My first Smith, trigger problem. Need advice. 10/23 Problem solved.

[scooter123]

It might be helpful if you posted where in the world you are located. Because there is a pretty darned good knowledge base on this forum and you might get directed to a gunsmith in your area that really knows his stuff. It would also be really really helpful to post what model you are having problems with.

BTW, my suspicion would be either an improperly fitted DA sear or a Hand/Extractor Pawl interference issue. However, if you have an N frame such as the 629 or a High End 686 Performance Center model your issue could be as simple as a trigger stop pin that was installed backwards. Point is different models can have minor internal variations and without knowing what model you have it's difficult to help you sort things out completely.

Finally, as it's a new firearm under warranty I don't think you should fool with it a bit. As you have seen the turnaround on warranty repairs is pretty quick. I think that you should contact S&W again and send it in again. Yeah, it's a PITA. However, keep in mind that shipping a firearm is an expensive thing to do and every trip back to the warranty center costs S&W something in excess of 80 dollars. Somewhere around trip number 6 back to the warranty center it gets to the point where it would have been cheaper for S&W to replace your revolver instead of trying to fix it. Point that out to Customer Service and perhaps they will tell the Repair Dept. to get it right this time.

 

[ccjcc81]

Well, I FUBARed the trigger. So now I guess my warranty's void, right? Great. I shouldn't have. But I shouldn't have had to. I wish I was a more patient person, and could be satisfied with S&W's obvious "replace hand the first time for no reason" warranty repair system, and sent it back in for round 2. This is rediculous. This problem should have been caught by QC. Then it should have been fixed when I sent it in.

So, aside from "you shouldn't have messed with it," and "you should have sent it back again," what advice can you guys provide for me? Will triggers drop in, or do they require fitment?

I'm going to call S&W in the morning and let them know that they didn't fix the problem, and that I FUBARed my trigger trying to fix it myself.

 

[Daniel71]

I think something is wrong internally with this gun. Chances are it will be simple to fix, but there is no way in heck I would take the sideplate off a brand new gun to find out. Send it home. I understand they turn warranty work around pretty quickly.

Last month I had to send a revolver back to S&W for warrant work, and the total turn-around time was about 2 weeks.

 

[JohnRyan]

I feel your pain. My 686+ 4" was purchased in August, just got it back from warranty repair and still has the same problem. I'll be shipping it back soon. Good luck.

 

[Hapworth]

Well, I FUBARed the trigger. So now I guess my warranty's void, right? Great. I shouldn't have. But I shouldn't have had to. I wish I was a more patient person, and could be satisfied with S&W's obvious "replace hand the first time for no reason" warranty repair system, and sent it back in for round 2. This is rediculous. This problem should have been caught by QC. Then it should have been fixed when I sent it in.

So, aside from "you shouldn't have messed with it," and "you should have sent it back again," what advice can you guys provide for me? Will triggers drop in, or do they require fitment?

I'm going to call S&W in the morning and let them know that they didn't fix the problem, and that I FUBARed my trigger trying to fix it myself.

You jumped from saying you smoothed the action up nicely but the original hitch is still there to saying you FUBARed the trigger -- did I miss something?

You've gotten a wide variety of excellent advice thus far, what more do you want? MIM triggers generally drop in, but you'll still have the hitch.

Call S&W, or LSG Mfg, or a good local revolversmith, or make it a learning gun, or sell it honestly and take your lumps.

 

[Pef]

Well, I FUBARed the trigger. So now I guess my warranty's void, right? Great. I shouldn't have. But I shouldn't have had to. I wish I was a more patient person, and could be satisfied with S&W's obvious "replace hand the first time for no reason" warranty repair system, and sent it back in for round 2. This is rediculous. This problem should have been caught by QC. Then it should have been fixed when I sent it in.

So, aside from "you shouldn't have messed with it," and "you should have sent it back again," what advice can you guys provide for me? Will triggers drop in, or do they require fitment?

I'm going to call S&W in the morning and let them know that they didn't fix the problem, and that I FUBARed my trigger trying to fix it myself.

Well, that's a bummer. Some of us are tinkerers at heart, but the trick to tinkering is knowing the difference between tinkering and breaking.

If I were you.....I'd just send it back to Smith and give them my CC number and politely say "You messed up by letting it go and then not fixing it the first time, and I messed up by thinking I could do what you would not.... so work with me here if it's no longer under warranty and maybe cut me a break. We both have egg on our face."

 

[ccjcc81]

You jumped from saying you smoothed the action up nicely but the original hitch is still there to saying you FUBARed the trigger -- did I miss something?

You've gotten a wide variety of excellent advice thus far, what more do you want? MIM triggers generally drop in, but you'll still have the hitch.

Call S&W, or LSG Mfg, or a good local revolversmith, or make it a learning gun, or sell it honestly and take your lumps.

I smoothed the action with a basic stoning. It didn't fix the problem, so I looked for the problem area. I thought I found it on the trigger, and tried to reshape the surface, and screwed up the double action sear surface. Now the double action pull is ruined. I was hoping I could buy a new trigger and then send it in and see if S&W would overlook my attempt. If not, then I guess I'm going to have to start saving money to get this thing back in working order, and call it a lesson learned. Then I'm going to think about selling it honestly. And then I'll take some time to decide if buying S&W in the future is worth the money, time, and inconvenience. I had my sights set on a 629, but I don't want to go through this again.

 

[Pef]

I smoothed the action with a basic stoning. It didn't fix the problem, so I looked for the problem area. I thought I found it on the trigger, and tried to reshape the surface, and screwed up the double action sear surface. Now the double action pull is ruined. I was hoping I could buy a new trigger and then send it in and see if S&W would overlook my attempt. If not, then I guess I'm going to have to start saving money to get this thing back in working order, and call it a lesson learned. Then I'm going to think about selling it honestly. And then I'll take some time to decide if buying S&W in the future is worth the money, time, and inconvenience. I had my sights set on a 629, but I don't want to go through this again.

Getting into the sear in sear-ious stuff. (Hey, a pun!)

 

[Bahamaroot]

Did you buy this online? You can usually inspect the gun and check the trigger and such before accepting it from a local LGS.
I would give S&W CS another chance. They may just overlook your mishap because of the gun being relatively new. I had a 6 month old Beretta that had a kaboom due to out of spec ammo from my brother. This is not covered under warranty because it was reloads. I sent it to Beretta for repair with full intentions of paying for the repair. They fixed the gun and didn't charge me for it even though I was responsible for it. Give S&W the same chance.

I have a 2013 686-6 and it has the sweetest trigger pull I've ever felt on a firearm.

 

[S&W Rover]

Hey, all is not lost. Send it back to S&W, and tell them it wasn't fixed, so you tried to fix it and couldn't. They've seen it all before. And they can fix it -- they have the parts -- and parts are cheap for them. They may charge you, probably will, but it won't break the bank. Don't give up on them and eat a major loss here.

(However, if you have a good S&W revolver 'smith nearby, you could give him a try. But, barring that, send it back. S&W is about fixing the gun, not affixing blame. I guarantee most of us on the forum have done one or two things worse to a gun once or twice. I know a guy who dropped a 642 on his garage floor while cleaning it, and gave the cylinder a road rash... S&W replaced it for a very modest price).

The important thing is that you want to have a very good S&W revolver when you are done. Then you can enjoy it, or sell it for its true value if you decide you don't want it.

 

[ccjcc81]

Did you buy this online? You can usually inspect the gun and check the trigger and such before accepting it from a local LGS.
I would give S&W CS another chance. They may just overlook your mishap because of the gun being relatively new. I had a 6 month old Beretta that had a kaboom due to out of spec ammo from my brother. This is not covered under warranty because it was reloads. I sent it to Beretta for repair with full intentions of paying for the repair. They fixed the gun and didn't charge me for it even though I was responsible for it. Give S&W the same chance.

I have a 2013 686-6 and it has the sweetest trigger pull I've ever felt on a firearm.

I bought it locally. I honestly didn't notice the trigger problem. I wish I had. I'm going to call S&W tomorrow and tell them that they didn't fix it, and that I tried to fix it myself and made it worse, and see what they say. If the say they have to charge me for repair, I'm thinking about ordering a replacement trigger and installing it to see if that helps. Hopefully just a $50 trigger will fix it. I have a feeling that if S&W voids my warranty because I tried to fix it myself, I'll spend more than that just shipping the gun to them.

Anyone have any idea what S&W would charge to replace a trigger and then find the hitch in the trigger and repair it?

 

[ccjcc81]

Oh, and here's what my little gem looked like when I cracked it open. I'm incensed that a S&W tech would open this up and not clean this rust out at all. I can't believe it looked this bad.




I cleaned it up as well as I could with a nylon brush and an Arkansas stone.

 

[gnappi]

Um, some basic trouble shooting?

Did you open the cylinder, leave it open, pull back the latch and see if the trigger bound up when pulled? That takes a few things out of the equasion.

Now, what did you stone? Unless you went in there with a rasp, I'll bet you installed something wrong putting it back together.

 

[ccjcc81]

Um, some basic trouble shooting?

Did you open the cylinder, leave it open, pull back the latch and see if the trigger bound up when pulled? That takes a few things out of the equasion.

Now, what did you stone? Unless you went in there with a rasp, I'll bet you installed something wrong putting it back together.

http://smith-wessonforum.com/138716570-post16.html

 

[scooter123]

Triggers are drop in, the DA Sear on the hammer is an item that MUST be fitted. I would recommend that you stop messing with this and take it immediately to a competant gunsmith. Yeah, it will cost you 60 bucks or so in labor but my crystal ball is indicating that your lack of patience will lead you to taking a hacksaw to your new revolver just to insure it isn't repairable.

 

[ccjcc81]

Why would you recommend seeking a gunsmith instead of calling S&W? I heed your recommendation that I stop messing with this. I'm putting the hacksaw down. I'm done.

Triggers are drop in, the DA Sear on the hammer is an item that MUST be fitted. I would recommend that you stop messing with this and take it immediately to a competant gunsmith. Yeah, it will cost you 60 bucks or so in labor but my crystal ball is indicating that your lack of patience will lead you to taking a hacksaw to your new revolver just to insure it isn't repairable.

 

[3rdgeargrndrr]

if you do any polishing or stoning, make sure you get a red or blue sharpie and and file only to the point where your ink comes off. no more than that, reassemble and test fire again.
a gunsmith knows when to back off. you should be able to drop in another DA sear and ge the factory pull back.
paint your trigger with sharpie, maybe its got a high spot rubbing somewhere?
possible a trigger shim can improve that, but send it back to SW and tell them to fix it, it might be a couple of parts that you owe but better than a safe anchor.

 

[3rdgeargrndrr]

Why would you recommend seeking a gunsmith instead of calling S&W? .

someone thats local, you can trust and can call you back with any questions.
Most gunsmiths that I know have been repairing our ***** jobs for 20+ years, can't say for a fact that is occurring at SW repairs.

 

[ccjcc81]

Just got off the phone with S&W. I told him that I received the gun back, and that the hand replacement didn't solve the problem. He told me that he wants to overnight the gun back to S&W and get that problem solved for me immediately.

After he said that I told him "now we've got another problem," and proceeded to explain that I tried to fix the gun myself, and ruined the trigger. He told me again that he's going to send me a free overnight label, and that he'll notate that "the customer tried to fix the problem. The gun is new." I told him that I'd be willing to pay to replace the trigger and the hammer if needed, but asked him to please keep the gun in the "warranty repair" status, so that I don't have to wait several months to get it back, as it's new, and I just got it last month. He said that shouldn't be a problem.

So I'm happy with the interaction. I don't have to pay shipping, which is a relief. If I have to pay for the trigger and hammer, and nothing else, I'll consider this a success, and a lesson learned. Again, the fact that I've had to be S&W's QC department notwithstanding, I'm happy with the customer service I've received so far.

 

[foytfoyt]

That's great to hear.

It's generous of S&W not to have voided the warranty, as some companies would have.

Good luck on this round of repairs!