Ruger GP 100 still rulz

[dharmabum]

 I fired a friend SS, 3 in. barrel GP 100 and was hooked.  Couldn't find a used one so got a new SS GP100 with 4 in. barrel, Hogue rubber grips.  Don't know of any handgun I've shot that I like better.  My HD goto piece is a Sig P220 .45 which is nice but I'm actually leaning more to  the Ruger now.  I shoot .38 specials for paper shredding.  It shoots whatever I feed it.  I let my wife push a few .357's through it and she promptly claimed it as hers.  Guess I'll get a second one for me.
Curious...has anyone with one of these GP's done a trigger job?  I was thinking I might like to bring the DA trigger down to 6-7 lbs, but was curious if others had done this?

[Rickk]

A lighter hammer spring is an easy installation. You may find that it will only work reliably with Federal brand primers after the swap though.

A bit of polishing here and there will help as well.

My advice would be to put a few hundred rounds through it, then take it apart and look for surfaces that rub. Stay clear of anything to do with the trigger/sear. They get better with use all by themselves anyway. One place that often rubs is the hammer against the frame. Look for rub marks on the side of the hammer. They almost always are there. Take the hammer out, put some 600 grit lapping compound down on a piece of flat glass and rub the side of the hammer in a circular fashion until the side of the hammer is smooth again.

The inside of the frame were the hammer fits could use a bit of  smoothing as well. Brownell's used to carry a stone that fit the Ruger hammer slot perfectly, but last time I checked I did not see it. You will have to improvise in there. You just want to polish it, not remove and real amount of metal. Put down the file...Think 600 grit. Don't go overboard. If you didn't get it perfectly smooth you will see more scratches show up on the hammer a few hundred rounds later. If so, just go over it lightly again.

And, the best way to smooth up a Ruger is to simply shoot it 

[SHOOTALL]

Get some snap caps and dry fire it alot . I like to keep it oiled well when doing this then clean and lube as normal .

[His lordship.]

All good advice.  My 10 year old GP-100 has smoothed up from use, thought the hammer pull at 3.9 lbs was ok.  Bought a Wolf spring kit for my Super Redhawk, this kit has lots of extra springs for customizing the hammer pull and return spring to your tastes.  Used an extra lighter hammer spring in my GP-100 from the kit, did not use the lightest spring in either as these guns are to be used for hunting dangerous game and wanted reliable hammer strikes.  They are much lighter than the factory springs though, really helps.


The Wolf spring pack will have the hammer springs to be used in both guns, but the trigger return springs are separate.  Still, my GP-100 now has a 3.5 lb pull.  I also cleaned, oiled and greased the internal trigger parts.


Nice to have a spring package that could be used for more than one gun!

[dharmabum]

Thanks guys for the useful feedback.  I bought a second GP 100 for me (since my wife claimed the first one :-) and I've liked both so much I also bought a Ruger Vaquero Montado in .357)  I've had a lot of guys at the range say a similar thing to "Just fan it and feed it and a few hundred rounds will smooth it out."  But I think after around a thousand rounds I'll check out some polishing as well.
Here's to shooting a great gun.