A couple thoughts.
First, a while back I noticed on one parts vendor website that they were apparently selling bright "stainless" colored factory trigger play springs. FWIW, back when as the factory was finishing fine-tuning the FBI guns, they developed a bright & shiny, plain colored spring which was supposedly stronger than the copper colored springs. I never learned the alloy used to make it. Supposedly, it kept its tension better and better addressed the "trigger click" in the FBI's 10mm guns, and had been created for their guns. It wasn't a normal stock part.
The interesting part ...
It didn't have a part number, and the LE contacts and parts guys with whom I talked didn't even know it existed. (I asked a couple of them.) I only found out about it (and saw one) when attending an armorer class hosted by another S&W armorer at another agency, who was pretty senior to me. He gave me a name and a number to call at the factory. I called and left a message. When I got a return call, the first question I was asked was where and how I'd learned of the spring's existence.
I told him (of course). He chuckled and asked me how many I wanted. Let's just say I got enough to replace the springs in my own 9, .40 & .45 guns, and some guns belonging to a couple friends and family.
Anyway, the picture of the springs I saw on some parts vendor website looked like the same spring (no copper color), and it wouldn't surprise me if when S&W was selling off a lot of their excess 3rd gen parts stock, that the remaining supply of those older trigger play springs got pulled out from whatever desk they'd been kept, and they were sold off, too.
Now, also bear in mind that the trigger play spring only reduces the single action "slop" of the reset/cocked trigger, and has even been removed from some guns (like those of the original CHP 4006's, after a while). The last contract for the CHP 4006TSW's were even produced, at their request, without trigger play springs installed in the drawbars. The guns function without them, with or without the "click".
The "click", BTW, isn't limited to the 10/.45 guns, although I was told that something about the width of the 10/.45 frame and the standard drawbar seemed more likely to sometimes lend itself to it happening. I've also seen it occur in an occasional double stack 9, from time to time.
It's just the front tips of the trigger's ears slipping just up above the top edge of the drawbar's V-notch, instead of remaining within the tall notch, and then as the trigger ears drop back down into the notch, the "click" occurs as they pass back down over the top edge.
Oh yeah, when armorers are taught to replace the trigger play spring, they're usually taught to do it using a cheap $10 vise that clamps to the edge of the hosting agency's tables, the pillar file from the armorer kit (which has a safe edge), a ball peen hammer and a 1/16" pin punch. The drawbar is inverted between the vise jaws, to support the shoulder, and the 1/16" pin punch is used to drive the rivet out the top of the drawbar head. (Yes, sometimes the small pin punch might be bent using it in this manner.)
Once you've done it the right way, it's a relatively simple task. The trick is not to lose the new rivet during the process
, and not to flatten it overly much (but just enough to hold the spring base flat and secure). It also helps to make sure the spring is pointed the right direction
, and the inverted drawbar head is kept flat on the top safe edge of the file while lightly whacking on the rivet to secure it.
Nice pics BMCM.
The annoyance on the other end of the phone usually comes through loud and clear when I start rattling off 3rd gen parts numbers. I can only imagine the reaction when asking for some un-numbered part
