Been shooting my Dad's 4506-1 a bit lately and it has a very heavy trigger. I have also caught the 3rd gen bug and have acquired ANIB 4516-1, 6906 and 1006 (still waiting for this one). I would like to lighten the 4506 trigger a little and I bought the Wolf hammer spring pack to play with. I can fully disassemble 3rd gens, and have read lately that guys are changing the trigger springs with 2.5 - 3lbs? Can anyone tell me what this improvement is for, it seems the stock spring is 4lbs, so changing it will lighten up the pre-trigger pull? If so, I guess that doesn't bother me much? I've also read the polishing the trigger bar is useful? Are there any other easy things to do here, to improve the trigger? I'm not looking for a master trigger job, just to lighten the heavy trigger and keep my finger from hurting after a couple hundred rounds. What are you doing? What works and doesn't or is a waste of time?
Thank You

9/5/12 - Added Trigger Pulls to Post 10

The lighter hammer spring will lighten the double action pull.

If you're going to be removing the draw bar to polish it you might want to take a look at the channel that the draw bar plunger and spring sit in. Some are straight and some are tapered.

If, after you polish the draw bar, you still feel a little chatter in the single action pull polishing that channel can sometimes help.

Good luck with the project and remember we love to see pictures here.

Dave

So, does the hammer spring set do nothing for single action? Single action is where the improvement is needed, although I didn't specifically state that.

Maybe I just need to buck up, but was hoping there is something I may easily do w/o sending to S&W.

Hoping some 3rd gen experts will be along soon. Anybody?

I don't know what the purpose of your firearms is, but if you are actually going to carry them, I would not mess with the single action trigger. I've always felt they the 3rd gen S&Ws have a very nice, firm, but crisp single action trigger, and the trigger reset is amazing. There is a flat sear spring that sits in the frame. I am sire that messing with it will be needed to alter the single action pull.

Andrew

ditch the mag disconnect.
smooth the drawbar edges and channel and lube will improve overall function.
if you have a buffing wheel polish but don't change any angles on the sear/hammer and use a good lube/grease

Have someone remove the slack out of the trigger and just leave it be outside of maybe removing the magazine disconnect as well there was a reason why it was rigged up that way from the getgo weight wise.

after all once the slack and slop is gone its just all up to the muscle memory.

Just to clarify, since hammer spring is for double action pull improvement only, this isn't an issue for me.

The lighter trigger spring is for?

What is the benefit of removing the magazine disconnect relative to single action pull? Not that I would remove this feature, since it was designed this way, and am aware of it and don't have any issue with it.

I can polish the draw bar to smooth things up. I won't touch the sear as I think I know my limits.

The single action seems heavy on the 4506 relative my others? I think I will finally purchase a trigger pull gauge. The primary use of these are not for carry, but for fun range time with family and friends.

well I was kind of thinking that well if your in a mid magazine change and you need to fire the gun, seeing as its still got one in the chamber it might screw you over in that kind of a situation and not let you fire when you need to.

and I know that a friend of mine had bought a 4506 that had been screwed with in an attempt to have a better trigger pull on it and it was causing firing issues where the strike from the hammer wasnt heavy enough to set the gun off.

I have a pull gauge in the mail now. I'll report back with the single action and double pulls in the next week or two. With that, lets see if my pulls are within line with others or not and we'll go from there.

Does anyone know what pull poundage's I should have or be around with single and double action on a stock 4506-1?

Okay, I have measured the trigger pull on the 4506-1, it is just over 7lb in single action and above 12lb in double action. Not sure exactly since my gauge only goes to 12lbs. I also measured my 5906 which has a 7lb single action and 11lb double action, but I believe this one has wolf hammer spring or a coil has been cut. My thoughts for now are more trigger time with it. Do these pulls seem normal? What are yours at?
Thanks

I think you are probably getting reasonable results. However, the gauge is going to register differently depending exactly on where it is pulling the trigger. The gauge will never attach in the exact way as a trigger finger.

I use another imperfect way of determining an approximate trigger pull weight. I balance the edge of the butt on bathroom scale with my left hand just keeping the gun balanced near the front of the slide. Than I look at the weight on the scale and use my normal trigger finger to depress the the trigger while observing the deflection of the needle. My numbers for single action are similar to yours and for double action vary between 10 and 12 pounds.

The important thing is to shoot the gun in a defensive manner and not as a bulls eye gun and see if it does a good enough job for that purpose. In my opinion you want the heaviest double action trigger pull that will enable you to deliver effective rounds. Seven pounds is not too heavy for single action.

Bill

If you are going to carry them, I'd send them to S&W for a 3rd generation action job, it will lighten and smooth the trigger pull and you can still accurately state the gun is at factory specs in a worst case scenario.

Let me see if I can remember....

I ran a alloy SW CQB on duty roughly from 2000-2005.

Before the CQB, I purchased a NIB 4506-1 and sent it to SW PC for a duty type action job. That gun had a very smooth trigger press. Never gauged it but it was nice.

I bought the alloy CQB and the trigger press did not compare. The 4506-1 custom action job blew the factory CQB trigger out of the water.

So I polished the draw bar, polished the trigger and hammer pin, lightest mainspring and lightest trigger return spring and the gun functioned. I ran it on duty.

As a test, I acquired a sts CQB and put the same set up and the gun would misfire. I return it back to the factory springs and it ran 100%.

Changing a mainspring will provide a slight felt trigger pull benefit but changing the mainspring along with the trigger return spring show the best in trigger press reduction.

I however stress that if this gun is to be used for any type of defensive carry, and you still want a smoother trigger press, pay for a action job by SW or Novak or someone with history behind SW 3rd gen actions. if this is strictly a range toy, do some playing. remember smoother equals to less felt effort or felt reduction.

Again, I was never able to duplicate the action job performed by SW PC.

I never messed with angles or shortening this or that, I just polished and installed different springs.

good luck