New model 66 trigger job

[tripper]

Hello, all. I'm the proud owner of a new 66-8 Combat Magnum, and I am looking to improve the trigger pull. I have Jerry Miculek's video on trigger jobs, and I have or can get any of the needed tools. I'm competent with this sort of work, having done some minor fitting in the past. Of course in his video Jerry works on a model 10 with the older styled trigger and hammer and rebound slide. What I'd like to know is if anyone here has ever done trigger work on a gun with mim parts like the ones in my gun. Would I expect to get similar results with polishing these parts? Or, is it just a situation where I'd be better off fitting custom components like those from Power Custom? I'd like to take my time and use this as a learning experience by working on what I have if at all possible. This is a range/target gun, so there are no issues with self defense reliability to be concerned with. Any help you may be able to give would be appreciated!

 

[steelslaver]

Here is what I would do. First dry fire it a couple thousand times.
Then take it apart. Look for little lines on things like the hammer and trigger. Look at the bosses around the trigger and hammer posts and the bosses around the holes for them in side plate. Use something like an Optivisor or magnifying glass. High spots will be brighter from rubbing during dry firing. Smooth and high spots with a small hard fine stone. Just the high spots. Small grooves around the posts are not a problem. Little bumps are. Look at the rebound slide for the same thing. Smooth where it rides in frame. Don't over do it just take care of any high spots. If the hammer has wear marks in an arc where it rides on the frame or side plate try a hammer post shim on the side that rubs. Put in a reduced power rebound spring. Check for positive trigger return. Stay away from the sear surfaces they are almost always fine and messing with them is a good way to screw up a good gun. Now turn out the hammer spring screw 3 complete turns. Does the gun still operate? If not turn it in 1/2 turns until it does. Fire it. If it miss fires turn the screw in 1/2 turn and try again until it fires every time. Once it fires every time count the 1/4 turns until it is tight again. Measure the screw's total length and then file off .0078 for every 1/4 turn you need to get it tight. and round off the tip a tiny bit. Better to leave it a little long than get it short.

Smoothing things out a bit helps as does a slightly weaker trigger return spring and a slightly shorter main spring screw, but the gun must reset the trigger positively and fire every time.

Better to learn to be a good trigger puller than try to become good by having the lightest possible trigger. Smooth beats light anyway.

 

[D Brown]

in my experience, the MIM parts are capable of providing an excellent trigger action. Go ahead and dry fire the gun a thousand times or so if you're retired and have nothing better to do before you get started on the actual work. Personally, I still work for a living and don't have time for that nonsense. It's entirely up to you how to proceed.

Best of luck.

 

[Protocall_Design]

You can get a nice trigger pull with any factory parts, new or old style. The MIM parts are as good as the forged machined parts. You can get just as good an action on a K, L, or N frame. The main ingredient in the quality of the action is the knowledge of the gun and skill of the workman. Most of my actions are in the 6 to 6.5 lb. DA pull, 100% with well seated Federal primers. Every gun is an individual, so no 2 actions will be exactly the same, but they can be similar enough that any minor difference doesn't matter.

 

[ontargetagain]

It's fun to make your own gun work better
What you do depends on whether you are looking for a lighter single action release or looking to make a lighter smoother double action out of it?
Reduced power mainspring may give you more misfires than you want unless you are loading with Federal primers. The Miculek mainspring does not have the groove in it that the Wolff spring does. I ended up with the Miculek mainspring in my 686, your gun will be different as they all are in how they react to springs.
I agree on just some dry firing to at least give you the 'show and tell' of where the contact points are that can be polished. Also a high quality lubricant on the contact points can be a great help, I have been using Neco Molycoat, slippery stuff!
Good luck and have fun!
Karl

 

[dr. mordo]

I'm a big fan of dry firing before any other work. There's a day and night difference between a new trigger and one with several hundred dry fires on it. I personally haven't felt much improvement after ~750 pulls, but it can't hurt to go higher!