Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Trigger Pull.

Caleb talks about trigger pull, and I agree with him. A light trigger pull isn't necessarily a good trigger pull. I've had guns with a light trigger pull that were dangerous. The mechanical linkage between the trigger and the sear has to be good enough that the gun won't go off if it's bumped.

A good trigger should break cleanly with little or no overtravel. Probably the best trigger I own is the single-action break on my Model 28. It breaks clean at about two pounds, but it's very safe.

My Savage rifles have good triggers and I haven't had to adjust any of them. They break at about four pounds, which is a good weight for hunting rifles.

My AR-15, on the other hand, has a lousy trigger. It combines grittiness, overtravel and a heavy pull. It's a stock Bushmaster carbine, but it deserves a better trigger. One of these days I'm going to do something about that.

Hat tip to Say Uncle.

5 comments:

be603 said...

I put a RR two-stage National Match trigger in my son's AR. Flinched when I paid for it. Never flinched since shooting it though. /heh

Heavy varmint barrel so it suits that AR's purpose well.

Old NFO said...

be is correct... Spend the $$ you WILL NOT regret it!

Anonymous said...

The best trigger on any of my rifles is the factory trigger on my M700 Classic Remington in 6.5x55mm. It breaks like the fabled glass rod with no over-travel and no creep. The best military rifle trigger I own is on my M38 Swedish Short rifle by Husqvarna also in 6.5x55mm. Either rifle is, in my estimation, eminently suited for hunting any quadruped in the lower 48. I have other rifles in other calibers and all are what are now considered medium power rifles, .308, .30-40, .30-30, .303 Brit. and .30-06. I do not feel a bit under gunned with proper loads in any of those. All of my rifles in those calibers are as-issued military, and all have what I consider to be good triggers. If I can take a rifle out of my rack and a handful of cartridges and hit a beer can at 50 yards standing on my hind legs, I feel as if I'm doing well.

Gerry N.

Anonymous said...

I have a Remington 700 I bought new in 1978. About 10 years ago I had it re-barreled and the action trued. I then put the barreled action an HS Precision stock with the aluminum bedding block. It shoots well under MOA.

It still has the original trigger, which I have set to a 2 1/2 pound pull. It breaks with no creep or over travel. No matter how hard I bump the rifle on the floor or hit it on the side, it will not accidentally release the firing pin.

I know how to correctly set up the trigger for pull, creep and over travel because I still have the original manual that came with the rifle. Can you imagine, back in 1978 Remington actually included instructions on how to adjust the trigger to your liking.

ASM826 said...

I have a suggestion for your AR-15. It won't make it a Timney, but it has the advantage of making it better than it is and being free.

Take the lower off, and put JB bore paste on all the contacting points of the trigger. With a little block of wood to let the hammer strike against, dry fire the trigger several hundred times. Make sure the bore paste stays where it is rubbing on the surfaces as you work the trigger. Don't let the hammer fall against the receiver, it will eventually crack or bend.

Then push out the pins, dissemble the trigger, thoroughly clean, lube, and reassemble the trigger and try it again.

You don't want to change anything in contact points or angles, you are just using this to polish the surfaces and remove machine marks.

This worked so well on a stock trigger in my AR that I decided not to replace it. Even if you decide to replace it later, this seemed well worth the time.

I think I found it on the The High Road, but it might have been on AR15.com