[quote=Small Bore]V springs give a cleaner strike. They are a little faster and trigger pulls with V springs a can be set better and crisper. They retain their power for their entire life. [quote]
I would like some clarification on a couple of those comments, Dig, and must take you to task on one.
"They are a little faster and trigger pulls with V springs can be set better and crisper".
Faster? Are you saying that, when comparing a coil spring of 4.5# at full compression to a leaf spring of 4.5# at full compression, the leaf is faster ? (The 4.5# is just an arbitrary number) If so, that is really a moot point, and an arguable one, as the finest triggers in the world, and those having the shortest lock times, employ coil springs, not leaf. Faster lock times are a result of proper geometry. It is the easy way out, and the wrong method, to decrease the lock time by increasing the power of the spring, alone.
"V springs give a cleaner strike".
Huh? What does that mean exactly? Sounds more like sales pitch than physics.
"They retain their power for their entire life".
Not so at all. I can't believe, Dig, you've never handled an old hammer gun that was (evidently) used by right handers most of it's life, and in which the right hammer spring was much, much weaker than the left. This is so common in old external hammer guns that I can't believe you've never noticed it. I have several examples of them myself. My first original m/l side by side was a Powell. It retained the original springs in the locks. The right hammer was so much easier to cock that it wouldn't reliably detonate the percussion cap. As a quick fix I whittled down a piece of a wooden clothes pin (the coil spring type
) and press fit it between the leaves of the spring. It increased the power of it sufficiently that it fired 100% of the time. I eventually found another spring and fitted it. Point being that leaf springs certainly do lose their power, without breaking.
SRH
