Which gunsmith for a bullseye trigger job?

[zanemoseley]

I just won an auction for a LNIB 19-3 6" made in 1969. I shoot bullseye and would like to use the revolver occasionally to shoot the centerfire match.

I have a bullseye friend that said he used to have a 19 that he did a trigger job on using Jerry Miculek videos as a reference. He said he was able to get the DA pull down to about 4 pounds, that would be great.

Who do you guys recommend for such a job?

 

[elpac3]

Couple of thoughts:

If you are thinking of bullseye with a 19, you may want to consider adding a target hammer to the gun.

Look to see if there are any local gunsmiths who do revolver action work, otherwise, one of the best know's are Clark Custom Guns.

I hesitate to recommend doing your own action job after watching just one video without having some hands-on time and understanding all the nuiances of how the parts fit together and the critical nature of the angles that must be maintained on the hammer/trigger engagement surfaces.

 

[patrickd]

Ask multiple shooters at a Bullseye match and take an average.. About all the videos he has show is how to swap out springs and how to play with the strain screw. A proper trigger job requires stones and a jig to maintain proper critical angles. You will want a pro that has successfully performed multiple trigger jobs on a Smith & Wesson revolver. That said, there's nothing wrong with playing around with different springs yourself on a target gun. Maybe that's all it will need as Smiths already have very good actions right out of the box.

 

[Hapworth]

A search will net you a good list as this subject comes up often...

Off the cuff, I'd look at Frank Glenn or Nelson Ford.

As an aside, it would be remarkable to tune a S&W's double action to 4lbs and not get consistent misfires even with the softest primers.

 

[zanemoseley]

Yeah I'm pretty sure I'm not going to attempt myself. I don't mind swapping springs out or even light polishing but changing angles isn't something I want to do. And as you guys say it will require jigs that often cost more than a trigger job.

 

[Satoken]

I have used several gunsmiths as well as doing some work myself in the past 20 years.
My conclusion;
Spend money on ammo and shoot! Don't do anything internally until you put 100,000rds through the gun.
100K rds are not that much, by the way. If you shoot 100/day, every day, you'll consume 100K in less than 3 years and by then, I guarantee you'll out shoot everyone who's reading this.

 

[eb07]

Nelson Ford. I cannot say enough good things about his work.

 

[Pizza Bob]

Isn't 2700 shot with a revolver generally done in single action mode? Thus the wide hammer spur and ribbed wide trigger on the target guns (17, 14 & 25).

Nothing wrong with wanting a light double action pull (although doubtful you'd get reliable ignition with 4.5# pull), but not really necessary for the OP's intended purpose. It's pretty easy to safely get into the 2.5# - 3# range single action pull, without going too light in D/A, with just spring changes.

Adios,

Pizza Bob

 

[iPac]

If you're going to have a professional do the job, make sure you send it to a real professional. Someone who could be considered a master revolver smith. I would only go with Frank Glenn for Colts and S&Ws. He has good prices and great turn around, not to mention the quality work.

You could easily do it yourself though but would need to dedicate time to reading and understanding the appropriate manuals. The S&W action design can pretty much be tweaked sufficiently with just spring changes and adjustments. You can do a little bit of stoning to smooth up internals but unless the inside is just awful rough, the difference won't be too substantial. There's some other tricks you can do to make it smoother too if you start researching and they're pretty minor adjustments.

Good luck. I always rather learn and do myself than pay someone to do it for me.

 

[zanemoseley]

Well I read about Nelson Ford and Frank Glenn. I read several reviews saying Nelson was a monster jerk and had horrible customer service, not saying he doesn't do good work though. I called and spoke with Frank, I'll likely be sending it to him. Only thing I wasn't thrilled about is that he said typically an action job only gets the DA down to 8-9 pounds. When it comes time to send it to him I may see if there's anything he can do to get it a tad lower.

Regarding its use for bullseye, there are 3 types of fire, slow fire, timed fire and rapid fire. The slow fire would obviously be SA only. The timed fire you have 20 seconds to fire 5 shots so it could feasibly be done with SA as well. Rapid fire on the other hand is 5 shots in 10 seconds and would definitely be DA.

Honestly shooting a revolver for Bullseye will be for fun only, I'll probably use it for small local matches, kind of a throwback to the good old days. They do have Distinguished Revolver matches but they're pretty difficult to find.

 

[eb07]

Well I read about Nelson Ford and Frank Glenn. I read several reviews saying Nelson was a monster jerk and had horrible customer service, not saying he doesn't do good work though. I called and spoke with Frank, I'll likely be sending it to him. Only thing I wasn't thrilled about is that he said typically an action job only gets the DA down to 8-9 pounds. When it comes time to send it to him I may see if there's anything he can do to get it a tad lower.

Regarding its use for bullseye, there are 3 types of fire, slow fire, timed fire and rapid fire. The slow fire would obviously be SA only. The timed fire you have 20 seconds to fire 5 shots so it could feasibly be done with SA as well. Rapid fire on the other hand is 5 shots in 10 seconds and would definitely be DA.

Honestly shooting a revolver for Bullseye will be for fun only, I'll probably use it for small local matches, kind of a throwback to the good old days. They do have Distinguished Revolver matches but they're pretty difficult to find.

Those reviews are complete and utter BS. My guess is guys with taurus revolvers and the like were mad because he turned down their work.

I was just in Nelsons shop last Friday and he is a great guy. With great customer service. I lived in the Phoenix area for 20 years and he is the man for smith revolvers and he shoots target pistol competitively as well so he knows how to work one.

He is working on my 2d and 3d smith this month. So he will have worked on all of mine and I cannot say enough good things about him as a person and as a craftsman.

That's my real life experience from last week, Friday June 16th. Spent about an hour talking with him.

 

[zanemoseley]

Thanks for the feedback. I guess that's the good and bad thing about the internet, every joe has a voice that lasts for a long time. A few bad internet reviews can make a otherwise good business look not so good.

 

[Jingles]

My $0.02, get a Wolf spring pack for less than $20 and see what happens. It won't be as good as a professional action job but it will get you pretty close. Shooting about 1K rounds down the pipe will help also.

I recently installed the reduced recoil pack in a Model 17. I had been reluctant to do so because of ignition reliability. It now has a near perfect trigger and only 2 FTF out of a box of 333 rounds (which is probably better than before the swap).

 

[PALADIN85020]

Nelson Ford. I cannot say enough good things about his work.

Nelson Ford, AKA "The Gunsmith" operates out of a shop in north Phoenix. His two specialties are S&W revolvers and 1911 pistols. I have had numerous guns fine-tuned by him, and have always been very happy with the results. He knows his stuff.

He's also fun to talk to - you will find him very eccentric, but then, that's to my taste - very strong opinions on virtually anything!

John

 

[bigggbbruce]

My $0.02, get a Wolf spring pack for less than $20 and see what happens.

Spring change is the first thing I do to most of my revolvers.

 

[zanemoseley]

I just found out my buddy still has the Jerry Miculek DVD. I may watch it and see if I feel comfortable in doing the work myself. What sucks about shipping it to a smith is all the shipping fees, anymore it costs a fortune to ship pistols.

 

[Jim Watson]

I don't think the Miculek video is anything but changing to his brand of spring. Of course you have to know how to get the gun apart and back together to do even that.

The revolver guys on Benos say 6 lbs is a pretty light DA. You see claims of 4 lb but everything has to be just right. Apex used to do very light DAs but at high cost. And it looks like they are doing so well on parts they don't have time to gunsmith one at a time.

 

[zanemoseley]

Well the Miculek video is 110 minutes long so I would assume it goes over more than springs swaps. I'll let you guys know once I watch it.

 

[Jingles]

Well the Miculek video is 110 minutes long so I would assume it goes over more than springs swaps. I'll let you guys know once I watch it.

Here's a 6 minute version that covers spring swaps.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9gn7zE5b3g"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9gn7zE5b3g[/ame]

 

[elpac3]

Well I read about Nelson Ford and Frank Glenn. I read several reviews saying Nelson was a monster jerk and had horrible customer service, not saying he doesn't do good work though. I called and spoke with Frank, I'll likely be sending it to him. Only thing I wasn't thrilled about is that he said typically an action job only gets the DA down to 8-9 pounds. When it comes time to send it to him I may see if there's anything he can do to get it a tad lower.

Regarding its use for bullseye, there are 3 types of fire, slow fire, timed fire and rapid fire. The slow fire would obviously be SA only. The timed fire you have 20 seconds to fire 5 shots so it could feasibly be done with SA as well. Rapid fire on the other hand is 5 shots in 10 seconds and would definitely be DA.

Honestly shooting a revolver for Bullseye will be for fun only, I'll probably use it for small local matches, kind of a throwback to the good old days. They do have Distinguished Revolver matches but they're pretty difficult to find.

Revolver shooters back in the day fired all three courses single action. A number of the "old time" shooters had king hammers and triggers installed which gave a faster lock time and a much shorter hammer cocking. They worked great single action but were too light on the double action. They also would typically go with a set of Herret stocks as these tend to keep the thumb up higher making the SA cocking action faster.