There are two references that will allow most anybody to do "passble work" on S&W Revolvers. This opinion is based on personal experience.

I have both of the Jerry Miculek DVD's but the only one anybody really needs is "Trigger Job."

The other reference that I find the most helpful is the book, "The S&W Revolver....A Shop Manual" by Jerry Kuhnhausen.

I have quite a few other references but the two mentioned above pretty much covers what most of us "shade tree" gunsmiths should be trying to do on our own. Actually they go far beyond that level so they will also give you an idea of what the next learning steps would be.

Having done 9 "Trigger Jobs", 8 on J Frames, my personal preference when it comes to spring kits is Wolff, with Wilson my 2nd choice. I purchased over $100 in Apex Kits and after trying them have pulled them from the guns they were installed in.

The reason I prefer Wolff over Wilson is that I have yet to experience 1 light primer strike with the Wolff reduced weight mainsprings, but have had 3 with the Wilson on two different guns.

To be fair to Wilson, this could have been due to idiosyncrasies in those specific actions so it could have been the luck of the draw. Since reliabilty is paramount I didn't even bother trying the reduced weight Wolff mainsprings in those 2 guns, I went right back to stock weight mainsprings, although I did use Wolff over S&W springs.

Based on my trigger pull gauge the Wolff 8.5 lb. mainspring (stock weight) gives me a lighter pull weight than a new, S&W factory 8.5 lb. mainspring. Why that is I have no idea but know that I have yet to have a light primer strike with any of the Wolff springs used, even with CCI primers, so I am very confident that any fail to fire issue would be ammo, not gun, related in any gun that has a Wolff 8.5 lb. mainspring.

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Ogy