Lucky you.
Guess the cat's out of the bag, so to speak.
The highly polished stainless steel-looking trigger play spring was originally only made for the FBI 10's. Something about maybe being more resistant to the shock of heavier recoil forces, and made at the request of the FBI armorers.
I was told that it didn't even have a part number associated with it within S&W back then. It was kept separate from the parts dept. (No need to know where.
)
I first learned about them during an armorer recert, being told about them by a very senior & more experienced S&W armorer. The customer service people I called had never heard of them. They sounded sincere and skeptical when I explained what I'd been told about them. Not even the designated parts contacts for LE armorers had heard of them.
I finally had to call a name I'd been given by the older armorer ... and
that gentleman asked me how I'd even heard of them. He chuckled when I explained it, and then sent me some of them.
No, I'm not sending any of the very few of them I have left to anyone!
Maybe they finally decided to make that older revision of the TP spring the "new" spring as far as parts replacement inventory. Dunno. They change vendors and revisions like most of us change socks & underwear.
I'll try to remember to ask next time I place an order for assorted spare parts.
BTW, I was told to use the same soft TP rivet for the optional TP spring back then, and they've exhibited no problems working in any of the guns in which I've installed my meager supply over the years.
Stranger things have changed in the 3rd gen guns, and have continued to change even though they've been "dropped" from the commercial, and even the LE/Gov, catalogs. For example, I learned a while back that they've
finally decided that they can use roll pins instead of the solid pins for the extractors. (It's about time, and no doubt prompted by what they're doing in the M&P pistols.)
I was told there aren't any designated parts numbers available separately in the commercial sales parts list, but that as an armorer I could call and ask for the appropriate roll pin/extractor pin for any particular 3rd gen gun model. Maybe someday I'll have the time to do that ... but in the meantime, I still have a bunch of solid repair extractor pins sitting unused in my parts.
