I am in need of a stirrup for a Frontier Double Action. Can anyone give some ideas as to where I might find one? Revolver works in double action but won't cock in single action due to missing stirrup. Any assistance would be appreciated.

Gary

Gary,
I think your nomenclature might be suspect? If I'm reading your post correctly, your DA .44 works correctly in the DA mode but will not hold full-cock in the Single Action mode. (?)

If this is the case then I believe you might have a chipped "rear sear" as the "sturrup" is the 'T' shaped part that connects the Hammer to the Mainspring. It is possible that your Hammer sear is bad also. I recommend David Chicoine (SR. or JR.) at oldwestgunsmith.com They may have the part or might be able to rescue your part. Otherwise check Jack First or Numerich (Gun Parts Corporation). Good Luck as these parts are long past obsolete. Mike #283

__________________
Mike Maher #283

If the problem is your gun won't stand cocked -- in my experience it has always been due to the sear notch on the bottom of the hammer -- and it has taken me about 30 minutes to fix.

Take off side plate, disconnect main spring, remove hammer, sharpen the notch. Sharpening the notch requires a file hard enough to cut the hard hammer. I use a diamond needle file. The 'sharpening' is actually to make the engaging surface an extension of the rotation radius of the hammer so the sear rocker can hook on to it for full cock.

I can imagine the sear rocker needing its engagement angle worked on too but I have never had to do anything but the hammer.

I don't think you will find this fix in Chicoine.

If the sear rocker is missing - good luck finding one.

Gary you know what you need. The 44 DA's do, do this if the stirrup is gone. The spring rides on the rear flat of the hammer and the gun sporadically works. but it throws the whole geometry off at makes the timing messy and rough. I fixed one like this with a stirrup I found in a parts bin. I have no idea what it was from but after some filing and fitting the gun worked perfectly.

Dixie gunworks would have stirrups, not specifically for the 44DA, but a good start

Thanks for all the tips. It is missing the stirrup, although it may have other problems as well. The tip on Dixie Guns Works was particularly helpful. They show several stirrups, none for the S&W Frontier, but they are cheap and worth buying several to see if one can be modified to work.

Thanks all!

I used a stirrup from a modern N-frame S&W hammer on my DA frontier. Half of my stirrup was broken so it needed replacing. I had to alter the newer stirrup very slightly with a file but it works great. They really didn't change it much over the years.

...actually on second thought I don't know if the hammer was from an N-frame or a K-frame. I just compared it next two two revolvers and the size is too similar to tell without taking the sideplate off. Maybe they actually use the same size. I imagine the stirrup is probably the same on either one though.

I'm bumping an old thread here. I just got the same problem. Heard a rattling sound, removed the grips and this tiny metal bit came out and it turned out that it came from the right side of the stirrup. The gun still functions, but this problem need to be addressed. I'm now looking for a n-frame stirrup i can use and would be thankful if anybody could point me in the right direction.

Depending on the frame size, S&W used the same stirrup for many different models, so you don't need one specifically from, or for, a 44DA to replace a missing stirrup. Any new Model # 3 stirrup will work. Ed.

Aha. So i might be able to use parts for Uberti New Model #3 ?

You won't know until you try.

__________________
Dean
SWCA #680 SWHF #446