Pietta Spiller & Burr Revolver

Something I have noticed. I purchased a factory finished Spiller from a forum member here several months ago, nice pistol, no problems with it. Subsequently, I recently purchased a kit Spiller from DGW and I’ve noticed that the hammer spring tension, of the factory finished pistol, is noticeably stiffer, stronger than that of the kit pistol.

I hope this will not give me trouble, shooting the kit pistol, not having enough tension to ignite the caps.

ZUG said:

No - the springs that I ordered are factory replacements - not reduced power springs. I can alter them as I wish to get the tension that feels right for me.. I've seen some people cut a vertical slot in the middle of the spring about 1/2 the length of the spring. I may give this a try.

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Hour glassing is simple and you can grind the edges in small increments till you get a better feel but don’t go too light otherwise you will get misfires.

Secesh said:

Something I have noticed. I purchased a factory finished Spiller from a forum member here several months ago, nice pistol, no problems with it. Subsequently, I recently purchased a kit Spiller from DGW and I’ve noticed that the hammer spring tension, of the factory finished pistol, is noticeably stiffer, stronger than that of the kit pistol.

I hope this will not give me trouble with not having enough tension to ignite the caps.

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That will not give you an issue setting off caps. Mine was the same way till I worked the mainspring to lighten the pull.

Secesh said:

Something I have noticed. I purchased a factory finished Spiller from a forum member here several months ago, nice pistol, no problems with it. Subsequently, I recently purchased a kit Spiller from DGW and I’ve noticed that the hammer spring tension, of the factory finished pistol, is noticeably stiffer, stronger than that of the kit pistol.

I hope this will not give me trouble, shooting the kit pistol, not having enough tension to ignite the caps.

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The only reason for a heavy main is to mask a rough action. It only takes a 4-5 lb hammer draw to pop a cap.

Mike

This is about the forcing cone not the modern pistol it was on. A friend of mine’s dad was a gunsmith and since I was older than his son he shot and hunted with me a good bit. He got in 2 Spanish made .22 pistols that were identical except one had white grips and no forcing cone and the other had black grips and a forcing cone. We were standing side by side in his yard shooting green pecans out of one of his trees. I took a shot and saw him flinch and grab his eye. He ran to his house with me following close behind trying to see what had happened. He was bleeding from a cut on his bottom eyelid. We took a piece of paper a held it a foot or so from the side of the cylinder and shot the gun and immediately there was a hole punched in the paper. The cylinder was tight but not quite lined up with the barrel and it was shaving a sliver of lead off with every shot. He put the pistol’s barrel in his vise and whacked the gun with a shop hammer bending the barrel in an L shape.

Well -- I got the replacement mainspring the other day and it is nowhere near the factory original that came in the gun. I called VTI and sent them a picture of what the original looked like and what they sent me. They told me that that was what Pietta sent them as the replacement for the Spiller & Burr. I am sending it back. I will make my own out of 1075 annealed spring steel. The upper spring is what I received as the replacement - the middle spring is the factory one that came in the revolver and the bottom one is the one I made out of 1075 spring steel. It needs to be hardened and tempered when I get around to it - other things need attention at the moment P.S. The spring that I made is the EXACT same length and shape as the factory one it just looks different because of the angle that the picture was taken. Mine is thinner in the mid-section.

Looks like a good job on the one you made. If you don’t mind me asking, where did you purchase the 1075 from? Though, you may have already had it on hand.

ZUG said:

Well -- I got the replacement mainspring the other day and it is nowhere near the factory original that came in the gun. I called VTI and sent them a picture of what the original looked like and what they sent me. They told me that that was what Pietta sent them as the replacement for the Spiller & Burr. I am sending it back. I will make my own out of 1075 annealed spring steel. The upper spring is what I received as the replacement - the middle spring is the factory one that came in the revolver and the bottom one is the one I made out of 1075 spring steel. It needs to be hardened and tempered when I get around to it - other things need attention at the moment P.S. The spring that I made is the EXACT same length and shape as the factory one it just looks different because of the angle that the picture was taken. Mine is thinner in the mid-section.
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I ordered springs for my 2016 Pietta NMA and noticed mine were off too. I swapped them and checked them for fit and function and all worked just fine so mine are sitting spares.

I’ll bet you the replacement fits and functions as it should. It may have a lighter hammer pull too.

ernbar - maybe it will fit - I never gave it a try. It looked too far off from the factory one - Next time I have it apart I will give it a try! From the looks of the curve in the spring it does not look like it will fit in the slot at the base of the grip and be able to engage the roller in the hammer.

Secesh - I had it on hand. I bought some from Dixie Gun Works a long time back. I also purchased some from <https://newjerseysteelbaron.com/product/1075hr/> Good prices and good people to deal with.

rodwha - Yup - my bolt/trigger spring also did not match my original and I had to modify the tip of the spring by turning down that little up turn on the end for my spring to work.

@ZUG Thanks. I probably should order some for myself too. Ordered some many years ago from DGW but darned if I can find it. 40 or so years and 4 moves can really get things scattered.

ernbar said:

I’ll bet you the replacement fits and functions as it should. It may have a lighter hammer pull too.

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Well - I thought about what you said and this morning I removed the grips and placed the spring next to the factory spring and there is NO WAY that the replacement spring will fit. If you ever did get it in there would be such a high preload that the hammer would pound the nipples flat