I should have done this years ago. Like, the week after I bought it.
This Ruger GP100 in ss, 4.25" barrel was my first revolver. I got it 11 years ago from Wolverine. It was on sale, and free shipping at the time and I couldn't pass it up. Glad I didn't. I put a Hogue finger groove wood grip on it at the time, and it has fit me perfectly ever since.
A month ago, I decided to do a trigger job on it myself. Bought an Mcarbo trigger spring kit, and watched their video on it several times to acquint myself with the action. And today I decided it was a good day to do the job on it. I consider myself pretty good with tools and handy at things in general so it didn't overwhelm me.
And I had a great morning following video, taking it apart, polishing parts, and then putting it back together. It wasn't particularly difficult, but it was a bit messy. I didn't lose any parts, and I cleaned up after without too much difficulty .The video I
followed is here: https://youtu.be/txbCmzM4v6A
The hardest part was getting shims on hammer (the trigger wasn't bad, a couple of .001 on either side). I had to put 3x . 005 on the hammer to take the slop out, but finally got it done. Polishing all the parts was straight forward with Dremel and polishing paste, although it was a bit messy. Anyway, when I was done, I was super impressed. All in I spent about 3 hours from start to finish.
Keeping in mind I have put thousands of rounds through this gun, so I was tuned in to the improvements. After I was done, I checked it for function, and headed down to my local range to try it out.
To the range report on the Ruger GP100 with the now buttery smooth trigger!
Before it was 10.5 lbs DA, 4.25 SA
After, it was 5.75 lbs DA and 2.5 SA
Did I mention it was now buttery smooth? It was. So smooth. Like, super smooth!!
Great improvement.
Shooting 157 gr .357 Sellier & Bellot factory FMJ, I found out first, that my rear sight had loosened off so took a couple cylinders to dial it back in.
Then, it functioned flawlessly in single and double action, and my double action groups were much tighter then previously.
I did an Oh Sh!t! Bear!! drill from the low ready, and put 6 rapid fire into a 4" circle at 7m in about 4 seconds. All center mass. Perfect!
And then a not totally unexpected hiccup. I brought some bad ass bear ammo to check POI, the 180 gr hard cast +P snotty loads. They weren't too bad to shoot, not nearly as bad as my .41 magnum.
But!!
Hard primers. I got 3 out of 6 to light up the first run through the cylinder, then got two more to go off the second pass round, and 1 of them refused to light off at all even though I tapped it 4 times. Bummer.
So, the new Mcarbo main-spring is too light for those loads.
Disappointing.
I will reinstall the original heavier Ruger main-spring, and take it down to the range to try again. I'm sure it will have 100% ignition rate, but, it's gonna be back to a heavier DA trigger.
But, that is better then a 50% rate with a light hammer. And, it will still be much smoother because of the polishing I expect. Thankfully changing main-spring is very easy.
All in, it is a huge improvement over the factory set up, it is as smooth as my S&W and Colt guns now. I really should have done this a long time ago. I would highly recommend this spring kit and polish job to anyone with a Ruger GP100, it is well worth the time and effort to do it! TC
This Ruger GP100 in ss, 4.25" barrel was my first revolver. I got it 11 years ago from Wolverine. It was on sale, and free shipping at the time and I couldn't pass it up. Glad I didn't. I put a Hogue finger groove wood grip on it at the time, and it has fit me perfectly ever since.
A month ago, I decided to do a trigger job on it myself. Bought an Mcarbo trigger spring kit, and watched their video on it several times to acquint myself with the action. And today I decided it was a good day to do the job on it. I consider myself pretty good with tools and handy at things in general so it didn't overwhelm me.
And I had a great morning following video, taking it apart, polishing parts, and then putting it back together. It wasn't particularly difficult, but it was a bit messy. I didn't lose any parts, and I cleaned up after without too much difficulty .The video I
followed is here: https://youtu.be/txbCmzM4v6A
The hardest part was getting shims on hammer (the trigger wasn't bad, a couple of .001 on either side). I had to put 3x . 005 on the hammer to take the slop out, but finally got it done. Polishing all the parts was straight forward with Dremel and polishing paste, although it was a bit messy. Anyway, when I was done, I was super impressed. All in I spent about 3 hours from start to finish.
Keeping in mind I have put thousands of rounds through this gun, so I was tuned in to the improvements. After I was done, I checked it for function, and headed down to my local range to try it out.
To the range report on the Ruger GP100 with the now buttery smooth trigger!
Before it was 10.5 lbs DA, 4.25 SA
After, it was 5.75 lbs DA and 2.5 SA
Did I mention it was now buttery smooth? It was. So smooth. Like, super smooth!!
Great improvement.
Shooting 157 gr .357 Sellier & Bellot factory FMJ, I found out first, that my rear sight had loosened off so took a couple cylinders to dial it back in.
Then, it functioned flawlessly in single and double action, and my double action groups were much tighter then previously.
I did an Oh Sh!t! Bear!! drill from the low ready, and put 6 rapid fire into a 4" circle at 7m in about 4 seconds. All center mass. Perfect!
And then a not totally unexpected hiccup. I brought some bad ass bear ammo to check POI, the 180 gr hard cast +P snotty loads. They weren't too bad to shoot, not nearly as bad as my .41 magnum.
But!!
Hard primers. I got 3 out of 6 to light up the first run through the cylinder, then got two more to go off the second pass round, and 1 of them refused to light off at all even though I tapped it 4 times. Bummer.
So, the new Mcarbo main-spring is too light for those loads.
Disappointing.
I will reinstall the original heavier Ruger main-spring, and take it down to the range to try again. I'm sure it will have 100% ignition rate, but, it's gonna be back to a heavier DA trigger.
But, that is better then a 50% rate with a light hammer. And, it will still be much smoother because of the polishing I expect. Thankfully changing main-spring is very easy.
All in, it is a huge improvement over the factory set up, it is as smooth as my S&W and Colt guns now. I really should have done this a long time ago. I would highly recommend this spring kit and polish job to anyone with a Ruger GP100, it is well worth the time and effort to do it! TC
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