How Can I Smooth The Action?

A

AdamSean

New member
I have been shooting and working on my own guns for some time now. I just picked up my first single action revolver for some fun back yard shooting. I have a Heritage Rough Rider and want to smooth up the action and trigger break. Any ideas other than polishing internal parts and deburring rough edges?
 
Take a popsickle stick and fill the action with valve grinding compound and
sit in front of the TV and cycle the gun a few hundred times. Wash out with
kerosene and oil. Should be smooth. If not, do again.
 
kwhi, have you ever done this? Sounds pretty harsh. I have used valve grinding compound, but only to lap very specific areas. Watch out for coated or case hardened parts, these can be ruined if you take off the surface hardness.

Another technique is to apply extra force to the sliding surfaces. For example, push forward on the hammer when you pull the trigger; this makes the parts wear in a lot faster.

Also, a good high-pressure lube helps a lot; I use a thick black moly grease. This is supposed to be good as well: http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=1147/Product/ACTION_LUBE_PLUS_reg_
 
I have actually been sitting here cycling the action while pushing on the hammer. It has taken a little of the hang up out. I will polish the mechanism parts when I get off work in the morning. I will let you know how it works. It seems the tension spring is very sharp since it is a stamped part. I did this with my DA Ruger SP101 and it was smooth as silk.
 
The inside of the frames are normally pretty rough. I use a hand slot stone to deburr the hand slot. Stone away any burrs were you have metal to metal contact.

Polishing well sometimes round off corners, that's not always a good thing. The sear notch and sear needs to have sharp clean edges.

A hand slot stone, a sear stone and a surface plate with 1kgrit paper should do all the work needed.
 
A hand slot stone, a sear stone and a surface plate with 1kgrit paper should do all the work needed.
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I think that will work better than valve grinding compound. What is your surface plate? You can get 1000 grit emery cloth at an auto parts store (paint area). Could all the work be done with extra fine emery cloth wrapped around the sharp edge of something?
 
I have a granite surface plate but that is a bit overkill for most. A sheet of glass works great for a flat surface. If you know anyone that works with granite counter tops that's a good source for a small plate, the sink cut outs.

I use wet/dry paper (400-1000) with a light cutting oil. A small piece of bar stock wrapped in emery cloth would do for deburring the hand slot and frame interior.
 
A lot of CAS shooters also install reduced tension main and trigger springs. A weaker mainspring tends to reduce trigger pull because there is less pressure on the sear.

I have a ROA that I use for ML bullseye matches and installing a weaker trigger return spring made a noticeable difference in the trigger pull.
 
also install reduced tension main and trigger springs.
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Where to get for the Heritage Rough Rider? I just got one and the trigger pull takes a Hercules to pull it back. Even with the bad trigger pull, the gun seems to be dead on (amazing really for fixed sights) and accurate, but I am sure I can tighten my groups if only didn't take two hands to pull the trigger (slight exaggeration! .... but not much). Like to get down to 3 lb pull if possible....
 
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