Installed the spring kit from WC part #178 and polished the internals in my 629. Trigger was smooth in DA and breathing on it would drop the hammer in SA. Knowing light primer strikes are common I loaded up 100 rounds. 50 with CCI primers and fifty Winchester. Loaded the cylinder alternating each primer. Well sure enough I got light strikes on the first cylinder. Ended up only shooting 50 rounds total. The consensus is the CCI primers are hardest but each light strike was a Winchester. The CCI never failed. Since I carry this gun I had to put the stock hammer spring back in. I put the #14 rebound spring in. Looking at the WC hammer spring is shorter but more importantly has a different bend up at the stirrup end. I straightened the spring a little to try to increase the weight. I’ve read about putting a gutted primer on the end of the strain screw but don’t like the idea for a carry gun. Anyone else have to straighten the hammer spring for reliability?
As stated before, don't bend the hammer spring. If you are having weak ignition, buy a stronger, new spring. Bending or stretching a spring pushes it beyond the yield of the material and it will fail sooner than later.
You know, it is surprising just how many of the shooters out there don't believe in primer sensitivity. In fact, they were taught in the in print press that there was no such thing as primer sensitivity. That a primer is a primer, is a primer. But you know, primer brands vary in sensitivity and so do lots from the same manufacturer, and so do primers within the same lot. I can still go over to M14 or Garand forums and pick a fight by suggesting that the use of the most sensitive primers on the market is a good way to have an inbattery slamfire, or an out of battery slamfire in these mechanisms. A lot of the posters on those forums don't believe that primers vary in sensitivity and that all primers ignite predictably. And that there is no such thing as a sensitive primer. And yet, here you are, finding that some brands ignite better at marginal energy inputs than others. Hummer70 did the entire internet community a favor by writing about primers, primer strikes, and ignition.
It don't go bang, fires, misfires, hangfires and short order cooks
You will not find this level of technical knowledge within the in print community. But something to learn, at least in my opinion, when you start installing weaker mainsprings to have a lighter trigger pull, you are going to have to live with misfires, hangfires and squibs. And it gets worse in cold weather. Cold weather is a severe test of an ignition system. And I did not like having bullets lodge between the cylinder and the forcing cone. That's what you get with weak springs, cold weather, and ball powder. I finally figured out that those "trigger spring" kits were an awful way to spend money, as I wanted dead nuts reliable ignition with all ammunition and all weather conditions.
