Little update:
There is a lot I like about this little gun. I WANT to LOVE this gun, but one thing is standing in the way and may not be correctable to the level of my complete satisfaction - the trigger pulls, especially the SA pull.
I'm not on a SWAT Team, not an LE, no longer in the military, and my primary use for this arm would be as a "kit gun," 'round the house extermination tool, small game gun, fun-gun and make-do self-defense gun. Although it is intended to be a dedicated self-defense gun by design, my intentions are different. SD guns are dedicated to SD. I don't "play" with those - familiarization and skill-retention are more like "training." This is intended to be more of a FUN/UTILITY gun, which would work as a SD piece if I were to need it while out working or playing with it.
The SA trigger has to be between nine and twelve pounds - actually mush stiffer than the other DAs I have or have had. The DA is stiff, but workable. If I have to use DA with this gun, I'm using DA because I don't have time to use SA, like I'm seriously in danger and the pull won't be noticed.
There is an issue with the sear/trigger interface, such that they basically lock together, given the factory angles. Pulling the trigger SA has to force the hammer back a significant amount to reach the break-point. A VERY slight amount of that effect is OK with a "heavy," but CLEAN and non-creepy SA pull, but this is beyond ridiculous.
Not wanting to compromise the reliability of the small hammer setting off primers, I left the springs alone - for now. I opened it up and cleaned up/polished a bunch of surfaces and left the sear/trigger geometry alone (for now) and it's.... "better?" OK, somewhat smoother, but it wasn't really awful before.
Still, the SA pull is just unacceptable. I'm not looking for ounces in pull-weight either. 3# or even 4# would be fine for what this gun is for - the way I intend to use it. I am going to have to alter the angles on the sear/trigger to get past this SA issue, which is akin to trying to snap a rusted-fast 3/4" bolt off a tractor that's been sitting in the weather for fifty years. Not sure how deep the hardness goes on these, but I may just find out, but the gun has to function in SA or it has to go.
When I was handling it alone, it was easier to appreciate it - or to kid myself that I'd be able to live with this issue. THEN, I get the Charter, Mag Pug out, which is the same chambering and basic configuration, etc., and there's just no way. That little gun is a great little piece, with remarkable DA and just a tiny (predictable and repeatable) hitch in the SA, and the target starts to act like a bullet magnet all the sudden. I have to really, really focus and concentrate to hit using the Taurus and that awful trigger. I can fix it. I just don't know if I'll get past a light surface hardening. We'll see.
The hand/pawl and the transfer bar are HARD. Surprisingly so. The transfer bar looks like it was lasered and then bent to shape, leaving a significantly "textured" surface to ride in its channel in the frame. I took it to some 300 grit paper and relived it of a fair amount of the ridges and it was still hard several thousandths down - but it's a thin part too. I've only avoided touching the surfaces of the sear/trigger interface as a precaution, but am to a point where it is undeniably necessary if I want to shoot this gun, especially when I have another, of another make, which has spoiled me terribly.
OH! and that super-cool, clean, crisp, patridge sight with the orange-paint insert and tritium vial? A waste. The gun shoots LOW, so I'll have to either try to file it down without ruining it, or replace it with a shorter one. At least I CAN replace it in this gun, which is a big deal. Had to ghave the whole barrel replaced on the Mag Pug because the integral sight was too SHORT - shot way HIGH. I'm shooting 148 grain WCs at 750 (or so) fps, 158 grain RFNs at about 900 - 950 fps and 180 WFNs at about 850 - 900 fps. From the Charter, POI = POA for all three at ten and twenty yards, and I get little groups. Same loads from the Taurus - decent groups (who can say with that trigger?) and 2" low at ten and twice that at twenty. Not complaining about that, as I can fix that easily enough and I think S&W or Ruger, pin-in front sight blades will work, or I can make one.
Dang, I still just love this bare back-strapped, ugly, rubber Hogue grip though. Wish they had this grip for the Charters.
Aside from the trigger pulls, this is not at all unusual for pretty much any other revolver I've bought new, as far as having to fiddle with it. Most Charters I''v bough just need to be smoothed up inside, with NO real "trigger-work." Any Ruger I've bought required both, plus things only the factory could fix on many. I've only owned one new Smith and it was a nightmare right out of the box (mid-eighties 624), but only a single sample. So, I'm not so much complaining or criticizing this new gun as I am sort of reveling in the fact that it's not nearly as "bad" as I expected or have gotten used to.
