Testing a Ruger poor man's trigger job

I've occasionally seen members reference a poor man's trigger job. If you don't know what that is, it's where you unhook one or both trigger springs from a pin in a Ruger single action's grip frame. Having spoiled myself with the light, crisp trigger jobs on my Encore, Weatherby, and AR-15, I thought I'd do a little experiment.

For fear of royally screwing something up this close to season, I started with my 357 Blackhawk, which I don't plan on using. My trigger scale showed a force of 4 pounds was necessary to break the trigger. I removed the frames, unfastened one of the springs, and measured 3.25 pounds, a bit less of a change than I was expecting. I wanted to try removing both springs, just to see what happens, even though I heard that it typically leaves the trigger dangerously light. To my surprise, it measured 2.5 pounds, which is still heavier than my Encore.

With the technique figured out, I tried it with the 41 Blackhawk. Unmodified, the pull was 3.75 pounds. With one spring unhooked, 2.25 pounds. Again, just to test, I unhooked the other spring. I barely put pressure on the trigger before it broke, a pull I measured at a mere 1 pound. Yeah. . . no. Way too light. I hooked one spring back onto the pin in both guns, even the 357.

All in all, pretty interesting experiment.

I did the same thing on 2 of my Blackhawks Chance, one side only, made a huge difference, for the good!

I've done this one side only on my SBH it seamed to work fine. To be honest with my stiff hands I didn't notice any change. Tried the same with my single six and ran into problems. When pulling the hammer back the hammer would stop about half way and not go any further no matter how hard I pulled. Not every time. Not even every cylinder full. Say once out of every 10 -15 shots. Now this single six is 40 years old, been shot a lot, and not hand the easiest life. Still this was enough to convince me that his was not a good idea. I returned the leg on the SBH even though i had no trouble with that. I have never heard of anyone else having this happen, so maybe it was a one of. JMO if you really feel that you need a better trigger {your a better shot that i am. we are talking hand guns not match rifles} then learn to do a trigger job your self or have a pro do it.

Another "PMTJ": Cock the hammer on an empty cylinder, then push down hard on the hammer while pulling the trigger. Do several times. This will usually help smooth the trigger pull.

Yeah, I'll do it the proper way later. This is an interim measure with season so close.



Hmm, never heard about that one. I'll have to give it a try.

Bluecow

Your hammer locking up on your single six may have been from the "leg" that you removed getting caught in the main spring. It happens!

When I lift off one leg of the spring on a Ruger SA I test fire the gun first, and if all is well then I cut that leg off of the spring. Not sure why, but my friend Ron Power always says to remove the leg from the right side. He knows a lot more about those guns than I ever will, so I follow his advice.

I have never heard of or tried removing both legs. I guess I am surprised that it still works that way.

Dan

I made a recent purchase of a NIB BH HUNTER in 41magnum.. MY

first purchase ever of a new Ruger handgun. 0nly second Ruger

l have ever owned. First was a used SBH 10 1/2'' 44 l briefly

had in the late 70s...

This new Hunter has 400+ rds thru it now.. The trigger is

breaking @ app 4 pounds.. lts better now after shooting some.

lt has a slight creep, but no amount of shooting or spring

mods will cure the creep. 0nly an action tune from competent

gunsmith will cure that. Challenge is find a ''competent'' one.

Every Ruger I've owned had one side of the spring unhooked doesn't help that fuzz of creep but it bothers me less when I'm not trying to extrude the grip out of my hand trying to fire a good shot

Buy a good set of Wolf springs and do it properly.

Polish the parts while you have it apart.

Oh I took the creep out and polished it all with a good Stone but I couldn't see buying springs when the trigger ended up perfect the way it was

MUDDY

Thanks. That's what I suspect, and I'm not so keen on cutting a leg off a spring that at least for me seams to be little or no gain.

H2OBUG is correct, I shot my 357 black hawk with one leg off the peg for some time. I removed my grips just to check it out and I could see the leg rubbing on the coil spring.i looked up a spring kit and it was like $14 , pretty cheap really..