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Colt DS versus a S&W Lady smith

coffinhandler
I recently purchased a Colt detective Special 2 inch snubbie. My friend liked the gun and decided he wanted a snubbie. He ended up buying a used, Model 36-9, Lady Smith, We went out and shot the 2 revolvers. The Smith was more enjoyable to shoot because the gun came with an extra set of rubber grips, which he installed. The trigger is one of the best that I have seen on the Smith. The trigger on my Colt is nice but not even close to the Smith. The trigger on the Smith is light and crisp in single action. The double action is also quite good. Every person that handles his gun comments on the great trigger. We were told by someone that all Lady Smiths come from the factory with a trigger job. I find this hard to believe. Can anyone verify if this is true or not. Thank you for all replies.
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4 comments

Date Votes
  • cpermd
    Not true.

    CP
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  • beantownshootah
    I've owned three different models 36, and two models 60 (same gun in stainless) and ALL of them have superior crisp SA triggers, and smooth DA triggers.

    Pull weight on the DA can vary a little in my experience, and its never going to be as good as a good K-frame gun (by reason of simple physics and geometry), but its usually smoother than most other production snubnoses.

    Remember prior to the 1980s every Smith gun was hand fitted by a gunsmith.

    In terms of SA, I don't think you even can "improve" it much beyond the stock gun. Reducing the pull further is likely to compromise the gun's safety.

    For DA, I've heard that Smith uses a slightly weaker mainspring in the Ladysmith guns to make a lighter DA pull so you might be onto something there.

    I'm pretty sure they don't give the guns actual hand-tuned trigger jobs since that would be expensive, and so far as I know, they've never actually been marketed that way.
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  • Hawk Carse
    Not a true "trigger job" but I have read that the Ladysmith revolvers are shipped with a lighter rebound spring than the manly models.
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  • nmyers
    When S&W first introduced the Ladysmith revolver series, they talked about a redesigned geometry that would make the guns more suitable for the small hands of female shooters. But, all them appear to have parts identical to those of all other J-frame revolvers. And, when you check the S&W parts list, there are no special small parts listed for the Ladysmith version. I suspect that the logistics of producing & stocking special J-frame parts caused them to rethink the "geometry" idea. The distinguishing features now appear to be pretty grips & a fancy zipper case.

    However, at the time these came to market, there were still many J-frames being produced with a narrow, serrated, trigger. As far as I have seen, all the Ladysmith revolvers have the newer wide, smooth, trigger, which, by itself, makes the trigger pull appear lighter & smoother.

    Neal
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