Bought new S&W Model 617 10 shot 6” barrel to be delivered next week and already considering trigger. Part of the fun for me is upgrading trigger on every handgun I buy—it’s what I want. And I’ve read the trigger on the new 617 is good but a little heavy. This is range gun only and SA pull is all I care about. Lighter the better.
So, please advise on best trigger upgrade. I’m mechanically inept so if DIY needs to be very easy. Happy to ship it off if that’s what’s needed.
Thanks.

Have you ever opened up a revolver?

Actually, I just dry fire mine a lot and there’s a strain screw in the front of the grip area which makes a difference.  I use the yellow sized wall anchors in the cylinders for the hammer to strike.  It has gotten a lot better.  I did try a wolf spring early on in the revolver’s life, but it didn’t have enough power to be reliable.

You will need to replace the rebound slide spring for a lighter one. Wolff makes a set of five and one of them will give you a lighter trigger pull while still giving a good trigger return. The Rebound slide tool that Brownell's sells will make the job much easier.

No. Watched the videos, seems easy enough.

Most single action trigger pulls on the smith revolvers are extremely good, possibly impossible to upgrade. My favorite 17 ( made in 1966 ) runs under 3 pounds and breaks like glass.
Double action is going to need to be heavier than a similar center fire for reliable ignition just the way it is.
If you are used to modern wonder nine triggers, the 617 out of the box can be an almost life changing experience.

Shooting a 617 in DA will show you how bad of a shot you really are.

Single action should be fine.  Double will be heavy and on the rim fire Smiths there’s not a lot of improvement to be had.

This is one of those things you don't fuck with if you don't understand what you're doing. Seems easy enough... Can go sideways pretty quickly.

That said. Don't go fucking with the strain screw, and don't go with a lighter mainspring. They can both lead to light firing pin strikes.

The single action pull on nearly all S&Ws are pretty good to excellent right out of the box. Shooting the gun will smooth them even more. You can get the action a bit lighter if you go with a lighter weight rebound spring. Just don't go below 13 pounds as the action will be noticeably slower.

If you must monkey with the gun and disregard people's warnings...

http://powercustom.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1158

http://powercustom.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=12&products_id=1159

I was going to write most of the above.

I know it's nice to be prepared but maybe you should wait till you actually get the revolver. The 617 already has a nice S/A trigger which gets even better when you wear the parts in by dry firing. I use the above anchors mentioned, #4-8. As also mentioned, switching springs and messing with the strain screw may give you light strikes. If you wanted to spend any money right now on it, look for a set of grips to replace those awful ones smith sticks on their 6XX models.

Bottom is the 617:

Attached File

The stock trigger on the 617 is nice as it is. You do not want to lighten up the springs on it (it's a rimfire) but rather have the action stoned by someone who knows what they're doing. Be prepared for lead spitting as the forcing cone is too tight on many new production 617 revolvers.

https://pinnaclehighperformance.com/

Some LUBRICATION may help a lot.I've seen new guns dry as a bone inside.

Funny, that’s exactly what I did yesterday. Ordered new Eagle grips like the ones pictured on your 617 but checkered. They’re gorgeous.
I will definitely try the pistol before I have trigger work done, including dry firing and lubrication. I own a bunch of S&W and Colt revolvers, including a Python so I know a revolver single-action trigger can be excellent.

There is something to be said for keeping the 617 stock other than polishing.
22 rimfire primers can vary wildly and some need a solid thump to ignite. For that reason I would only polish the internals and properly lubricate any new one. You can replace the rebound spring but that will have almost no impact on the single action pull you are most interested in.

This right here.

OP, don't fuck with the trigger on a .22 revolver. It's just not worth it.

Rimfire revolvers need a bit heavier trigger to ensure reliable ignition. You can definitely take them too light.

Same here. Wife's M640 (sans hole), had factory 9lb DAO pull... She couldn't reliably pull it. I opened the plate and it was bone dry.

I also ordered a Wolff 1+lb reduction hammer strut/spring along with a Wolff rebound slide spring kit. I "Polished" to a bright hue every side of the Rebound slide with India stones to a mirror finish... I put polished in quotations because I did just that, "Polished" without removing any metal. Then I replaced the rebound slide spring to an enhanced one from Wolff as well as the Hammer Strut/Spring. I also lightly "Polished" the contact points on the trigger/hammer sear contacts. The key word is Polish while removing zero metal/material, lubed, then Buttoned her back up, filled the cylinder with snap-caps... and while watching a movie I pulled the trigger 500+ or so times after the girls went to bed.

The end result was the trigger had become silky smooth and reliably breaks between a sub 5 to 5.5lbs and she sets off every factory primer load I've tried from Hornady, Buffalo Bore, Underwood, PPU, Federal, Magtech, and all the way down to the shitty Wolf and Tula steel cased hard as rock primers and everything in between. This was just for goodness sake even though all she carries are Buffalo Bore's 150g full Hard Cast Wads in the cylinder with Hornady's Critical Defense polymer tip's for a quick reload into the charging holes from a speed loader.

Watching a couple of Jerry Miculek's video's about 3 times each, along with the aforementioned Wolff spring kit, time, "patience", some India stones, and a little determination took this Revo from an (instant resell) trigger/status; to a more than usable and reliable carry rig for less than $40.