Smith disassembly

[Lt. Rabbit]

Hello forum,
i picked up a Smith recently, and I was going to disassemble it for cleaning. Does anyone know of a tutorial to break it down, specifically, the trigger spring. It may be simple, but I don?t want to cause any damage.
thanks,
Lt Rabbit

[jonk]

For a standard cleaning you don't need to take off the side plate or take apart the trigger mechanism. Just take the barrel off, clean it good in the chamber, use some Q tips to wipe out the breech face, take off the nipple and clean out screw and clean it good with q tips and pipe cleaners, dry, oil, and reassemble.

The rest of the gun isn't hard to break down; remove the sideplate screws, remove the buttplate and screws (one of them holds the action together) remove the mainspring screw, remove the hammer screw and hammer, and the guts of it basically just lift right out. Even so, I have only ever had to take mine fully apart when doing a trigger job or replacing a broken part. At the end of the season or after a hard rain I do clean in there but there is usually no gunpowder residue, it is mainly to remove any moisture after rain or to clean and re-grease the parts that I would be taking things apart like that. I haven't seen a video on how to do it but it is pretty straightforward.

[Lt Rabbit]

I was able to remove both of the screws on the butt plate, and remove the butt plate. The stock, I can not remove it. I did remove the trigger guard, and the stock comes back just a hair, but the stock is cracked, and I don't want to cause more damage. Any suggestions?

[jonk]

Saddle bar has to unscrew too. Also the tang screws. If all the screws are out including the long one under the plate it probably is just stuck.

[Lt Rabbit]

Yes sir, I believe it is stuck. Any ideas on how to loosen it? I even considered spraying with WD40. It does move, just a bit. I don't want to do any harm.

[jonk]

When mine only moved a little I found that I had stupidly left the tang screws or trigger guard screws or something in. :confused: The rear tang screw in particular is a suspect as it is a very thin piece of wood forward of that before the stock ends at the gun, and that piece can crack off and permit some travel.

If you are sure they are all out the wood fit can be pretty tight. You could try oil but it might just make the wood swell more. What I would do in that case would be have someone hold the buttstock and you tap on the reciever where the front of the trigger guard mortises in and see if a few knocks would jar it loose. You COULD also try fitting something between the frame and the stock and prying; you did mention it moved a little; but doing that will surely leave a mark on the stock. Maybe some fishing line wrapped around in the crack, tied off tight? You could use that to make a loop that dangles down and stand in it or whatever to get some pull power and it shouldn't hurt the wood.

[Tom Magno, 9269V]

There is an easy 'trick' to removing the Smith sideplate without doing any harm - do not try to pry it off.
Put the gun on half-cock - this takes the side-load tension of the tumbler pin off of the side plate. Remove the screw that goes thru the side plate. Turn the gun on its side with the plate facing down into your palm. With the plastic handle of a screwdriver or hard plastic hammer (no metal please!)... give a good rap on the hammer screw. The plate will pop right off into your palm.