Going to investigate a trigger job for my Astra snub.

P

Pond James Pond

New member
Has anyone ever worked on one of these .38s?

Basically there’s a guy who’s worked on triggers who is offering to have a look at my revolver to smooth out the DA pull.

I think he has a decent idea what it’s all about but is not a bona fide gunsmith. Those are a rare breed here.

Any advice on preparation/research on how to get good results?
 
Leave the mainspring alone.
Polish the bearing surfaces with stones- fine India and then ceramic or hard Arkansas stones.
Leave the sear engagement surfaces alone.
Lightening the trigger return spring a little bit may be permissible-but remember-if you cut it too short, a replacement spring will be hard to find.
 
By bearing surfaces, do you mean the points where the mechanism is immobilised within the frame?

So essentially I shouldn’t consider work on much at all!
:o
 
A highly skilled sushi chef isn't necessarily ready to be a neurosurgeon.

He needs to know what to not cut.

I'm not a revolver mechanic.

Example: I would not do anything with the end of the "Hand",which rotates the cylinder. An experienced pistol smith might. He might have replacement parts,too. I would not touch a sear or hammer hook without a jig and proper stone and I would not run a power tool on either.

There are critical function places to leave alone. I'd leave the window for the cylinder locking bolt alone.

But there are surfaces and edges that are not critical that have incidental friction with the frame and other parts. In general,"The flat sides"

Think of looking at them through a microscope. You will have peaks and valleys. Maybe some boulders. And some plateaus or plains.

All we want to do is use a hard,flat,fine stone to knock off the boulders and peaks. Boulders and peaks don't slide well.

We like plains and plateaus . We don't need to touch those.And we do not want to remove the valleys. They can hold oil for us.

Generally,if you have a flat sided part,10 seconds of stroking little figure "8" motions with the stone is plenty.

If the edges are a bit ragged,maybe stamped,a few strokes to break non-functional edges is good. Less thana 0.1mm corner break.. A .05 mm break is enough usually.

The gun works now. Do no harm. You cannot put steel back.

Sometimes one end of a leaf spring rides on another part with movement...friction,in function.

Sometimes that spring has sharp "digger" edges,and sometimes the surface it rubs on is rough.

Some smoothing here can make a difference.

I'll say again,I'm not a revolver mechanic. I'm just giving general guidelines that work on guns in general
 
Pond said:
Has anyone ever worked on one of these .38s?

Basically there’s a guy who’s worked on triggers who is offering to have a look at my revolver to smooth out the DA pull.

I think he has a decent idea what it’s all about but is not a bona fide gunsmith. Those are a rare breed here.
Click to expand...

Then I would be inclined to not. Especially given that they're not making the Astras anymore.

Any advice on preparation/research on how to get good results?
Click to expand...

What's the problem with the gun now? (I haven't followed your posts on it.)

How much shooting and dry firing has been done to date on this. Much? Little? Things tend to smooth out with a lot of use, as rubbing metal surfaces polish themselves.
 
Who knows how many it’s fired but not so many I think. A thousand or so with me, to my shame...

Dry fire, live fire etc. Manufacturer ammo or my light handloads.

I may get a second opinion too...

This guy has played around with CZs a lot apparently but confessed to not being a wheel gun guy...
 
"...I think he has..." Suggest you re-think letting a guy with no experience anywhere near the thing. Especially if finding replacement parts, springs included, is an issue at the Top of the Baltic stack. It's really easy to inadvertently alter the assorted angles and/or over do the polishing. Moreso if he uses a stone vs just polishing the mating parts.
Astra's are Smith clones, but you'd still need to know what you're doing.
 
All good points.

Letting him have a look doesn’t mean I’d let him take a grinder to it and I may say: I don’t want to touch the sear...

We’ll see.
 
Personally, Id dry fire and shoot (and DAO) the snot out of it, and it will take care of itself. (and "it" isnt necessarily the problem here either ;))

Seriously, people bitch about and blame the triggers, way to much, when its not even the trigger thats the problem. Throwing money at it wont either. ;)
 
My oldest brother had a Ruger Redhawk. He had an "action job" done to it,to improve the trigger.

Then,when he practiced with it,he used 44 Special loads.

Later,in Alaska,when we were having a little bear incident,that gun was loaded with 44 Magnum loads. Those had harder"magnum" primers.

So,as my brother made "click,click,click,click" noises with his Redhawk,he was advising me (still inside the tiny tent) "Bob,you better shoot that bear. Bob,the bear is right there. You better shoot him. Click click click..."

There are some improvements that can be made to a trigger pull without trading reliability for them.These are largely reducing friction.

Spring rates are often somewhat excessive by design. The extra is margin of error for reliability. For a self defense gun, to trade reliability for a sweeter trigger pull is …..an interesting decision.
 
Personally, Id dry fire and shoot (and DAO) the snot out of it, and it will take care of itself. (and "it" isnt necessarily the problem here either )

Seriously, people bitch about and blame the triggers, way to much, when its not even the trigger thats the problem. Throwing money at it wont either.
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All valid and its not an either/or situation. I could do both.

The thing is I was blown away (figuratively, thank goodness) by the NC-6's trigger. I really have never experienced something like it. Remember, I've never even had the chance to handle a Smith.

What change are you trying to accomplish?
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Honestly, had I a wand, I'd put the NC-6 trigger pull in my snub. Now, I'd just like to have a DA pull that is smoother and less staged.

I do think my snub has been carried a bit before more and fired even less. So some additional use would help.

Spring rates are often somewhat excessive by design. The extra is margin of error for reliability. For a self defense gun, to trade reliability for a sweeter trigger pull is …..an interesting decision.
Click to expand...

I definitely want to keep it on the side of reliability. Even as I dry fired the NC-6, I thought, "would this have the power to ignite hard primers?"

But even a little smoothing would be a pleasure.
 
I've polished the sides of the hammer, the trigger, the little trigger return spring carrier and even the cylinder release bar. I applied lube.

The difference is astounding!

OK, its not as smooth as the NC-6 that had got me thinking, but its 80% of the way. So much so that I may go back in to do some more as the initial job was only an hour's worth of "frantic frottage"!!

Anyway, super eager to see what difference it has to my DA shooting at the range!
 
My $.02 on the matter is
"stop fussing over the trigger!" and learn how to work with it.
Too heavy a pull, learn how apply more pre pressure. Rolling trigger? learn how to pull through. Staging trigger, learn where the lock is.
Most people want that legendary glass crytal breakng trigger, but get spoiled and can't shoot any gun that doesn't have it.
Yes, I cut my teeth on shooting tons of bullseye and every gun was hoped to be as good as my Bob Chow .45 or my Smith model 52.

But these days, I like shooting with any trigger I'm given. A glock is never going to be a 1911, and I've learned to accept even the most mundane.

"A good indian can shoot any bow" is the mantra
 
HighValleyRanch said:
My $.02 on the matter is
"stop fussing over the trigger!" and learn how to work with it.
Too heavy a pull, learn how apply more pre pressure. Rolling trigger? learn how to pull through. Staging trigger, learn where the lock is.
Most people want that legendary glass crytal breakng trigger, but get spoiled and can't shoot any gun that doesn't have it.
Yes, I cut my teeth on shooting tons of bullseye and every gun was hoped to be as good as my Bob Chow .45 or my Smith model 52.

But these days, I like shooting with any trigger I'm given. A glock is never going to be a 1911, and I've learned to accept even the most mundane.

"A good indian can shoot any bow" is the mantra
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Preach it brother! :D
 
All true, of course.

That said if I can have a better trigger on my EDC at minimal extra cost (a few bits from the hardware store) and some elbow grease, without affecting reliability, why not?

No sense in handicapping myself unnecessarily.

“A good Indian can shoot any bow, but give him a well tuned compound and he can shoot better” is another mantra!
 
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Pond said:
No sense in handicapping myself unnecessarily.

“A good Indian can shoot any bow, but give him a well tuned compound and he can shoot better” is another mantra!
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Maybe, but not really likely. Not doing the first, will handicap you in the second. ;)

Seems these days, a lot of people want to skip the part that makes them a better shooter. They try to bypass the work, and figure they can just buy the skill.
 
Pond said:
They're not mutually exclusive.

There's nothing above to say that I'll forego practice, just because I have a smoother trigger in play.
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No, but a lot of people think they can forego the former by simply spending the money for the latter, and will be a better shooter because of it.

The point here is to be able to pick up pretty much any box stock gun, and be able to shoot it well, which really isnt at all hard. "If", youre accustomed to shooting box stock guns, everything is easy.

The reverse isnt usually the case, and hence the booming business in aftermarket triggers and gunsmith work. :)

What Ive come to find is, the more you practice with and use what you have, the better the trigger, action, whatever, seems to become, assuming youre even paying attention to them (I generally dont). Its not the gun thats getting better. ;)

The biggest reason people who dont shoot DAO have trouble with it, is because they dont have the muscle tone and related experience to do so, because they "dont" do so.

Same goes for pretty much any other shooting discipline, once you step away from a bench, and you and the gun, have to shoot as one.

Shoot a box stock DA trigger DAO daily in dry fire and practice for a month, and at the end of that month, you will find that trigger will be great. As good or better than a tuned trigger.

Funny thing is, nothing has really changed with that trigger. ;)
 
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