Thanks for the feedback guys. As for Numrich, I'm there so much I'm almost an employee ( I only live 25 miles from them) and they are unfortunately not what they used to be. They have de-emphasized the selling of antique parts in favor of moving military and after market items and it's hard or impossible to find what you need.
true, they have to move with the market, and I sense all their inventory isn't sorted- they most likely have the parts but not catalogued. And their SW parts inventory is starting to dwindle- lots of "sold out" on the parts lists anymore.
I got a lot of my parts to put together recent SW's from Numrich, they had the hard to find 2nd model trigger, also the trigger springs for only $9 each. They have the SW hinge pivot for only $4, and the mainsprings for only $7.50, although I didn't need the mainspring. Considering others want $30 and up for mainsprings, and more for pivot pins and trigger springs, those are good prices. Numrich is a first-stop shopping for SW parts- then from there I go to other sources. Also their returns policy is very easy, return any part within 30 days, get a full money back guarantee. So you can buy many versions of SW triggers, guards, etc., see how they all fit, keep what you like, return the rest. No other source will let you do that. You can buy $200 worth of parts, look them over closely, keep one part, see the differences because you have all the versions there in front of you, then return what you don't need.
I got the Numrich repro grips, which were 1/2 price of originals. They file fit very easily, but need the escutcheons and screw.
If Numrich doesn't have it, then try Dave Chicione/Old West Gunsmith, or the pistol smith in South Dakota called Jack First. J. First had both 2nd and 3rd model cylinder stops, he makes the reproduction 3rd model stop- and he had the rare hard to find 2nd model stop. First has machinists in house making parts for SW's.
What I do is, make a parts list, price it out from each source, and then choose the vendors that give the best prices on each part, to make it cost effective.
The only part I had to "make" was the 2nd model cylinder stop spring, by stretching and cutting a BIC ballpoint pen spring to size.
But let me say this, by far the best source of parts and price, were the members on this message board. If you buy from a private seller, you'll get a bag full of parts for less than buying from a business.
There was another vendor recommended but I emailed him twice, and got no reply. Popperts also replied they couldn't help me. The above vendors did reply and got all 4 of my guns going that needed parts.
