Not thrilled with apex kit in 442

[TransAmConvert]

I put the apex spring kit in my 442 to try to improve it's very heavy and lousy trigger.
It made the pull lighter for sure, but honestly the trigger is still pretty lousy. Worse, it seems like it doesn't want to rebound strongly and I really have to consciously release all my finger pressure. I also had 5/50 failures to fire with cci 500 primers. I'm not fully sure if they were all just light strikes or if I was sometimes not letting it fully reset but at least a couple were genuine light strikes and one took three hits to go off.

Not sure what to do. I have some win spp I could try and just live with it if it works, but I'm worried if it will work with factory gold dot carry ammo, and the rebound thing still bugs me. I could set it back to factory of course. Or maybe put the factory rebound spring in with the lighter apex hammer spring?

 

[LUCKYDAWG13]

If its a carry gun it should be able to eat anything you feed it 5 misfires out of 50 is a no go for me Me i would put it back to factory
And shoot it and dry fire it a lot S&W triggers get better with use

 

[Ohen Cepel]

Sadly, likely have to open it back up again. Make sure you have everything right as that sounds odd for Apex.
I like to polish the rebound block on a piece of glass (keeps it flat) with some polishing compound, I found that helps with the action some.

Did you put the entire Apex kit in it or leave some of it original? That may be part of the issue if you did that.

I'm with Dawg above, can't have failures on a defense gun. I'll take a horrible trigger any day over something which doesn't work.

 

[unclenunzie]

I don't know anything about the apex spring kit. But my advice for a carry 442 would be to have a professional trigger job done by a competent gunsmith. I think by the time you go through every other option you'll have spent similar money and not get what you want.

 

[RugRev]

Using lighter springs will bring out other shortcomings in the action. Also, did you use the replacement firing pin? I suppose it probably is a longer firing pin to give more protrusion to work with the lighter springs. The action might need some judicious polishing such as the rebound block mentioned above. Aside from that one may look at headspace and endshake along with what the firing pin protrusion is as this can cause FTFs.

 

[TransAmConvert]

Yes it's the whole kit, with pin.

I wish I had a good smith locally (SWPA) but I don't know of any.

Gun doesn't have any endshake, but I didn't check headspace.

It's probably going back to factory, which is OK.

 

[LUCKYDAWG13]

If S&W is anything like Ruger i would take the kit out because they will return it to stock trigger

 

[Ohen Cepel]

Dawg is right again, take those parts out if you want them as S&W will put it back to factory spec.

Was it working before your trigger job? May not be much gain to send it back to them as they will likely say that heavy trigger is within spec and will send it back to you after a few months.

I would go over it carefully again, maybe something isn't right with the kit you put into it (if it was working fine with stock parts in it). I would also ping Apex to see if they have any ideas on it or maybe they made a mistake with pieces of the kit.

 

[TransAmConvert]

Back to factory parts I mean. I got this one used and it worked fine before I messed with it. It just had such a crud trigger, even for a j frame. Oh well.

 

[ontarget]

I put a Wilson Combat spring kit in my 642 and it made a noticeable difference. I haven't yet run it through its paces to test reliability but the trigger is definitely smoother.

 

[Pat Riot]

I have a 442 that I bought in 1997. It has a great trigger pull and never a misfire. It’s all factory. When I bought it I couldn’t hit a target twice in 5 shots. I was very frustrated with it and took it to a local gunsmith. I asked him what he recommended. He said leave it alone and shoot it a lot. So I did. I have never believed in dry firing my guns, so the more ammo I put through it the better I shot it. The more I shot it the better the trigger pull became. Before I moved back to California it was my main CCW.

 

[lee n. field]

I put the apex spring kit in my 442 to try to improve it's very heavy and lousy trigger.
It made the pull lighter for sure, but honestly the trigger is still pretty lousy. Worse, it seems like it doesn't want to rebound strongly and I really have to consciously release all my finger pressure. I also had 5/50 failures to fire with cci 500 primers. I'm not fully sure if they were all just light strikes or if I was sometimes not letting it fully reset but at least a couple were genuine light strikes and one took three hits to go off.

Not sure what to do. I have some win spp I could try and just live with it if it works, but I'm worried if it will work with factory gold dot carry ammo, and the rebound thing still bugs me. I could set it back to factory of course. Or maybe put the factory rebound spring in with the lighter apex hammer spring?

Take it back to factory.

If ignition is reliable, great. Dry fire a bunch, shoot it a bunch. Trigger should improve. If it doesn't, sell it off and get an LCR.

If ignition isn't reliable with factory parts and commercially loaded ammo, let S&W deal with it.

It made the pull lighter for sure,

A light trigger isn't everything. Isn't even necessarily something to be sought.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

I've seldom - in fact don't ever recall - upgrading springs that tuning wasn't done in relation to bearing surfaces as well.

As to the misfires - if on reloads I'd want to know were those same reloads reliable with factory springs? Is reliability with the aftermarket springs and factory ammunition acceptable?

Re-loads and diagnostics are classically self-cancelling for me with regards to clients' guns.

Todd.

 

[edwardware]

If you aren't going to learn to tune your own, I'd find a reputable smith.

If you will, start with Khunhausen's manual. It is very non-trivial.

I own a 642 the previous owner paid ~$200 to have a Schmidt "work on" and spoil by installing a $35 spring kit that wouldn't constantly ignite or reset.

 

[Oldschool shooter]

I had a gunsmith install the Apex kit in my 638. Also had him do some light polishing of the internals. No malfunctions, went from 13lb crappy trigger to smooth as glass and 8 1/2 lb trigger pull.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

I had a gunsmith install the Apex kit in my 638. Also had him do some light polishing of the internals. No malfunctions, went from 13lb crappy trigger to smooth as glass and 8 1/2 lb trigger pull.

As long as one is in there, and in keeping with the desired effects of spring upgrades.... why not do a touch of polishing and especially on modern-age pistols some de-burrring as well?

Todd.

 

[Haywood]

I have 4 J-Frames. All I did was clean lube and dry fire until I had 2000 dry fires. My actions are smooth. I never weighed the trigger but my 74 year old Wife, who has the weakest hands in the world, can shoot them DAO except for my 36. I haven’t dry fired it that much.

 

[Jonesy814]

Did you polish the rebound slide and the frame where it rides? That seems to be the key when using a reduced power rebound spring. I don't know how light the spring in the Apex kit is, but I found the trigger return to be sluggish with a 13# spring. I prefer to use a 15# rebound spring. The factory spring is 18#
I have parts to do my 442 but have not gotten around to it yet, but had good results with my model 60. I replaced the main spring and installed a 15# rebound spring after polishing the rebound slide. Took me from just over 12# down to 10.2, and it feels slick, but most importantly it has been 100% reliable even with CCI primers

 

[jonnyc]

I put Wilson Kits in both my J-Frames and have had no issues hundreds of rounds later.