Quote Originally Posted by Wiley-X View Post
Oh no! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

It works. If you're stupid enough to make any changes to the firing mechanism without making sure that the gun still functions before carrying it, you shouldn't own guns.

In 30 years of owning S&W revolvers, I've never had a strain screw back out on its own.

I wouldn't say the sky is falling. Steve is recommending that the strain screw not be loosened as a means of controlling trigger pull, and in this he is correct. While there are many S&W owners who adjust the strain screw as a means of adjusting trigger pull, and do so successfully, it is not "best practice." Is is best to do as member Brick describes:

Quote Originally Posted by Brick
. . . one of the things a 'smith will do as part of a trigger job is to shorten the strain screw so it can be set full in and tight, but still provide a lighter trigger pull. (note if strain screw is too tight the trigger will not release and reset correctly) But, user beware! A light set might limit choice of ammo or primer (if you reload). Think Federal primers yes, Winchester sometimes and CCI damn near no way in hell and forget it completely for Wolf!
This is exactly what gunsmiths will do when adjusting trigger pull to relieve excessive tension on a mainspring due to over-arching. When a strain screw nose is too long, a mainspring can become over-arched and trigger pull rapidly increases to ridiculous levels. Relieving the screw nose reduces the arch and still allows the screw to be fully tightened. I confess to adjusting a strain screw to determine the position for correcting mainspring arching, but I never leave it loosened once I know how long the strain screw should be.

Strain screw force is but one factor affecting trigger pull on a S&W revolver, and others include the rebound slide spring force and friction in the entire system. Most new SS revolvers benefit from a disassembly and thorough cleaning and application of a light grease to major contact and pivot points, such as the hammer pivot, sides of the hammer around the pivot bosses on the frame and sideplate, the rebound slide travel surfaces, cylinder stop loop, trigger pivot pin and bosses, crane/yoke and mating cylinder surfaces, and the DA and SA sear surfaces. Just a little dab'll do ya, and it works wonders for smoothing up the action in a newly-minted SS S&W wheelgun.

JMO, also based on 40 years of S&W revolver ownership and shooting.

Noah