Floating hand

[My Toy]

In the Standard Catalog of Smith and Wesson alot of the revolvers listed include in their engineering revisions a switch to a floating hand. I know what the hand does but what is the difference between the original hand used vs. a floating hand?

 

[500 Magnum Nut]

The pin is different on that style hand.
The floating hand is problematic. Sometimes if they get dirty it messes up the carry up. S&W dropped them soon after they implemented the change over.
If you have the floating hand, it can be swapped over to the original hand easily.

 

[My Toy]

Thanks for the info 500 Magnum Nut. I've dissassembled alot of Smith revolvers from before and after the revision change was supposed to have been made on a given model and the hands all seem to be constructed the same way - your explanation tells me why I've probably never come across a floating hand. Thanks again.

 

[500 Magnum Nut]

Here is a stolen pic that shows what the pin looks like;

 

[My Toy]

What was the engineering reason behind changing from the original hand design to the floating hand?

 

[500 Magnum Nut]

To improve the carry up. There is a term called sing that they tried to perfect. In a nut shell, if you shoot right handed then shoot it left handed the trigger is being pulled differently. So the hand being attached to a pin is being bent in such a way which is altering the carry up (or affecting the timing) to a point which it's sometimes noticeable.
There is a way to tune the old style hand which works pretty well. In addition the floating type hand was OK until it got dirty, then it was junk.
In the FAQ sticky above read up on "Sing" and I go over how to test for it and how to tune the hand you have in the gun.

It's easy to check, a few sent me flowers afterwards thanking me for an improved trigger...