I did it with my 10-14 but it was a major PITA to have to reinstall the rebound slide, and then the hammer, test, dissasamble, file a little, reassemble......

Is there an easier way? I'm about to install a new trigger stop rod in my 617 and want to do it right, without breaking the gun down 40 times to do it!

Make sure the rod isn't too long or the hammer will drag against the trigger nose when you cock it. If you size the rod so it just lets the trigger drop the hammer, you'll see what I mean. There is so little difference in trigger action between the guns I have with stop rods and without, I don't think they are worth the trouble.

I do not bother with the rod. For me a simple piece of eraser from a pencil super glued to inside of the trigger guard, then slowly cut down using an emery board to the over travel I want, works well.

Decide in advance if you are going to use the gun SA, or SA and DA. SA requires a little more over travel for me.

__________________
the world is round everywhere

<Is there an easier way? I'm about to install a new trigger stop rod in my 617 and want to do it right, without breaking the gun down 40 times to do it!>

You should not have to refit the rod 40 times. Try this:

While Smith uses .10 pins to make their stop rods, I've found 7/64" drill bit shanks(.109) work fine. I start with cutting off these drill bits at about .750 at the shank. Round off the edges on one end and polish. This end will be toward the trigger when inserted into the rebound slide. Now you need to start fitting the pin to your individual revolver. Instead of trying to file to fit, I chuck the stock into a hand drill with the unpolished end out. I then use a Dremel tool with a cut-off wheel to "buzz" it down a bit while the stock is spinning on the drill. You basically have a rotating cutting tool touching the tip of rotating stock. It's easier for me to keep the end square this way. You will still need to do a bit of fitting. I think you will find that somewhere in the .708-.718 will be the proper length. Do the fitting with the mainspring removed. You will get to a length where you have nice hammer release in DA. Carefully cock the hammer back and check for lack of clearance between the trigger hook and the hammer ledge. You do not want any contact between these surfaces as you cock the hammer back. You want that pin trimmed to allow a full engagement of these surfaces as the hammer is pulled all the way back and released. Keep in mind, these checks are done with the sideplate off. Things need to be rechecked when the gun is reassembled. Once the gun is back together, make sure that you do not feel any contact between hammer/trigger surfaces. Check this by holding trigger all the way to the rear and articulate hammer back and forth. You do not want to feel ANY HINT of contact. Once I am satisfied with clearance, I trim the pin by another.002 just to allow for wearing in. By the way...........Don't even attempt this unless you have at least a dial caliper to measure as you work.

If you shoot handguns, you really need to experience shooting a gun with zero trigger over-travel. It makes a huge difference in proper follow through of the shot.

Thanks for the great post!

I do have calipers, and once my target hammer and trigger arrive for my 617 I will get it together with the trigger stop installed. The one that came in it was too short, and was basically useless. I look forward to this being my all around perfect .22 range revolver.

tdan. Enjoyed your post. Very informative. I never saw a trigger stop pin until I did a trigger job on my new 617 when it popped out of the rebound slide. Took a while to figure out what it was for and where it went. I have 686s, 625s, 610s and 36s from 20 to 30 years ago and never ran into one when I worked on them.

To be honest I can't feel any difference between the 617 and the others with out the stop pins and they all have really nice SA triggers. But I don't shoot revolvers (only semi autos) in bullseye so maybe thats why.

That's exactly how the factory stop rods are and there's a reason. As I said before, you can't set the length to stop the trigger at the SA release point. To see why: turn the gun sideways and CAREFULLY watch the gap between the back of the trigger and the inside of the trigger guard as you cock the hammer. The trigger has to move a lot farther back to get into cocked position than where the release point is. Studying the insides will show why, ut the point is the stop rod only prevents a very slight bit of rear overtravel. If you set the rod up "tight", the hammer will not cock SA or it will drag as you cock it. That's why those rods are pretty much useless.

I agree with what you say here and GLVs solution for a trigger stop makes more sense (if you want one). Why do they bother putting them in at the factory then?

My guess is they put them in to the "target" revolvers just so there's an extra gadget in there.......

I did however fit a stop rod to my 10-14 and it works great, I got lucky and there's a little bit of overtravel but the SA pull feels much more "solid" than my 64-7. Again, not needed really and probably doesn't add much to my accuracy but I wanted my 10-14 to be a "range fun gun" and wanted all the little "bells and whistles" in it.

If fitting the rod proves to be a PITA in my 617 I may just leave it out. I doubt it will hurt my performance much.......

Most models don't have them. What is bizarre is some versions of the model 66 have them and some don't which makes absolutely no sense at all.

Why? Who knows. I keep them in a bag in my closet.

S&W has used 3 solutions over the years to limit trigger overtravel:

Stop rod inside the rebound slide...........Almost every N-frame that I have handled in the past 25 years has one of these. These are rarely seen in K/L frames.

Frame mounted tab...........This is that tab that protrudes from a slot in the frame inside the triggerguard. This is adjustable and is commonly seen on older K-22's, K-38's(maybe that's why Smith designated these as Target Masterpiece models), and early L-frames.

Stop pin in rear of trigger...........Usually only seen on PC revolvers.

Bottom line is that all of these devices serve the same purpose: They limit rearward movement of the trigger to only what is necessary to cock the hammer and break the shot. This enhances practical accuracy, becauses it increases shootability. Due to the lockwork design of the S&W revolver, you do need to have a bit of overtravel to protect the hammer/trigger engagement surfaces. Past that point, all you have is an unnecessarily sloppy trigger break. Now why would the factory spend any amount of time designing trigger overtravel solutions, if they did not believe this would make their product more "shootable"??!!!

If you N-frame owners remove that factory length internal stop rod, you should find that the frame inside the trigger guard is now what your trigger stops on. Even though IMHO the factory fits these on the short side, they are in their for a reason. I would not have them hanging in a bag in my closet. For you folks that have a factory stop rod gun, pull that rod out and measure it. It's probably in the .690-.700 range. Taking around .015" of slop out of that trigger break does make a difference. If you don't immediately feel the improvement, you must be shooting with gloves on!

Disclaimer: Above modification has been successful on my guns. Do not attempt unless you have an understanding of S&W revolver lockwork and know how to use the above mentioned tools.

Trigger stops help if you are looking for a perfect trigger. Many are happy with less. The factory trigger stop is usually a bit short, so I refit one to eliminate backlash. All my guns have perfect triggers and a trigger stop is the frosting on the cake. I even fit them to my Rugers. The rod type that fits in the rebound slide is the most reliable, as the K frame stop is known to come loose.

I had Bill Davis lightly work over a M25-5 for me years ago, he drilled and tapped the trigger for a set screw adjustable stop. I could screw it in for DA or screw it out for SA. Worked OK, but I'm not sure it's really much of an aid to good shooting-- just another gimmick.