Dry Firing with Jewelers Rouge?

[Radny97]

Getting ready to polish the internals of one of my revolvers and install some shims, and the thought occurred to me:
What if i packed the action with some jewelers rouge and some lubricant and just dry fired the thing 1000 times? And then cleaned it all out? Would that be as good as most polishing jobs? Has anyone ever tried this?
Thanks!


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[UncleEd]

What revolver and what age?

It'll probably be a waste of time or you
may end up not liking the results.

Today's revolvers are quite well fitted
what with the new technology.

Usually a few squirts of Rem Oil (it
will run all over being quite light)
and that's all you'll need. See Grant
Cunningham's recommendations for
oiling.

With normal usage what few kinks
might exist will wear away and the
gun will be fine.

[Dufus]

I agree with UncleEd.

After you do the first trigger pull, you would move the slurry away from the intended parts and you would have to repack it.......every time.

I am not a fan of dry fire, but it's your gun, do with it what you want.

[44 AMP]

Not knowing what gun you're talking about, or what work you are planning to do, consider this,

Are there any contact points in the gun you DON'T want to polish??

Will "packing it full of jeweler's rouge actually polish what you want polished?

How will you know when you've polished enough, and its time to stop??

[pete2]

Most revolvers will smooth up with use. Run 500 to 1000 rounds thru it and see what you have. May not even need to change any springs.

[ThomasT]

I never understood dry firing a gun a thousand times. To my way of thinking thats a thousand firings taken off the life of the gun.

If you want to smooth the gun then study how it works and where the friction points are and polish those a little. Its only going to get so smooth.

[Bill DeShivs]

Never put an abrasive in the lockwork of a gun!
If you want an action job, pay a professional to do it, or learn the proper way to do it yourself.
There are certain places in a gun that need to be polished with precision, not overall polishing.

[HiBC]

To supplement Bill's comment,there is a geometric form to the designed part,and there are dimensions to the designped part,and there is a specified or desired surface finish on the part.
There are tools,such as sear jigs,that facilitate using a flat,hard stone to to give precise,flat surfaces with better surface finishes.

Your plan is not much different than polishing a gun for reblue by tying it to the back end of a jeep and dragging it 100 miles down a sandy beach.

Unless you have a sear jig and experience,don't do anything to the sear,hammer notces,etc. Especially don't get the Dremel out.

If you must "DO SOMETHING" float a hard,flat,fine stome ,India or hard Arkansas, a few strokes on the flat sides of parts just to knock off any high spots. Do not attempt to take out low spots. Some sharp corners are designed to be sharp. Leave them alone. The rest you can give a light .003 or so corner break.


Then quit.

[Pahoo]

It's been said that an idea is only as good as how long it takes for someone to tell you that it isn't. ..

Might I suggest, if you can even get close to some contact points, dob a "small" amount of Moly based grease or as some of us more "Vintage" folks use, GunSlick. Recently found out that GunSlick is still making products. …..

Be Safe !!!

[Radny97]

It’s a Ruger GP-100 in 22lr. I use it as a training gun for competition so I have about 20,000 rounds through it. So the trigger pull is already very smooth, but heavy.
When I first purchased it I swapped in some Wolff springs but got immediate light strikes. So I went back to stock springs. Now that the trigger has smoothed out a lot I’m thinking of trying to lighten the springs again but I want to reduce all friction points as much as possible. I’m also going to install some hammer shims and CAREFULLY stone down the hammer stop for a firmer hammer strike and pin protrusion.
I’m pretty comfortable performing my own trigger work but I got this wild hair idea about dry firing with jewelers rouge. Sounds like it’s probably not the best idea. I really appreciate the input.


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[Aguila Blanca]

After 20,000 rounds, your jeweler's rouge idea is completely moot. Any polishing that can be done by firing will certainly have been accomplished after 20,000 rounds (or action cycles).

[Jim Watson]

Rimfires take a harder blow to fire, which is why you can't do much spring changing.

[Pahoo]

I’m pretty comfortable performing my own trigger work but I got this wild hair idea about dry firing with jewelers rouge. Sounds like it’s probably not the best idea. I really appreciate the input.

Can tell this isn't you first dance with a GP. Sorry to hear about the wolf upgrade. I've done a couple for folks and your kit, gave you a choice of three range springs. You already know how to take it apart and again, try some moly-based grease on the contact points. By now, your GP ought to be a sweet shooter. ……

Be Safe !!!

[AzShooter]

I dry fire all my guns except my .22 revolver. It's a Smith & Wesson 617 and I know not to dry fire it without snap caps or #6 wall anchors in it.

Are you protecting your cylinder of just dry firing with nothing in it?

[UncleEd]

Radny97,

What's a heavy trigger pull in DA? Twelve pounds, less or more?

After 20,000 rounds, your hand and fingers should be well
attuned to a heavy, or light, trigger pull. And since it's a
training gun, I'm assuming your center fire or center fires
are much less.

Personally, I think you are wasting your time.

You're already way down the road on being a good DA shooter.
Or am I wrong to assume you are talking about DA shooting?

[HiBC]

You probably know this,but its worth mentioning. Stoning the stop for more firing pin protrusion will bring the firing pin closer to dinging the edges of your rimfire chambers when dry firing.

How is your cylinder end shake? Is a take up shim at the front of the cyl a practical idea? That increases the firing pin strike,too.

[Mike38]

I never understood dry firing a gun a thousand times. To my way of thinking thats a thousand firings taken off the life of the gun.

I dry fire my target pistols probably 4 to 1 live fire. Many Precision Pistol shooters dry fire even more than that. Yes, it wears the trigger group, but dry fire is an important part of training.


As for packing the trigger group with an abrasive, no, I wouldn't do that.

[ThomasT]

I dry fire my target pistols probably 4 to 1 live fire. Many Precision Pistol shooters dry fire even more than that. Yes, it wears the trigger group, but dry fire is an important part of training.

Back in the early 1990s when I was shooting falling plate matches I used a model 19 and a GP-100 for the centerfire course. And I did dry fire them at pastey target dots I put on the wall to simulate the 6 metal plates. That way I could track my swing right to left and left to right while firing double action. And it helped a lot.

But as for just sitting in front of a TV and going click, click, click, click over and over again no I never did that. I polished what I could polish and left the sears and engagement surfaces alone. I knew way back then what I could attempt and what to leave alone.

Just shooting and practice did the trick for me. And I also installed skirting on mobile homes and made all my cuts with a pair of metal snipers. A 16x80 mobile home had an average of 840 linear feet minimum. Some days I would skirt two houses in one day. That is a LOT of hand and forearm exercise. And it helped with the shooting.

If the OP has fired 20,000 rounds through his gun I suspect it about as smooth as its going to get. Thats a lot of trigger time. Lucky dude. Dry firing won't help with a heavy trigger pull. Only lighter springs will do that.

[Radny97]

Originally Posted by UncleEd

Radny97,



What's a heavy trigger pull in DA? Twelve pounds, less or more?



After 20,000 rounds, your hand and fingers should be well

attuned to a heavy, or light, trigger pull. And since it's a

training gun, I'm assuming your center fire or center fires

are much less.



Personally, I think you are wasting your time.



You're already way down the road on being a good DA shooter.

Or am I wrong to assume you are talking about DA shooting?

Yes I’m proficient enough at DA shooting. Qualified as “expert” in IDPA shooting revolvers DA. Also shot the International Revolver Championship last year and finished middle of the pack. Just shot a regional NRA Action Pistol match (bianchi) and scored a 1415, which was okay. I save a lot of money doing much of my training with 22lr and I’m trying to get the trigger on this gun to more closely match my centerfire guns, so as to make my training more effective.
This gun is likely between 16 and 18 pounds in DA. Pretty heavy.


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[Radny97]

Originally Posted by HiBC

You probably know this,but its worth mentioning. Stoning the stop for more firing pin protrusion will bring the firing pin closer to dinging the edges of your rimfire chambers when dry firing.



How is your cylinder end shake? Is a take up shim at the front of the cyl a practical idea? That increases the firing pin strike,too.

This is a good idea. I haven’t looked into it but I’ll take some measurements and see if i can put a shim on the front of the cylinder.


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[AzShooter]

Shim it definitely, then change the rebound spring to 11 pounds. Keep the main spring stock and turned in all the way.

Get Jerry Miculeck's video on tuning your trigger it's for the Smith & Wesson but will give your some hints on what to do with your Ruger.

[pete2]

Ruger D/A 101's have what seems like extra heavy trigger pulls to me. Shot one at the range some years ago, a .38 w/bobbed hammer, beautiful gun, but no way I could have ever shot it, trigger seemed twice as heavy as a J Frame. Same goes for the 101 .22s I've tried. I don't know how light would work on the GP100 .22. I recently bought a 617, already smoothed up a lot after about 300 rounds. Gonna change springs after I get about 500 rounds thru it. I have a Wolf standard spring to go in it. We'll see if it'll shoot with it, if not I'll live with the std S&W spring.

[FrankenMauser]

It’s a Ruger GP-100 in 22lr. I use it as a training gun for competition so I have about 20,000 rounds through it. So the trigger pull is already very smooth, but heavy.
(...)
This gun is likely between 16 and 18 pounds in DA. Pretty heavy.

Par for the course. You're not going to be able to get much better, if at all.
The .22 LR and .327 Federal models have to have the stiffer springs for reliable ignition. (.22 LR, to smash the rims, of course; and .327 Federal because the cartridge uses rifle primers.)

If you want to practice with something closer to your competition revolvers, use your competition revolvers.

[reddog81]

Do you have drag marks on the hammer from the hammer rubbing against the frame? If so I’d install the hammer shims and try one weight lower for the mainspring and see what happens. Worse case scenario you get some light strikes and have to reinstall the old spring. I was able to sand down the hammer stop some on mine without issue.

[Radny97]

Originally Posted by reddog81

Do you have drag marks on the hammer from the hammer rubbing against the frame? If so I’d install the hammer shims and try one weight lower for the mainspring and see what happens. Worse case scenario you get some light strikes and have to reinstall the old spring. I was able to sand down the hammer stop some on mine without issue.

Yes some light drag marks. Shims are ordered. I’ll try as you suggest and report the results.


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