M37 problem

[Cal44]

I took my "new" 627PC and 37 no dash out to the range for the first time.

I was shooting Winchester 130 grn FMJ 38 special in the M37 and American Eagle 158 grn LRN in the M627.

The 627 worked flawlessly. It's easy to shoot. I thought I might find the factory Eagle grips too small, but they worked fine. Not sure if I'll like them when I try full power 357 mag, but for 38 special they are great.

The 37 was easy to shoot. It came with Pachmayr Compac grips, and with this the recoil was mild. I was expecting a problem because I heard how badly Airweights pounded the shooter. This turned out not to be a problem -- at least with light target ammo and rubber grips.

But there was a problem with the 37.

Several times out of a box of 50 rounds, I had failure to fire. One time two out of 5 in one cylinder didn't fire.

I took the cartridges out and the ones that didn't fire had light strikes. The others in the same cylinder had normal strikes.

The firing pin hit right in the center of the primer just like it was supposed to -- just not hard enough.

When I put the rounds that failed to fire back in and fired them single action they shot fine.

The problem seemed to be confined to double action -- and then only occasionally. I was shooting fairly slowly the whole time.

Anyone have any idea what might be wrong?

Dave

 

[colt_saa]

Replace your mainspring

If you bought this used, it was not uncommon in the olden days for table top gunsmiths to cut a coil or two off of the mainspring to reduce trigger pull.

The distance the hammer falls from a cocked position is farther than when the hammer is released in a DA pull. Therefore, from a cocked position, the hammer has more time to accelerate and gather energy for a harder strike.

 

[Cal44]

Replace your mainspring

If you bought this used, it was not uncommon in the olden days for table top gunsmiths to cut a coil or two off of the mainspring to reduce trigger pull.

Due to a long vacation I finally got around to taking this gun to the smith last week.

Got it back today.

The gunsmith who worked on it wasn't there when I picked it up, but the note he left said the mainspring was damaged and he replaced it and test fired the gun.

Before I took this gun in for repair, the trigger seemed much lighter than my other J-frames.

Now with the new spring, the trigger is just like a typical j frame trigger -- much heavier than it was before.

I think this gun was the victim of a kitchen table gun smithing job by a previous owner.

I'll try to get it to the range this week and see if it's really fixed.

Dave

 

[Ashlander]

Looks as if Colt SAA really knows his stuff. That was a great call.