[VThillman]

Spring is bearing down, so I finally got around to swapping out the mainspring on the S&W 10-8. The gun is in nice enough shape that I didn't just dive in & screw it up, I actually bought a manual. The S&W Revolvers - A Shop Manual, by Jerry Kuhnhausen. Glad I did, 'cause I wouldn't have figured out how to get the side plate off without dinging it.

I was surprised at how clean the innards were; no crud at all in there.

Installed a Wolff standard weight mainspring, put the gun back in order, and put the wooden grips on while I was at it. Here's a photo. We'll see if all of those CCI primers pop first time now.


3" bull barrel. There's a little holster wear at the muzzle, otherwise clean.

 

[phideaux]

You sound like you enjoy , and get lots of satisfaction from working on your own guns.

Me too.


Nice looking revolver.



Jim

 

[buster40c]

I bet it shoots real nice also. Those little guns surprise people how accurate they are.
I think it's funny when people on Glock and XD forums think revolvers just aren't popular anymore.

 

[VThillman]

Well Jim, some guns are less intimidating than others. I saw lots of little innards when I took that side plate off. My fingers ain't bigger than they used to be, but they act that way. I was thinking about swapping out a couple other springs. Bought 'em from Wolff along with the mainspring. Um, maybe later.

 

[VThillman]

I bet it shoots real nice also. Those little guns surprise people how accurate they are.
I think it's funny when people on Glock and XD forums think revolvers just aren't popular anymore.

At 10 yards it is plenty accurate enough. I think the only question is, when 6 rounds ain't enough, how quick are you with the speed loader?

 

[buster40c]

That's why you use this as a back up gun. When the BG hears a click and no bang he thinks he has you but that's when you grab the back up.

 

[Grayfox54]

Very nice!
I consider a 3" K-frame to be the ideal carry revolver.

I normally advise to use nothing but a factory mainspring as most aftermarket ones lead to misfires. But Wolff makes excellent springs and you went with the standard weight, so you should be just fine.

Smart move getting Kuhnhausen's book. S&Ws aren't hard to work on, but you do need to know what you're doing.

 

[mark]

For my part I have found the biggest improvement in Smith trigger pull comes from replacing the trigger rebound spring. The last time I lightened one I put the stock spring on a nail that it could spin on, clamped the open end with a vice grip, and sanded it down on a belt sander. Made the coils smaller as it spun on the nail. Makes the spring look kind of odd, but it works. That was on a 63 Smith. Did the same to the hammer spring. Its a do and try thing. Got them both right on one try. Have sanded some off the edges of the flat hammer springs on K-frames, to make them lighter. That' on a flat belt in both cases.
I should mention, I have mostly used Wolff springs in both Rugers and Smiths.

 

[VThillman]

"Installed a Wolff standard weight mainspring, put the gun back in order, and put the wooden grips on while I was at it. Here's a photo. We'll see if all of those CCI primers pop first time now."

Finally got decent weekday weather. Fired 2 cylinders-full. One primer didn't pop. Looked like the dent was noticeably lighter than the others in the cylinder. It popped on the second hit.

As noted (I think) in another thread, I was having the same problem in a 9x19 auto. For that gun I loaded up some cartridges using Winchester primers. Ran 30 rounds of it through the gun today, no misfires.

I am convinced that I got into a bad lot of CCI primers. Since I bought CCI small pistol primers on two different occasions - one standard issue, one APS, now I have to find out which is from the bad lot. Means loading up some cartridges using primers from each lot, and keeping track. Keeping track - and keeping track is not my strong suit.

Hmm... I wonder if I still have any strong suits.

 

[VThillman]

I'll finish this up. I had about 50 .38 Special cartridges left with the CCI primers. Took them to the range yesterday, along with my Blackhawk. No FTFs. So... that satisfies my mind that I have a couple guns that aren't real happy with CCI primers, and several other guns that thinks CCI primers are just fine. I will use Winchester primers in the two fussy guns, and CCI primers in the others, and they will all be happy. Me too.