I have a very good to excellent condition S&W .38 DA 3rd Model (I think) which I shoot infrequently with very light lead bullet handloads. Sometimes, even with those loads, the rear of the trigger guard strikes my hand under recoil, and pops loose. Then I have to force it back into place. Is my piece an exception, or do they all do this? If so, I can't understand why they were so popular, as it's not very conducive to one's survival to have this happen in a serious situation. Is there a fix that doesn't involve a modification?

Sounds like your trigger guard may have taken a "set". All of the DA Models I've owned have had a strong enough "spring" in the guard that I think it would have had to break my finger to loosen it under recoil.

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Dean
SWCA #680 SWHF #446

No reason for the trigger guard to strike your hand in recoil, unless you are not holding the revolver correctly. The gun can only slip back in your hand from recoil if you do not have the correct position of the grip frame in your hand and are flinching on recoil and relaxing your grip. That's not a fault of the trigger guard. Ed.

Folks, you are missing the point of my question. First, as I said, my DA is in near-pristine condition and the trigger guard is not sprung. In fact, after it pops out at the rear, it takes considerable effort to pop it back into place. Second, I have been a competitive shooter for 50 years and can handle a revolver with the best of them and certainly understand the concept of a proper grip. The problem is partly that my hands are large and the grip of a .38 DA is small. I can't change those factors. Now, if someone can provide some information as to whether this is a known weakness with the .38 DA's design and if there is a simple and non-intrusive fix for it (which I doubt), that's what I'd like to know.

When you put it that way, I too have been a shooter and collector for over 50 years and I've never seen nor heard of the problem you describe. This tends to make me think there is something strange about your particular gun.
Have you had it happen with any others??

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Dean
SWCA #680 SWHF #446

I agree with Dean, however if your hands are that large, I suggest three possible solutions (1) get a pair of the S&W extended style target grips, as used on the model 1891 and Single Shots, or (2) Shoot the gun w/o the trigger guard, (3) Borrow another .38DA and see if you have the same problem. If so, the problem is you, not the gun. You are the first shooter I ever heard of that has that problem with a .38DA. Those TGs are spring steel and unlikely to pop out without an external reason (assuming the gun has never been in a fire and lost the spring tension). Good Luck, Ed.

I used to have this happen to me from time to time with my ? model which had the square backed trigger guard. The big worry was not losing the trigger return spring.

I think at the time I was using hand loads that were a little stiffer than was wise.

My latest shooter which is a 4th model with the rounded trigger guard has never done it to me. I'm also smarter about the ammo I feed it.

Jim