[Turbonelson]

I've had a j frame 38 special for a while, my wife's first carry gun and now a backup for her. I have been doing some research on trigger upgrades and found a few different spring kits. Have anyone tried to change the pull on these and if so how much more involved is it than doing a Northwoods on a P11?

 

[JAB]

Sorry, I don't know anything about fiddlin' with the guts of the little beasties although my understanding is that revolvers can be a bit more complicated than semiautos to do such work on. As a possible alternative - depending on what kind of grips you have on it - I can tell you that on my 642 getting rid of those abominable excuses for grips that came on it in favor of a set of still fairly compact Pachmayrs made a huge difference in ease of trigger pull, for me (as well as shooting comfort and my ability to actually hit what I am aiming at more accurately) without a huge increase in the size of the 'footprint'. These just give a little more to hold on to and cover the back strap which results in a better grip/angle for pulling the trigger. The result is that my trigger seems lighter without having actually changed anything about the mechanism.

These pics show the 642 laying on top of my GP100 with both the factory and Pachmayr replacement grips to give some idea of the size difference. As you can see the real difference isn't that great but the difference in shootability is huge.

 

[Grayhound]

I have a 642 that I swapped out the Hammer Spring and the Trigger Return Spring with a Wilson Combat spring kit. I like my Smith and Wesson revolvers as some of you may know. These are easy to change in about a half hour if you go slow. I have a Rebound Spring tool by Wheeler Engineering but it does not fit the aluminum frame guns, only steel.

I am running the 8# Hammer Spring and a 14# Trigger Return Spring.

I hate to say it, but searching on YouTube for videos is easier than trying to type out everything to describe all that's involved in changing the springs out.

I only changed these out because I carry the gun and my wife has to be able to pull the trigger if I cannot. She has weak finger strength for heavy double actions. The difference is easily noticed after you change them and she could pull the trigger just fine.
The parts were less than $10. The other alternative is to dry fire the gun a lot to smooth the action up.

(The pics or it didn't happen)

 

[FIREGUY]

My wife also has a S&W 642 as her CCW. When we bought it I stopped by my gunsmiths place and told him I wanted a trigger job. Also order the crimson trace for it. So she never pulled the factory trigger weight. Grips not much bigger than the factory ones but she took her CCL class with it. Funny my gunsmith taught her the course. He required 250 rounds.
He said if her hand needed a break he would let her go to his Chiefs special. Never needed it. Had her a glove just in case but she never used it. A sweet trigger makes a lot of difference.