What spring kit for J-Frame M63 Smith?

L

Lavan

New member
I know the geometry of the J-frame won't be as easy to make nice as the K-frame, but which spring kit do you think would do the best job possible?

The single action is SUPERB (and the reason I bought the gun)
Accuracy....ditto. Amazing!

However, the DA is fairly hard and I'd like to tune it up a bit.

If it makes a difference, the revolver is one of the newer whoopty safe key things.

M63_Smith.jpg


Thanks in advance. :)
 
First, I'd recommend live and dry fire (with snap caps), as that really helped by J Frame 642. It's not quite a K frame, but it is now very smooth, and it is one of the lock equipped varieties. You may even consider removing the side plate after a while (using good gunsmithing screwdrivers, and no prying of the sideplate) to give it a good cleaning and relubrication after a few thousand cycles of the trigger or so.

For me, I found that doing anything else to my 642 was superfluous.
 
Wilson and Wolff both make spring kits for the S&W J-frames. Get the books on how to lighten the trigger pulls on S&W's before doing anything. Dry firing is for people who cannot read and would not know a light trigger pull if it bit them in the butt. :D
 
A comment, if I may. First, in spite of what you may think, igniting a rimfire round takes more energy than igniting a center-fire primer, so the idea that a RF revolver can have a lighter trigger pull or mainspring than the equivalent gun in a CF caliber is wrong. It's not the geometry of the mechanism, it is the cartridge. You can lighten the trigger pull to a point, but you will do so at the expense of reliability. I have had gunsmiths do "trigger jobs" that resulted in some brands or types of ammo not firing at all, while other types worked fine. As a rule, the higher pressure (high velocity) rounds are more prone to misfires since the brass is made thicker to better contain the higher pressures.

The small rimfire revolvers suffer from a double whammy; the hammer is
small and light, so does not have the energy to reliabiy fire the RF round; at best the combination of a hard case and a light hammer is marginal; lightening the hammer by tricks like reomoving the hammer spur or lightening the mainspring make things worse.

Jim
 
It is a no-brainer. Buy the kit (not all that expensive), and if the lower-powered mainspring causes fails-to-fires, put the heavier factory spring back in (it is not rocket science). On the other hand, if you are into hand-wringing hysteria, just leave it it as it is and live with its heavy double-action trigger pull. Nothing ventured nothing gained.
 
I have not worked on a J-frame rimfire, but I have worked on J-frame centerfires and on K-frame rimfires. There is some good advice in this thread, but I have some further thoughts on working on the model 63.

I believe the factory stock mainspring for J-frame rimfires is a 12lb spring. For centerfires, the stock mainspring is 8.5lb. The heavy mainspring is required because rimfire rounds really do require a hard hit. But the very heavy mainspring insures that the double action pull will be tough. Some people have reported good results using a Wolfe 9lb mainspring in J-frame rimfires. The 9lb spring is listed as an extra strength spring for centerfire J-frames. However, other people have reported that the 9lb spring was not fully reliable in rimfires.

You can also reduce the weight of the rebound spring, but there are a couple of cautions about this spring. First, the rebound spring needs to be balanced against the mainspring. If the rebound spring is too light, the trigger return is sluggish and the overall trigger pull just feels wrong. A brisk trigger return is critical if you want to shoot rapid double action.

Also, using a lighter rebound spring can make the single action trigger pull too light. This can make the single action trigger unsafe, and may also cause the single action engagement points to wear improperly. I consider a 2.5lb single action pull to be the absolute minimum, and some people say the minimum should really be 3lb.

Of course, it is necessary to have a trigger scale to accurately measure the single action pull. And I recommend getting a trigger pull scale that can accurately measure the double action pull before starting any project like this. Without a scale it is very difficult to judge the effect of each change.

Also, I personally do not change springs unless I am also prepared to polish the internals. But polishing the internals of a revolver requires knowledge and practice. Jerry Miculeks's "Trigger Job" video is a great introduction to working on revolvers, and I highly recommend this vido for anyone who wants to work on Smith & Wesson revolvers.
 
if you want a decent rimfire double action trigger pull, get a Ruger LCR. otherwise youre just chasing rainbows.
 
1. Dry fire a couple thousand times with snap caps using stock springs. This will help smooth things out a bit without mucking with stones & such. If you want smoother, then you'll have to know what you're doing and be more careful.

2. Buy a decent gunsmith driver & bit set, or the S&W revo specific kit from Brownells that has handle and three bits.

3. I bought the Wolff kit for my recent J-frame purchase. It is similar to the kit I bought for my old Taurus small frame. I also bought a couple other springs to give myself the full panoply of options. I am not a gunsmith, but I have had the side plates off most my revos and it is not rocket science. Good bits, patience, and youtoob or a quality book reference will get you there.

4. Check reliability with your carry / favored ammo afterwards. If it doesn;t go "boom" 20/20 times or 50/50 times, go back and maybe put a more powerful spring set in.

5. I also bought an aftermarket "plug" kit to remove the locky-bits. When I find the time for my own J-frame trigger job, I will install it, too.
 
Or just leave it alone.
If you bought it for SA, how much do you expect to be shooting a rimfire in DA anyway?
Denis
 
The Wolff J rimfire spring reduced set gets you a 9 lb mainspring instead of centerfire standard 8.5 or reduced 8 lb.
Even if that were not enough, you would have three rebound springs to try.
 
Dry firing helps as does a good lube/cleaning. Use a set of snap caps if the firing pin will impact the cylinder. After market springs may or may not help but only after some breakin. Rod
 
Gawrsh!
I just took out the lock yesterday and while I was inside, I noticed the guts were bone dry.
Now I don't really mind clean and dry innards, but this looked just aching for some lube.
So I squirted a .....minimal...couple shots of Slick 50 on the slippy slideys and....
It feels great now!
I do very little DA with it but wanted more better than it felt.
It is now.

Thanks for all the hints though.
:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top