Posted on 12/11/2020 12:43:09 AM PST by knighthawk
I recently bought a Ruger GP-100 with 6 inch barrel to do shooting at the range. The previous owner installed the lightest spring (he purchased a set of 6 springs to tune the trigger and installed the lightest one) and this causes some ammo not to work since the hammer strikes not as hard.
He did reloading himself with CCI primers but I wanted to buy some factory ammo to start out with before doing reloading myself since I have no experience with reloading. A friend of mine uses Magtech but he think that would not work.
Do people have some experience with .357 Magnum ammo that would be usable in this case? I live in Europe so maybe I cannot get a hold of all ammo you people can.
Buy a book titled The ABC’s Of Reloading, by Dean Grinnell.
And digest it, thoroughly. It won’t steer you wrong.
Been shooting and reloading for .357 Magnum for years.
My advice...have it put back to factory specs.
Don't shoot antyone else's reloads.
Pull the bullets, dump the powder and reuse the primed cases and bullets.
.agreed
đź‘Ť
He didn’t leave me reloaded ammo just the casings, powder and all the stuff.
I was thinking to indeed put back the other spring, have to check how to do it.
life, liberty, protection BUMP! 2A
Since you have a set of springs put in the next strongest one or two up and try it. Federal small pistol primers have a reputation of having a softer metal cup.
You must have sufficient striking power to ignite the primers uniformly in order for the powder to be ignited and burn uniformly. This is especially true if you use a powder such as H110 or Winchester 296, which really need a magnum primer.
I have had seen replacement spring sets fire thousands of rounds without a misfire or hang fire in Ruger revolvers. Do you want the gun for enjoyment? Then a spring set and shooting 38 SPL ammo works well. If this is a personal defense gun you may want to keep it original, you’re not trying to take an inch off your group at twenty five yards. The original springs, are easy to swap out if you have them.
I would put the factory spring back in the and try a lot of target practice using that. Maybe you will like it with the original spring. The original spring could be the baseline, after all, that spring is what the designer thought was a good solution. If you want to experiment, then try the next-weakest spring. You already know the limits, that the spring the previous owner put in is too weak.
I have Magtech and it's fine. I also reload and have been doing so for several decades.
Get whatever ammo you can and see if it works. Typically, light springs work better with primer ignition in trigger cocking, rather than hammer cocking, mode. (That's "single action" vs "double action" for you youngsters.)
But if the gun were mine, I'd get the trigger pull back closer to factory. I'd also want to know if the previous owner made any other modifications to the gun.
I own a GP100. You've made a fine choice.
If you still have all the springs he bought you may not want to go with the original spring. Out of the box, the GP-100 has a notoriously heavy trigger because of the spring. This certainly effects your accuracy when shooting double action. This, in my opinion, is the only difference between the Ruger GP-100 and the S&W 686 - the trigger pull. I replaced the trigger spring in my Ruger and it made a world of difference. Go with an 8 or 10 lb spring and see how you like that. It will fire any ammo you put through it.
I have/own 8 Ruger revolvers I would Put the it back to factory spec’s.
It is far more important that a gun goes bang then to have a light trigger.
Ruger revolvers are some of the simplest to do a trigger job on without messing with the springs or sears.
That said one has to know what they are doing.
That said one should find a instructor that knows double action revolvers.
They can instruct you on the proper technique in using. them.
Or read a couple of books on how to shoot them.
I have reloaded many 10’s of of rounds of 38spl and 357mag straight walled pistol cases are some of the simplest to reload for.
Good luck and enjoy your new handgun.
Agree with Knighthawk. Put the factory springs back in. The best trigger job for a revolver is a couple of thousand trigger pulls. In my experience that smooths things out nicely.
Also agree on the not using someone else’s reloads. 99.9% of the time they’ll work just fine. It’s the .1% of the time that’s the problem. For factory ammo you absolutely can’t go wrong with Hornady if it’s legal in your jurisdiction. Some areas ban the use of hollow point.
Back when it was cheap I bought a couple thousand FMJ .357 and .38 Spl just for the brass. As it gets expended I reload it to my own specs with Hornady or Speer bullets.
Buy a couple of books on reloading. Read and learn. Then take your time and follow the instructions EXACTLY.
The GP100 is a rock solid pistol. Take care of it and your great grandkids will be shooting it.
Good luck. Have fun.
L
Get the trigger fixed.
They also have an Installation Video:
Just reload some touch hole ammunition. Do no carry rounds in your pocket.They’ll cook off at the slightest touch.
Change up that spring.
Uncomplicate the situation and put them back in like you just said, and enjoy.
Use eye and ear protection, and save your empties.
Thx for recommendation.
Put the real springs back in. A gun that constantly misfires is no fun at all. If the action feels stiff, try dryfiring a few thousand times - it will improve.
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