With an emphasis on back yard. I'm not a smith and don't pretend to be, but I have a born with pension for tinkering with, learning about, and working on anything I feel I can make better, and in the case of guns also confirming several different ways that it's safe.
Everybody is different, so if the mechanics of guns interests you, you might find what I worked on interesting, if not no offense taken. :grin:
The 03 Sporter I recently bought has a trigger that was obviously worked on and is very smooth and light. Breaks at 2 lbs when I tested it on a trigger scale. But it also has the longest trigger pull by far of any gun I've ever run across. Smooth and light or not, the extremely long pull was an impediment to accurately rating group sizes when shooting it on the bench the little bit I shot it so far.
The Springfield trigger is straight mechanics with no adjustments, but is remarkably simple and reliable in design. Top of the trigger has a curved cam that sits against the bottom of the receiver and gives you lots of leverage. Trigger is pinned rear of center through the sear, sear is pinned forwards of center through the receiver. Pull the trigger and the cam going against the bottom of the receiver pivots the sear down in the rear until it clears the hammer, while simultaneously pivoting the sear up in the front, compressing the spring giving you your trigger pull and return tension.
Trigger with cam at top.
Next picture is trigger and sear. The well in front of the sear pin hole is where the spring goes from the sear to the bottom of receiver. As you can see pull the trigger and that cam pushes up against the receiver forcing the sear down in the rear, up in the front compressing the spring.
So what to do about all the travel? My idea was to try and shorten the distance the trigger could return to. I decided to try and shim the area on the sear that serves as the return resting place for the trigger. If you look at the picture above, you can see the ear at the front of the trigger that rests on a flat spot on the sear.
I had a small piece of .015 thick, metal shim stock. It ended up I needed 2 of them for a total of .030. That doesn't sound like much at all, but keep in mind the end of the trigger is a long ways off from that ear. .030 under the ear translated into more than 4 times that distance at the other end based on before and after measurements.
The next picture is the 2 tiny pieces of shim I cut. The first piece I took a small file and notched the piece out to fit the shape of the sear it was placed on. The second piece I just cut in a thin straight line to fit at rear of the first piece.
I then reassembled the trigger and after cleaning any and all oil off of the sear face the pieces were going on, and the pieces themselves, I took a pointed tooth pick and best as I could smeared JB weld on both pieces. Put the notched out piece on first, then the second piece on top of that.
With the trigger assembled and pieces in place, the trigger now had spring tension on it pushing down on the shim pieces overnight while the JB weld cured.
Tested it slamming the safe off, slamming the bolt shut, and butting the rifle on the floor and it holds without firing. I now have a springfield trigger that breaks against a wall without creep at 2 lbs. Lighter actually than what I like for hunting but the only way to change it is go to a heavier spring.
Trigger works like a champ but it remains to be seen if the thin JB weld will hold with the percussion of firing. If it doesn't I will try a single piece of shim .030 thick and cut it to run up along the side edges of the sear along with the flat area, so it has much more surface area to grip.
Everybody is different, so if the mechanics of guns interests you, you might find what I worked on interesting, if not no offense taken. :grin:
The 03 Sporter I recently bought has a trigger that was obviously worked on and is very smooth and light. Breaks at 2 lbs when I tested it on a trigger scale. But it also has the longest trigger pull by far of any gun I've ever run across. Smooth and light or not, the extremely long pull was an impediment to accurately rating group sizes when shooting it on the bench the little bit I shot it so far.
The Springfield trigger is straight mechanics with no adjustments, but is remarkably simple and reliable in design. Top of the trigger has a curved cam that sits against the bottom of the receiver and gives you lots of leverage. Trigger is pinned rear of center through the sear, sear is pinned forwards of center through the receiver. Pull the trigger and the cam going against the bottom of the receiver pivots the sear down in the rear until it clears the hammer, while simultaneously pivoting the sear up in the front, compressing the spring giving you your trigger pull and return tension.
Trigger with cam at top.
Next picture is trigger and sear. The well in front of the sear pin hole is where the spring goes from the sear to the bottom of receiver. As you can see pull the trigger and that cam pushes up against the receiver forcing the sear down in the rear, up in the front compressing the spring.
So what to do about all the travel? My idea was to try and shorten the distance the trigger could return to. I decided to try and shim the area on the sear that serves as the return resting place for the trigger. If you look at the picture above, you can see the ear at the front of the trigger that rests on a flat spot on the sear.
I had a small piece of .015 thick, metal shim stock. It ended up I needed 2 of them for a total of .030. That doesn't sound like much at all, but keep in mind the end of the trigger is a long ways off from that ear. .030 under the ear translated into more than 4 times that distance at the other end based on before and after measurements.
The next picture is the 2 tiny pieces of shim I cut. The first piece I took a small file and notched the piece out to fit the shape of the sear it was placed on. The second piece I just cut in a thin straight line to fit at rear of the first piece.
I then reassembled the trigger and after cleaning any and all oil off of the sear face the pieces were going on, and the pieces themselves, I took a pointed tooth pick and best as I could smeared JB weld on both pieces. Put the notched out piece on first, then the second piece on top of that.
With the trigger assembled and pieces in place, the trigger now had spring tension on it pushing down on the shim pieces overnight while the JB weld cured.
Tested it slamming the safe off, slamming the bolt shut, and butting the rifle on the floor and it holds without firing. I now have a springfield trigger that breaks against a wall without creep at 2 lbs. Lighter actually than what I like for hunting but the only way to change it is go to a heavier spring.
Trigger works like a champ but it remains to be seen if the thin JB weld will hold with the percussion of firing. If it doesn't I will try a single piece of shim .030 thick and cut it to run up along the side edges of the sear along with the flat area, so it has much more surface area to grip.
