about Rugers, they come apart easy.

[Good Cheer]

Reminds me of a combat shooters' pistolsmith in Houston decades ago.
The secret to making a pistol smooth as silk was a liquid polishing compound and working the action until it was time to clean all the grit out. Could have been watered down J-B for all I know but boy howdy was it ever amazing.

[huntrick64]

I know that even though some people feel that if you can't get this apart in under 5 minutes you are an idiot, there are some of these guns (mine was one) that you had to beat apart with a rubber mallet because they were manufactured too fat in the fit. If yours is one of these you can dress the steel where they fit together so that they come apart and go back together like they are supposed to. Just don't hit the mating surfaces that are visible because they have good lines already. Polishing the carrier holes for the springs, slightly round and polish the hammer strut edges (where the hammer spring rides), and polishing the mating surfaces on your trigger parts, and if you can do so without changing any angles, polish the sear surfaces. I used 400, then 800, then 1200 wet or dry sandpaper then a buffing wheel with jeweler's rouge on my dremel to finish the polishing. There is not much good that can come from a Dremel when you are working on a gun, but polishing is one exception. Enjoy working on it, you will be rewarded.

[deepwater]

I purchased a small set of polishing stones from Brownell's. All the same finish, just different shapes. Kept all the angles the same and the surfaces polished quickly. Any burrs or wear spots were removed with same stones. Wolf springs. It was absolutely amazing the difference afterwards. This was in a .357 mag DAO with bobbed hammer. Light, smooth and reliable.

[rintinglen]

I typically use a hard arkansas stone, followed by the dremel tool (mines a 35 year old Craftsman)with a bit of jewelers rouge. I have had a hard time finding sand paper finer than 600 grit and anyway,back in the day, a gentleman stoned his actions.
At one time I was making beer money doing duty action jobs on S&Ws and Ruger Security Sixes, but when a client who was a lawyer explained how much liability I was putting myself in, I stopped.

[jonp]

I changed the springs on mine to lighten the trigger but I finally got rid of the snub nose 357Mag. I loved the gun and carry weight but full house loads were brutal. On the plus side, if you missed the bad guy the fireball would set him on fire