Charter Arms weak hammer fall

[kraigwy]

I teach a women's SD and firearms' safety class for our local club.

The little 38 J Frame size revolvers are quite popular. Some, moderate or low income women chose the Charter Arms 5 shot revolvers.

Light hammer strikes pop up every now and then. I know Smith's and can normaly fix that problem, but I don't know the Charter arms.

Can anyone tell me how you would adjust, or increase the hammer fall pressure of these little revolvers.

I have two in my class now, both bought used and I'm assuming someone tampered with them to reduce the trigger pull. I haven't seen this problem with new revolvers.

 

[Slopemeno]

It's really pretty quick and easy to just replace the spring on the strut.

Clear the gun
Remove the grips
Cock the empty gun
Put a paperclip through the hole in the strut
Lower the hammer and pull the mainspring strut, spring and seat out from the grip frame.
Clamp the top of the strut in a vise
Depress the seat, and carefully remove the paperclip and seat.
Replace the spring.

They are all very similar under the hood.

 

[g.willikers]

If you don't plan on having extra springs on hand, shimming the spring with suitable washers would probably get them through the day.
Just a thought.

 

[Unclenick]

Everyone I've ever know to have revolver intermittent light strikes has found they will ignite Federal primers reliably, so using those in reloads and Federal ammunition for the defensive loads is a workaround.

In addition to washers, Brownells used to sell a kit of basic spring stock you could select something from. Wolff makes a stronger spring for the .44 Bulldog. You could call Charter and ask if the mainspring in the .38 is the same as in the .44. The Numrich parts list indicates it is the same. If so, Wolff wants $20 for a set of 10 of them. That makes double-action a little stiffer, but it's a good toddler safety feature for the gun to require a little more effort to operate, and you may be able to sell mothers on that idea, in particular.

 

[BfloBill]

Before you start replacing springs, you may want to clean it. I had a S&W Model 36 that I bought used and I would occasionally get light hammer strikes. I took the side plate off and I soaked it with Break Free CLP (any good cleaner will work) until it was running out clean, put it back together, and never had another problem. The trigger pull after was also noticeably better.

After I answered the post I looked at who wrote it. I'm sure you already thought of that!

 

[Unclenick]

You're talking about cleaning all the Charter guns belonging to all these students having a problem that's apparently a pattern. Assuming this is happening with commercially loaded ammunition and not just with handloads, Charter should be informed of it. I should think they'd listen to an instructor seeing the issue repeating.

That said, if Charter picked a preservative that stiffens over time (another thing they should be made aware of, if that is happening), then bit of that in the firing pin recess could sure reduce impact energy. I've run into a couple of guns with lube issues before and I removed the grip panels and set them in a jar full of Naptha and just left them for a couple of weeks. That's generally more than long enough for the solvent to dissolve petroleum-based crud out through even small cracks and crevasses.

I also did that with Ed's Red to a gun of mine one time, only in that instance the gun hadn't been cleaned first. When I removed it from the jar, I found all the powder fouling had turned to a tar-like sludge that had done a slow-motion flow to the bottom of the container. The ATF in Ed's Red seems to provide a good anti-corrosive, all-weather, non-sludging lube throughout. But as with any fluid, you want to let all the excess run out or blot it off to prevent it slowing anything down.