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February 25, 2018
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New member to the DW Forum. I have my first DW...a Model W-12. Easy to see why I have it as the gun is inoperative! Followed the procedure to disassemble and clean the pistol and the reason became abundantly clear. The hand spring is missing...not broken, but not even inside the pistol. I found that a little odd. However, time to order a spring!! Another reason to spend my vast fortune on another project and irritate my wife at the same time.
But it seems the Model 12 hand spring is harder to locate than I imagined. So I am turning to the resources of this forum to locate a spring or a smith that can make a couple of them.
As for me, I retired from the military after 25 years, spent a few years as a contractor in the Middle East and when the Syria situation made living in Jordan untenable came home and have been enjoying the Harley and recreational shooting. And way too much cooking...seems clothes shrink in the Colorado dry air these days.
Anyway, help is appreciated!
Dans Club
DWF Supporters
April 20, 2010
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Welcome to the forum, and thank you for your military service to our country.
EWk Arms lists hand springs for W12s, but they are out of stock. http://www.ewkarms.com/zen8/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=67_12&products_id=202
I would suggest contacting on his website and asking if the hand spring will be coming back into availability.
"The lion and the tiger may be more powerful, but the Wolf does not perform in the circus"
Dans Club
March 2, 2008
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Welcome to DWF, thanks for the introduction. By all means contact Eric, the website may say out of stock, who knows if there might not be one kicking around someplace there.
I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman "Were is the Self Help Section?" She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.
George Carlin
February 16, 2016
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DWF Supporters
June 11, 2016
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Welcome from Wisconsin!
February 25, 2018
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Thanks for the suggestion to look at EWK and I am on the back order notification now. However, I emailed DW directly and after a few internal emails the right person was located and they have the spring in stock at the mother ship. So...waiting on snail mail now and hope to be shooting this new acquisition shortly.
February 16, 2016
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You must have gotten hooked up with Shawn, which is good. Unfortunately, I believe Norwich has a standard shipping charg of $9 so that'll be an expensive spring ... you may want to consider getting some of the other small parts too.
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Dans Club
March 25, 2013
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Locating the spring was the easy part. The model 11 and 12 handspring wraps AROUND the hand in an arcane way. Good luck. It also rubs against the sideplate leading to a broken hand in short order. That is probably why yours did not have one. The original owner probably got so POed he stashed the gun for 40 +years. My one and only model 12 had a broker handspring within a couple cylinders of rounds.
The first change DW made was to redesign the spring to fit in a slot in the hand. I bought the 12 thinking the big beautiful rear sight would improve my shooting. Haha. It was a trifocal lens that they call computer distance that did that. If I was going to shoot the 12 much I would put one of my spare hands and modern spring in. You can buy them on eBay. I don't recommend an unused hand as they are fitted to the rachet. Hands are supposedly fitted to the gun but I have discovered that that used hands work fine every time I have done it. One of the advantages of drop in parts I suppose.
Range Officer
Range Officers
Dans Club
February 9, 2009
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A man cannot have too many SuperMags
February 25, 2018
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Interesting information about the hand and an arcane way that it wraps around it. The hand that is in this gun actually has a groove for the spring to rest in. Perhaps it is a late addition to the the gun and the original hand spring won't work?? Now I am a little concerned that the spring will not fit this gun if there was a later model hand inserted into it at some time.
However, here is an excerpt from a Model 12W assembly guide...
"4 Unhook hand spring (39) from groove in rear of hand, and remove hand and spring."
So now I am slightly confused.
The shipping charge was $5. However, its been a week and still no spring so maybe I should have paid $9! Either way the spring should arrive on Monday and then it will become abundantly clear what the issue with this gun is. I am also using nano-ceramic grease on the innards like I do with my other weapons and hopefully that will give it a little more life.
Maybe I should just go find a model 15? The uniqueness of the Model 12 intrigues me. I only hope it does not become a paperweight in short order.
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Dans Club
March 25, 2013
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If your gun has the handspring than it is an update from the original model 12. Not a bad thing. You are worrying too much. The modern handspring will work in your gun. If you have the original type coming it can be bent and trimmed to work or you can get a modern one cheaply be PMing Snake-eye.
February 25, 2018
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The spring arrived today from DW. It fits just fine in the groove in the rear of the hand. It is a tiny little spring though and I can see how it is a the weak link in the system. Put the gun back together and it works as it should now and advances the cylinder properly. Looking forward to some rang time. Thanks for all the input and information.
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