What’s a “tuned action”?

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The only action tuning I've seen for the past few years from the factory is the use of a Wolff Power Rib mainspring, and possibly a lighter rebound spring. That is not a tuned action. That is a cheap spring kit.

A real tuned action has internal parts (lockworks) polished and fitted by a skilled revo smith. The higher end versions of this have all the specs set to be the optimal dimension for each part of the gun, like blueprinting a car engine.
 
The only action tuning I've seen for the past few years from the factory is the use of a Wolff Power Rib mainspring, and possibly a lighter rebound spring. That is not a tuned action. That is a cheap spring kit.

A real tuned action has internal parts (lockworks) polished and fitted by a skilled revo smith. The higher end versions of this have all the specs set to be the optimal dimension for each part of the gun, like blueprinting a car engine.
Protocall_design is correct. Here's an excerpt about action tuning:

Transforming a revolver's trigger into a smooth action with a crisp break is a lot more involved than just swapping out springs. There's no huge gain achieved by just doing a couple of modifications. Sure, you can replace a couple of springs – the main/hammer spring and the rebound spring, which resets the trigger – but that will only give you a slight gain, and do nothing to smooth out the action.

A true "trigger job" involves reworking pretty much every internal component, and there are plenty of them. Anywhere you have metal on metal friction gets honed or polished. Some springs are replaced – the main/hammer spring and rebound spring mentioned above – a couple are shortened and some are left as is, as long as they are functioning. Eventually all of these small reductions add up to a significant improvement.

The end result is a nice, smooth trigger action with a crisp break. It's the difference you'd feel between running your hand across a coarse piece of sandpaper vs. a piece of glass that's covered in soapy water. "Slick" is a good adjective to describe the experience.

I'll almost guarantee that S&W's current PC does not have the expertise or desire to spend the time to perform a true action tuning on all of their revolvers. Check out some of Jerry Miculek's videos on YouTube.
 
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