Comparing Apex Tactical Mass Drive and RevUpAction hammers in my 617s

This week I have the opportunity to make a comparison between the Apex Tactical Mass Drive Hammer and the RevUp Action Hammer kit in my 617s.

The Apex hammer is on the left. The RevUp is on the right.



The Apex Mass Drive is advertised to be able to get a 6.5 pound DA pull and works that way with Federal BYOB bullets. Unfortunately I haven’t found any of these for the past year and now my gun is set at 9.9 pounds so that it will ignite CCI Mini Mags as well as a wide variety of .22s. Hammer fall is set to 45 ounces testing on my fishing scale. I tested the DA pull with my Lyman Digital Scale and used an average of 10 pulls.

The kit costs $150 and comes with the hammer, firing pin and three springs so you can get the correct return on your trigger. I use the 11 pound rebound spring and get 100 % reliability in my well broken in 6 inch 617. It’s a big advantage over the stock trigger setup. Mine came with a 14 pound DA pull from the factory.

In my opinion it’s well worth the investment. I was lucky enough to get the first hammer available to the public. The advantage of the heavier hammer is that it will ignite a variety of ammo brands.



I received my RevUp hammer kit two weeks ago and installed it in no time. The kit comes with the hammer, firing pin and spring as well as an 11, 12 and 13 pound rebound spring. I installed the kit in a new 4 inch 617 that has not had any work done to it. I had to use the 12 pound rebound spring to get the trigger to reset properly. I’m sure I’ll be able to lighten the pull once the gun has been broken in.

The price of the RevUp is $250 now but will be going up in the future so buy now. I have the K/L frame hammer kit while they also make one for the N frame Smith & Wessons.

I set the hammer fall at 45 ounces, just like my 6 inch gun so that I can shoot Mini Mags and a wide varity of ammo. I can get away with a lighter pull if I use Remington Bucket Of Bullets. DA pull is also 9.9 pounds averaging on my Lyman Digital Scale.



With the RevUp hammer, accuracy is very good and my times for Steel Challengeare better than my auto. This could be do to the fact that I’ve been primarily a revolver shooter for the past 50 years. The new hammer kit gives me a much smoother trigger pull and makes my sight stay on target better throughout the pull. The gun is very comfortable to shoot. With Remington Bucket Of Bullets I can get away with about 40 ounces of hammer fall and my DA pull will be around 8 ½ pounds. I keep it set for the Mini Mags so that I can pick up any box of ammo I have in the garage and go to the range without worrying about misfires.

This kit is well worth the money for both competitors and hobbyists that want a fantastic DA pull. It does not have a Single Action sear at this time but I understand that one may be available in the future.

Both kits are vast improvements and are worth the investment. Which is better will be up to the shooter. If you like the old style trigger but want it to be much lighter than what comes from the factory, the Apex kit iwill fit your needs. If you want a really different experience with a light smooth DA pull you may the RevUp is well worth the money.

Is that rust on the stirrup?

I went and checked the other stirrups. Out of a couple hundred there were 9 that didn't get a good coating of oil and had some very light surface rust. It comes off easily with a stainless toothbrush. That does not affect the function or strength of the part in any way.

Did you pay extra for the distressed, rusty look, or did that come as part of the regular price?

We got to keep up with the fashion trends, you know.

Perhaps use stainless or put some kind of corrosion resistant finish on it?

We'll look into that.

Does either shorten the throw at all.

Sorry, they do not but each give you a fantastic DA pull. The RevUp has a distinctly different type of pull. Your trigger scale may say it's high but in reality it feels like you are shooting with just the rebound spring's pressure.

Go to the RevUpAction.com website and look at their trigger test.

My gun is like set up #2.

CALREB said:

Does either shorten the throw at all.

Click to expand...

I'm working on that one. No one has figured it out yet, that I'm aware of.

I had a good day today with a chance to shoot my 4 and 6 inch 617s with the RevUp Action hammer kit. I started with the 4 inch. It's set up with the 13 pound spring, has a singel aciton pull of 4.5 pounds averaged on my Lyman Digital Scale with 54 ounces of hammer fall. Trigger pull is 10 pounds 8 ounces but is so smooth it doesn't matter how heavy it is.

It starts high and ends with light pull around the 4.5 pound single actions. I fired 250 rounds of Remington Golden Bullets with no failures. I swithed to CCI Clean and got a few failures. Cranked the retaining screw 1/4 turn and the CCI went bang as well.

All I can say is I like this Kit.

In my 4 inch I'm having a little trouble with trigger rest. I need the hammer fall to be 58 ounces with this gun and it just doesn't like it. Too bad because the mainspring is as tight as I can set it. Next I'm going to take out the Hillary Hole, Polish the rebound spring and trigger.

The 4 inch is pure stock compared to my 6 inch with about a hundred thousand rounds through it.

For Target and Plinking this is a fantastic upgrade.

If you need more spring, you can take out the mainspring and bend it backward with a large radius bend in the middle. Then put it back in and use a medium size blade (flat) screwdriver to lever it over and hook up the hammer. This is only for original S&W mainsprings, not aftermarket.

Thanks for the fast reply. I'll do that tomorrow and test the gun as soon as possible. I'm loving the way it feels in my 6 inch gun.

Thank you for posting that information! I've got a S&W 327 with an atrocious action to rectify, and you just compared a couple of the options I've been considering!

Both are even better on centerfire guns.