Need opinions on SP goodies

E

Eric Larsen

New member
I want to tweak/personalize my SP101 just a little and need help.

First a great smooth wood grip with finger grooves....Which one?
Badger, Hogue, Eagle....I know what they look like ...who has one, how do you like it? I like the Badger silver/black alot.

Trijicon front sight....I can do the work to it...@ $ 35.00 I dont see how I can pass this one up....who has one? Does one sight without the other 2 for reference, really work that well?

Little bit of trigger work...leave springs alone as this is a CCW..just smooth it out a tad..

What else? Its primarily a CCW...so I cant see going ballistic ( tee hee hee) on it...Shoot well and thanks
 
Eric,about a year or so ago the cover gun on Combat Handguns Magazine was a customized Ruger SP101 ported and gone over by a Man named Prest.There was a great article on it inside.The porting was called the SP10 treatment as the last 1 in 101 was removed by the porting design.It also had some nice looking grips on it.I contacted Mr.Prest to see about His porting My S&W 640 and He was very pleasant to talk to.I decided to trade away the 640 instead.If I get an SP101 as I'm planning to,I'll see Him regarding this package.tom.
 
I put the Hogue cocobolo grips on mine and love them. The factory grips didn't work well for me, but others swear by them. I did replace the hammer spring with a 10 # Wolff and it improved the DA pull.

I've been toying with the trijicon sights idea myself. You do have to drill the pin hole. Search under the 'smithing' forum. I beleive SK has done this and has a post on how to do it.

I got the following from the Ruger Forum I think, though it may have been TFL. Don't remember the author:

If you got it apart you can do the work. any part that mates and moves against another metal part polish with rouge wheel and dremel. This does not take serious metal off nor does it mess up heat treatments. I don't polish pins with exception of hammer pin. especially take the hammer strut, it is stamped and has rough edges. Polish the rounded area that fits into back of hammer. Polish the area at the back of the hammer the strut mates with. For this I took some fine emory and super glued it to a wood dowel and used my cordless drill. Also file the shaft of the strut on the surfaces that are rough and then polish. Before you do all of this. With gun complete, hold trigger back and pull hammer back and forth. You can feel the rough as the spring is compressed. Do it again after your work and feel the difference. Look at your schematic in your manual seeing part relations to get a feel for the way the action works. Also don't forget the area on the trigger and hammer were the DA works. The DA sear on the trigger is the flat at the bottom of the U as you look at he trigger sideways. This surface mates with the hammer as the DA pawl brings them into bearing just as the cylinder locks into place. Also use a good gun grease on these surfaces when putting back together. I've done this work on the three sp101s I own with very satisfactory results. As long as you don't get aggressive and grind sear surfaces, just polish, you won't get in trouble. Good luck and post your results.
 
Eric, I just got an SP and love it. Had the SW 60, but the Ruger is so much more comfortable to shoot with stout loads. I want someone to come out with a true "boot" grip. Not the current banana shaped grips that Hogue and Butler creek are calling "boot". I wrote PGS the makers of the fine "Hideout" grips, and he sounded interested, but I guess we'll have to wait and see. Since I am somewhat impatient, I found a used SP grip at my local gunstore for 4.00!!! An hour later with my Dremel tool and I took off the bottom of the grip about 5mm or so. Now it is almost flush with the grip panels and the front and rear "bumps" are now much more rounded. I hope to post some pics when I am all done with this thing. I am probably gonna do the tritium front sight thing too, but I am tryin to hold out for a HiViz. Good luck man. Dave.
 
Reason for removing laser grips?

Yo Eric - I previously followed your aquiring the SP-101 yet have been away from TFL for at least a week. Any reason for dropping "the red light"? Greybeard
 
Greybeard....nope. No reason...it works wonderfully.
I just like to twiddle with stuff.
I love a great set of smooth wood grips on a snubbie...just feels "perfect" and the night sight was for when I did have the grips on....since I wouldnt have my little red light.
Im very happy with my CTC red light...it proved to me just how accurate my shiny little gun can be....pretty cool.

Shoot well
 
I like the Trijicon front sight a lot. Haven't really used it in the dark but what I do like is that when shooting .38 spcl. I line up the sight normally, top of the front even with the grove in the rear. When I load up .357's I line the insert even with the rear groove and the rounds hit point-of-aim not low like with the factory.
You have to drill the new sight for the roll pin but that's no biggie.
My next "improvment" is to give it a bead blast finish. I've got access to a bead blaster, just have to work up the nerve to put my gun in it. ;)
Mine wears Hogue overmold grips, I did see a web site the other day that has wood boot grips to fit - If I come across it again I'll post the URAL
 
Tweaking

I like the Hogue wood grip on mine. Haven't tried the Badger but had one on a 686 Mtn. Gun which I really liked, too. I have never seen it but have heard of some gunsmiths that fit a tritium insert at the rear of the sight channel for a rear sight. Never seen one but Herretts in Idaho makes wood grips for SP's in many different configurations.

Several other things I could think of: chamfer the rear of the cylinder charge holes for speedloader use. All you really want to do is break the edge with a 45 degree cutter slightly so the rounds don't hang up coming out of a speedloader. I would contour and polish the trigger to get rid of the sharp edges and make it amenable to double action shooting. If the gun was to be used for pocket carry you may want to bob the hammer.

If you polish the innards as another mentioned the 10 pound or 12 pound mainspring may be the way to go.

Regarding Charlie Prest I don't think he is in AZ anymore. The place is called "All Custom Firearms" and a Mike Chudmolka (sp?) does the action work there now. Both a SP101 and a S&W J frame were written up I believe in "Combat Handguns" in articles by a Mike Detty. I would really like to see the SP101 with the 7.75lb. double action pull as that sounds awful light. I have one that Teddy Jacobson tuned to 9 lbs. and I put the 9 lb. Wolff mainspring in and surprise it works with all the loads I feed it. Still the double action is in the mid 8 lb. range. The All Custom Firearms has a web site at http://www.allcustomfirearms.com/

Jim T.
 
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