Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits - Mark Twain
Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy / Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
On my Dan Wesson 15-2's and 715's, I have at least one of every part but the frame. Some parts, like sideplate screws, springs, and the little thing that holds the yoke in, I have a bunch of them collected over the 44+ years I've had a DW small frame revolver. I have a bunch of hands that are all a little different sized, and I've used none of the parts, except the hand spring, a main spring, and the yoke hold in thing.
They just don't seem to break. My long gone Python broke it's hand about 200 rounds after I bought it slightly used, and my Ruger Security Six broke the mainsping 2 cylinders from out of the box. The spring was defective, you could see why it broke where it did. The LGS I shot at most of the time had a spring in stock, and I had it shooting fine again in a few minutes. Never had an S&W revolver break except on my old 686 no dash, the grips (AKA Cheese Graters) were like holding a coarse file when you shot it, and the red insert on the front sight fell out and was never found again.
This is the most recent revolver acquisition that required some TLC.
I'd been looking for a four-inch, nickel 29 for a long time and found this one a few years ago at a local gunshow. A quick once over immediately revealed a missing alignment pin for the extractor star and some endshake. The price was good and I dickered it down a bit more, then took it home as I didn't see anything I couldn't fix. I'd suspected some light prime strikes would follow and I was correct. I replaced the alignment pin and shimmed up the cylinder and yoke. I also replaced the transfer bar that had been removed as a means of smoothing the action (that doesn't work). Everything was good to go after that, until two months later when the hand broke. I ordered a new one from S&W and fortunately it's just about the only part that hasn't been redesigned. To my amazement, the new hand dropped right in without any fitting required. That's the only one I've ever had that didn't require at least some fitting somewhere. The action now locks up tighter than a bank vault, has the sweetest eight pound DA trigger and an SA trigger you can trip by breathing on it. With the final addition of a set of custom Culina stocks, it one of my best shooters and my favorite revolver.
We may lose and we may win, but we will never be here again.......
Of course, every serious revolver enthusiast has a couple of moving boxes full of grips.
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”
― Theodore Roosevelt