Danger's of GP100 trigger job.

[fourdollarbill]

I would like to get a very nice trigger job on a SS GP100 for the single action shooting. I talked with a GS and he said they are rather simple. He gave me a price and also explained the simplicity. I'm trying to determine if I'm going to do this or not. I have done quite a bit of stone work and polishing for "the safe parts of the guns".

Can you get rid of the length of creep safely on a GP100 ?
Do you have 10 cents worth to add ?

 

[Rob P.]

Go & register on the Ruger Forums and post about 10 times and you'll get access to their "library." In the library they have DIY tutorials for Ruger revolvers called the "Iowegian book of Knowledge" (IBOK). They're pretty informational and have pics and good instructions for cleaning up the GP100's & SP101's.

IF you don't want to join the Ruger forum I found the IBOK for the GP100 on Google (GP100 IBOK):

http://gunner777.wordpress.com/2008/08/24/ruger-gp100sp101book-of-knowledge/

 

[Walkalong]

I did mine using the IBOK. It takes some mechanical aptitude and patience, but it will smooth things up. Don't do much to the hammer and sear, just a very light stoning.

If you want a really, really, nice trigger, let a GS do it.

 

[Rollinruger]

Spring kit will help considerably without permanent changes. MidwayUSA sells several on their website. These contain several different weight hammer springs and a trigger spring.

 

[Relodr]

My daughter and I took box stock GP100's to Thunder Ranch. Only other revolver there was another GP100 that had trigger job. Lightest, smoothest double action trigger I've ever come across. He was my partner so I saw, felt, every round he fired and during the week of shooting, heard at least half a dozen misfires, failures to fire, whatever the term. Picked up two of his unfired rounds with shallow primer dents. The GP100 is the strongest, most reliable .357 out there and now with 20,000 rounds through it, mine has a really smooth trigger. Trigger job with replacement weaker springs? Not on your life.

 

[fourdollarbill]

Good info Relodr, Thank you. After a lot of questions and answers I'm going to leave it alone too. I tried a good oil and dry firing. Seems to be smoothing up.

 

[Spartan2112]

Shoot it and it will smooth out

Years ago when I took my first NRA pistol course, I had the opportunity to shoot the instructor's S+W Model 13 versus my Ruger Security Six. I was amazed at how smooth the trigger was on his Model 13 and asked which gunsmith did his, as my Ruger - even though it was 20+ years old when I got it, had been fired very little and was still very tight.

The answer to my "which gunsmith" question was "none". He said for me to just keep shooting it and it will smooth out over time.

Well - a few thousand trigger pulls later dry-firing over snap caps combined with periodic trips to the range - it's getting better.

 

[BullitHolz]

Simply replacing the stock 14 lb mainspring with a Wolf 12 lb and removing any burs from the hammer and sear will get you a really nice SA trigger release with no mis fires, simple as that. The DA pull is another matter entirely and requires smoothing all of the tooling marks out of the trigger return spring channel in the trigger housing and replacing the trigger return spring with a lighter one.

The primary consideration with the GP and SP revolvers is the use of heavy springs by Ruger at the factory which helps "mask" the raspyness of the rough factory parts. Simply replacing the springs alone usually results in a lighter pull but a gritty feel that most people don't find acceptable. With a little time and effort the GP100 trigger can be made both very smooth and much lighter than what the factory produced. You do NOT need to be a gunsmith to acheive these results either as the guns are pretty simple. DO get the IBOK though as Iowegan does a great job explaining and showing the breakdown and reassembly of these guns.

I do recommend that you get the Wolf spring kit that provides multiple weight main/trigger return springs so that you can try different combinations to get the trigger feeling and performing the way you want it to. My GP100 has a 12 lb wolf mainspring and 10 lb trigger return spring installed and breaks in SA at 1.75 lbs. and in DA at 6.5 lbs, has zero creep and is very smooth in operation.