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Ruger New Vaquero 14LB Hammer Spring


Dust'N Bottles

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I just recently purchased a brand new set of Ruger New Vaquero's. After my fist match with them it was obvious that the springs were too heavy and that I needed to put a set of lower wider Super Black Hawk hammers on them. I bought the hammers and under the advice from another club member I bought some 14LB hammer springs and 30oz trigger springs. Installation was a snap, however it seems that the 14LB hammer spring is not enough to drive the new bigger supper blackhawk hammer to primer ignition. If i put the factory hammers back in with the 14LB springs , primers go off with out fail. If i put the factory hammer springs in with the SBH hammers primers go off with out issue as well. Am I missing something or is the combo of 14LB hammer spring and SBH hammer just not a compatible combo?

 

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Just now, The Original Lumpy Gritz said:

Without the hammer springs in place.

Do the new hammers swing freely from full chock to the t'bar?

If they do-

Then put a #10 AN washer under the bottom of the new hammer spring.

OLG

yes they swing without any hang ups or interference, I will try the washers, thanks for the tip

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6 minutes ago, The Original Lumpy Gritz said:

Are these Wolff springs?

Also-Be sure you seat the primers to the bottom of the primer pocket, in you cases.

Put SBH hammers in my :wub:s NMVs a few years ago. She loves'em.

OLG

yes they are Wolf Springs. I also bought a pair of 19LB springs but they mis-packed one and its ID is way to small to fit over the strut. just my luck.

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5 minutes ago, John Barleycorn, SASS #76982 said:

I use the Long Hunter spring kits they include a 15lb Wolf hammer spring. Sets all primers off 

Ordering now, thanks for the tip

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Dust'n I had a similar issue.  I was outta CAS for several years, came back and purchased a new set of SASS edition Vaqueros.  I changed the springs in mine with Wolff springs (14lb hammer and 40oz trigger).  I did not have issues with primers not going off however I did notice one hammer would not rest flush like the other hammer (it had a bigger gap between the top strap above the firing pin and hammer).  Upon closer inspection I found the transfer bar was hanging up a bit (not on the firing pin but inside the hammer slot) even had a very slight gritty feel when the hammer nearly reached the resting position.  I took the pistol apart and slowly filed and sanded the side of the transfer bar.  Reassembled it and it was better but still hanging and not allowing the hammer to rest. After more visual inspection I found the other area where it was catching.  I disassembled for a second time and removed a bit of material in the radius where the transfer bar makes the 90 degree turn to fit in the hammer slot.  That was the ticket. Freed it up and now the hammer rests properly and when I inspect and cycle the revolver I can see the firing pin properly protrude through the rear cylinder and frame gap. You could have a similar issue as this problem could lead to light primer strikes. 

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I mentioned this on another post, but when I switched to SBH hammers, one of them actually required a good bit of fitting. The hammer would hit the Transfer bar, but it would not hit it as fully as the stock hammer as was evident by the slightly(very slightly) smaller amount of firing pin protrusion. It actually ended up being that the hole for the pawl was not in the same spot, and as such i needed to take a little off the pawl, and a little off the frame slot to allow the hammer to move completely free.

 

Long story short, make sure its really hitting as far as you think, and also, make sure you're using federal primers if you're going all the way down to 14lbs 

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12 hours ago, El Cubano said:

I mentioned this on another post, but when I switched to SBH hammers, one of them actually required a good bit of fitting. The hammer would hit the Transfer bar, but it would not hit it as fully as the stock hammer as was evident by the slightly(very slightly) smaller amount of firing pin protrusion. It actually ended up being that the hole for the pawl was not in the same spot, and as such i needed to take a little off the pawl, and a little off the frame slot to allow the hammer to move completely free.

 

Long story short, make sure its really hitting as far as you think, and also, make sure you're using federal primers if you're going all the way down to 14lbs 

Its funny you mention this. I tried the #10 washer last night, still not working. So I did a little deeper digging and tried to see what was happening. With out the grip frame assembled, I get free range of motion , and the hammer will lay flush against the frame as it should. As soon a I get everything back together and install the spring and get the T-Bar involved in the equation, the pistols starts having very light primer strikes. Put in factory springs and all works again. So when looking at the pistol after cocking and pulling the trigger, the hammer short stops about 1/16 - 1/18 from hitting flush on the frame. When I manually advance the hammer the rest of the way to frame contact, I'm met with a sight spring tension like resistance and I notice that the pawl retracts a little further into the fame during the completion of the manual advance. 

 

The last thing I noticed just this morning. My factory hammers have pretty clean 90 degree angles between the hammer face lands, where as the SBH hammers have a slight radius between the hammers frame land and the hammers T-Bar land. Its my guess at this point that the hammer is getting hung up in this radius when a light spring is used and when a heavier spring is used it provides enough force to cycle the T-Bar trough the radius until it rests flat. My final attempt before handing these off to a smith to trouble shoot will be to file out the radius and see if this makes any difference. Thanks to everyone for the advice thus far.  

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Thats literally the same thing that was happening to me. I also ended up flatting the faces on the SBH hammers trying to see if that would do it too. If that doesnt work polish the bottom of the pawl then put some sharpie on it, and forcefully manually cycle the hammer with the frame, see if the pawl is getting stopped/scratched on the frame

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51 minutes ago, The Original Lumpy Gritz said:

Yup-bottom of pawl is hitting grip frame.

There should be some marks on the left of the trigger cut out on the grip frame.

 

OLG

Good to know, I'll check that spot tonight. Thanks

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