Ok I was asking for it and I got it. A Dan that needs some TLC.

I took it out and put about a hundred rounds through some factory most reduced handloads.

The four inch barrel was first and the wife was shooting it double action out of fifty rounds it FTF about ten times.  Light primer hits.

Then put the 8" barrel on w/scope on the frame and shot it single action. No problems that way and some very, very good grouping without any adjustment. All rounds fired and even took the FTF's and shot them in single action.

Later showing the gun to my daughter I noticed that when the trigger was used in double action the hammer did not travel all the way back like it would lock back for single action.

The previous owner did say he did a spring job to make it easier to pull the trigger.

So before I start digging into this 15-2 any ideas ?

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Oh what great fun! Tearing into this pistol and not worrying about if I'm biting off to much to chew or screwing up and devaluing the gun.

I went straight to the grip screw and discovered that the screw had the swivel ball silver soldered to the allen hex head. With the gripper the ball extends past the bottom of the grip and was in the grip extension a full 3 turns max. Took that grip off and then used the screw to see how far it would go before it contacted the plunger. I cocked it single action and it took 10 revolutions to meet the plunger. Then I decocked  the hammer and then screwed the screw in further. Then I tried to SA cock the hammer and it was a no go. In DA the hammer would work and if you screwed it in further then it got to the point when DA would no longer work. Hmmmmmmm....

Testing Phase One.

I took the side plate off, easy as pie. The innards where kinda clean but a grease in there had dried up and got tacky a long time ago.  I just used some WD real quick to melt it and then used compressed air to blow it out. In the process of doing this I managed to lose for a short time the 1/4" side plate screw and the later the crane half moon retainer clip.

Now, the astonishing part, not once did I cuss or get discouraged at the inconvenience of crawling around the carpet and cement floor in the garage looking for the aforementioned items. I found them and continued the adventure.

The next day I shot another 50 rounds and the number of FTF due to light primer strikes dropped in DA to four out of fifty.

So now I purchased some 3x4" ziplock bags to put things in and label them in order. I found another Grip screw locally at a supply house. The gun came with a 5 Hammer Springs the previous owner had and two of them were of higher quality and stiffer than what I believe are the reduced tension after market springs.

So next step is tear down, replace that hammer spring with the stiff one and clean using ED"S RED.

It could use a shim of about .003 at the front end if the cylinder to tighten this up and a little stoning at the firing pin opening at the recoil plate. 

Every thing else looks good, the hand, the ratchet and the timing.

Something else I noticed, the 357's that have the serial numbers close to this one seem to have that purple color to the frame. I'm paying attention now and learning these things Dan Wesson.

This could  not be a bad thing because people aren't driving the prices up on these guns. I understand that re-bluing won't cure the purple because it will come back.

A perfect specimen for Nickle or Chrome plating? Is it possible to make a silk purse from a sows ear?

I'll work on some pics.

Arlen

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Ok. Did a tear down and clean up this morning. Nothing major out of the ordinary.

(This is an everyman's gun. Simple, functional, a joy to work with. If ever tSHtF, this is the weapon to have with spare parts galore and easy to produce ammo. I'm sold.)

There were five extra springs in the case. Three did not fit, two were the same, one was new the other worn. Removed the spring that was installed and replaced with the good heavier one.

The firing pin spring was in backwards? I usually put the base of a cone shaped spring on the face that doesn't move. So that's what I did.

No flat or high spots on trigger and DA spar. All looks good. The proof will be in the shooting.

Not bad for a couple hundred...

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I was researching springs. The longer spring I put in made the works feel tighter and the trigger felt more solid. It didn't feel so loose or for a better term "worn".

Going on I used the same size companion spring and did some backyard measuring of length, width and using a digital scale. If the original spring from the factory was some where near 9 lbs. I found that this one had a ratio of 3.5 lbs per 1" of travel.

So this spring was 2 7/8" OAL. It's max compressed travel where it stacked up was 1".

Therefore when I compressed the spring 1 7/8" I was registering approximately 6 lbs 10 oz.

So what I got to do is take the gun apart and measure the travel and dimensions involved with SA and DA. Then pick something from a catalog.

Another something I picked up on information wise was concerning the cone spring for the firing pin.

A cone spring is made to flatten like a pancake when compressed. The spirals are supposed to lay within the next. If that cone has become misshapen then it could stack and reduce travel of the firing pin. 

Gut feeling from what I was experiencing was something like that.

Has any one else done what I'm planning to do?

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Today I rigged up the digital scale to measure the trigger pull. In DA is was a consistent 8 lbs.

Single action somewhere between one and two pounds.

So would I be guessing correctly that when the weights used in ordering springs from Wolfs, that were talking about weight at the trigger and not necessarily of the spring itself?

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