Or anybody else that might be interested for future trigger work and troubleshooting on a model 70, or another trigger for that matter. I fixed the trigger on my model 70 that between last hunting season and now, had gone from a good trigger, to pulling like a tank.
I found nothing wrong with the trigger itself or the spring, or the relationship between the trigger face and the sear face, but while I had it apart I lightly polished the 2 faces with 600 sandpaper.
The problem was all in the sear. Some light corrosion and general sludge on the sides of the sear, and more importantly on the sear pin and the corresponding hole in the sear that the pin goes through. I made sure both of those were cleaned up and smoothed out.
There was some light corrosion at the top of the hole in the receiver that holds the sear spring. Amazing where moisture can get in after hunting all day in the rain. I cleaned that out and lightly sandpapered both ends of the sear spring.
Mechanically it was apparently binding the sear on the pin when the bolt was closed which naturally puts forward and downward pressure on the sear, and was not allowing the sear to slightly pivot to the correct position in relation to the trigger face. Also the small corrosion at the top of the sear spring well, could've been putting additional pressure on the sear against the trigger.
So any trigger spring tension was being overridden by direct and excessive sear face to trigger face tension. I lightly oiled the sear pin and sear pin hole after I had cleaned everything up, then slightly tweaked the overtravel screw which allowed me to take just a touch more tension off the trigger spring.
After confirming it wouldn't go off on fire with bolt slams and butting the stock hard against the floor, I borrowed my buddes trigger scale and was very pleased with the results. Better than ever. Tested it on 5 pulls, 2.5, 2.6, 2.5, 2.5, 2.6. Pretty good factory trigger.
I found nothing wrong with the trigger itself or the spring, or the relationship between the trigger face and the sear face, but while I had it apart I lightly polished the 2 faces with 600 sandpaper.
The problem was all in the sear. Some light corrosion and general sludge on the sides of the sear, and more importantly on the sear pin and the corresponding hole in the sear that the pin goes through. I made sure both of those were cleaned up and smoothed out.
There was some light corrosion at the top of the hole in the receiver that holds the sear spring. Amazing where moisture can get in after hunting all day in the rain. I cleaned that out and lightly sandpapered both ends of the sear spring.
Mechanically it was apparently binding the sear on the pin when the bolt was closed which naturally puts forward and downward pressure on the sear, and was not allowing the sear to slightly pivot to the correct position in relation to the trigger face. Also the small corrosion at the top of the sear spring well, could've been putting additional pressure on the sear against the trigger.
So any trigger spring tension was being overridden by direct and excessive sear face to trigger face tension. I lightly oiled the sear pin and sear pin hole after I had cleaned everything up, then slightly tweaked the overtravel screw which allowed me to take just a touch more tension off the trigger spring.
After confirming it wouldn't go off on fire with bolt slams and butting the stock hard against the floor, I borrowed my buddes trigger scale and was very pleased with the results. Better than ever. Tested it on 5 pulls, 2.5, 2.6, 2.5, 2.5, 2.6. Pretty good factory trigger.
