Revolver Springs: Standard vs. Reduced Power

It's a bitter, windy day at the range. But gun fights usually happen in less-than-ideal conditions, the range master says. The class will go on. You head to the line with Old Faithful, your carry revolver, in the holster. You enhanced it last weekend with the installation of a spring kit just like Uncle Harry put in his S&W Model 29 .44 Mag residing in his sock drawer.

During timed fire at seven yards, Old Faithful's trigger doesn't reset when you're cranking off a cylinder. After a reload, it fails to reset again. You failed to fire two of the twelve rounds in that stage. Later on, you drop another round because a primer failed to ignite. You can't imagine why--you followed the instructions some highly-experienced gunslinger in Slapout, Okla., gave you via the Internet. You even successfully test fired it with some Federal and Winchester factory ammunition.

You're not alone. Many of us have ignored the small print such as: "urges caution when using reduced power hammer or striker springs in firearms, particularly in firearms used for critical applications such as law enforcement. Reduction of the hammer or striker spring may compromise the reliability of the firearm" or "designed for competition and speed shooting ... For best results, use Federal primers."

If any revolver spring is labeled "reduced power", I'm leery of it. I don't put them in revolvers I might carry in dangerous times, which is any revolver I own. What works in ideal conditions may not work in the field. Springs need the strength to overcome fouling, temperature extremes, harder primers, faster-than-average cycling, and perhaps a bit too much headspace.

Here are some things anyone can try before putting reduced-power springs in concealed-carry or duty revolvers.

• Obtain quality references on how a revolver works such as Jerry Miculek videos from Clark Custom Guns or Jerry Kuhnhausen's shop manuals published by Heritage Gun Books.


• Carry out a detail strip, clean and lube job using above references.


• Check revolver function as laid out in the references. If a revolver is improperly fitted, it will negatively impact the trigger pull weights because it takes more force to rotate the cylinder. If that is the case, send it in for warranty repair or obtain the services of a reliable revolver smith.


• Strengthen your hands and fingers by squeezing a ball. Clear the revolver, leave all ammo in another room, and dry fire at a mark with a bullet-proof backstop behind it.

Lastly, try aftermarket standard-weight replacement springs such as Wolff/Brownells Type-1, standard power, Power Rib mainspring for S&W K, L and N frame revolvers. It has an altered contour that does seem to smooth out the action without reducing reliability.

If the mainspring comes in a kit with three, reduced-power rebound springs, throw them away. Even the heaviest rebound spring is three pounds below factory weight. Fortunately one can order the mainspring alone. Sometimes it helps to lightly polish the bottom and rear surfaces of the rebound slide of S&W revolvers. Emery paper fastened to a wood block works well. Do nothing to the hammer and trigger engagement surfaces.

J-frame S&W revolvers use a coil mainspring. I haven't had good luck with aftermarket mainsprings. These little pieces are even more apt to suffer trigger reset problems from reduced-power rebound springs in my large hands.

Check the springs in used firearms you've picked up in a trade. I've seen several used Colt D-frame snubs such as the Detective Special or Cobra that won't reliably pop primers because of bent or reduced-power hammer springs.

Compare coil springs in length to new, factory springs. If the old springs are shorter, replace them.

Honest Abe and "the letter and spirit of the Constitution"

Attorney General designate Eric Holder faced the Senate Judiciary Committee for the first time today. He declared he would adhere to the rule of law and follow "the letter and spirit of the Constitution."

I doubt he will face much scrutiny on his previous efforts to explain away the Second Amendment.

The news is filled with coverage of President-elect Obama's Lincoln-themed inauguration. Obama will place his right hand on the same Holy Bible on which Lincoln's rested March 4, 1861, and swear:

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Even in the midst of a terrible war that makes the current one in Afghanistan, Iraq, and in this nation's transportation and financial hubs appear like a mild squabble, Abraham Lincoln never insisted the Second Amendment guaranteed only the right of states to form militias.

In fact he said on that day,

"I take the official oath to-day, with no mental reservations, and with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws, by any hypercritical rules. And while I do not choose now to specify particular acts of Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much safer for all, both in official and private stations, to conform to, and abide by, all those acts which stand unrepealed, than to violate any of them, trusting to find impunity in having them held to be unconstitutional. ...

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it."

We do need change, a new birth of freedom, open government, and a renewal of America's promise. We've allowed presidents and senators, attorneys and lobbyists, corporations and other special interests, and Democrats and Republicans to render separation of powers provided for by the Constitution to be meaningless.

The failed economy, dwindling international stature, wars without end, mounting national debt, global trade imbalances, a weak currency--an imbalance of power between branches of government is behind all of it.

When servants of the people such as the president, attorney general or senators are impugn in misinterpreting or ignoring Constitutional safeguards, tyranny grows. Holder's nomination doesn't speak of change. It's still the imbalanced way executive appointments have been handled in Washington for at least the past century. Through the power of appointments, one man can cease being a servant to become a master.

The 2009 Shot Show

I always look forward to hearing the first impressions and seeing the pictures from those able to attend the Shot Show. It fires up tomorrow in Orlando.

Best wishes to all attendees and exhibitors. May 2009 be a year in which we're unimpeded in enjoying the shooting sports, exercising our rights to assemble, and preserving and defending our Second Amendment rights.

I've love to get to either Las Vegas or Orlando some January. Until then I'll have to enjoy it vicariously.

The Land of Lincoln

"What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself."

"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."--Abraham Lincoln

Have a good day, President-elect Obama. Hopefully there will be enough port-a-potties.

Sacha Baron Cohen's delusions

This English comedian aims to shock Americans by putting a black Jesus dressed in a loincloth and wearing a crown of thorns in his latest film.

Americans, like people all over the world for centuries, have a extreme range of opinions about Jesus. Some believe he never existed, others think he wasn't the son of God but an archangel, a percentage claim he was a great prophet only, and some say he was a false prophet.

Sacha may be shocked to learn that this white, gun-toting, Bible-hugging, conservative man from Kansas, U.S. of A., has seen Jesus as black. Nope, I'm not under the influence of corn liquor I've distilled or meth I've cooked in the old tool shed.

The Apostle Paul said in Galatians 3:28 that there is no Jew or Greek, servant or free, male or female: because we are all one in Jesus Christ. These differences mean nothing to God. All that matters is "faith that expresses itself through love."

Those who have been transformed by their acceptance of Jesus become one with his body. His body is made up of all believers, the universal church. Jesus is the head of the body. I think another passage of scripture enforces this concept, Mathew 25:40.

This passage, in simple English, states, "And the King will make answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, Because you did it to the least of these my brothers, you did it to me."

This morning my son, baptized at birth in a mainstream Protestant church, drove into town and picked up a Roman Catholic friend. These two white teenagers skipped services at their churches to attend church with a third friend to help her celebrate her birthday. She attends a church mainly made up of black Christians.

It is comforting and not shocking at all to know my son will see Christ in all of them and that they will see Christ in him.

I'd like the Grilled Sea Kitten please ...

and some extra hush puppies.

PETA's sea kittens are known as fish to many cruel, heartless torturers who like to hook, filet and consume them.

"In the United States, there are no regulations to ensure the humane treatment of fish, despite the fact that billions of farmed fish are slaughtered every year. Though they may seem alien to us, fish are unique and intelligent individuals who feel pain, just as all animals do."

Sea Kitten and Chips, Fried Sea Kitten, Sea Kitten Sticks, Blackened Sea Kitten--I'm more ruthless than than a CIA subcontractor running a waterboarding operation in eastern Europe.

First Firearm

Brigid wrote of the first gun she shot. It prompts me to remember when I first fired my father's Mossberg 146B .22 target rifle.

Dad bought it soon after he came home in 1953 from serving in the U.S. Army in West Germany. Mossberg produced that model from 1949 to 1954. I came along in 1961 and can always remember it being handy. Every farm household had a .22 rifle of some sort, but they didn't look as exotic as the Mossberg with the oil-rubbed walnut stock with pistol grip, rear receiver sight and hooded front sight with changeable inserts. The knob for end tip also made it stand out from run-of-the-mill .22 single-shot rifles such as the one the butcher used or the one Grandma kept to dispatch pests.

Dad and I was standing behind my 10-year-old brother as he shot tin cans at various ranges in the garden during a sunny, fall afternoon. I begged for a chance, and Dad allowed me to take a few shots after some instruction. The can was about seven yards away and the seven-pound rifle seemed as if there was a brick suspended from the muzzle. I can still see the can flashing in the sun as it was hit. I was six years old.

We still have the Mossberg. The forearm has a split in it. Us boys took the sights off after they broke in order to mount a cheap 4x scope on it. I think it is time to hunt up some parts and get it back into service.

I do remember the first girl I kissed. Her name was Paula. She drove a tan, 1978 Trans-Am. It isn't like there were a huge number of girls to remember. I was standoffish--rube in the big city.