During my short ownership of the left-handed Ruger African chambered in 375 Ruger I found that although I didn't care for shooting the cartridge I did like the Ruger M77 Hawkeye rifles with the 3-position safety and claw type extractor. In some ways, they are similar to the Win. M70. I decided that I would like to get one in a smaller cartridge such as 6.5 CM for shooting fun without the recoil of my serious hunting rifles chambered in 300 WM, 300 WSM, 7mm RM, and 7mm WSM.
I found this one advertised on the internet by Ruger: https://www.ruger.com/products/HawkeyeHunter/specSheets/57120.html
During our trip to trip to Montana we stopped in the SODAK gun shop in Mitchell, SD and I found a new one sitting in their gun rack. It was still in the gun rack during our return trip, and I brought it home.
I switched out the 20MOA Picatinny rail for regular Ruger rings to give me more finger space when loading single cartridges on the bench.
I tested the trigger and found the pull to be stiffer than I like at about 5 lbs.
Some internet searches revealed that although the Ruger LC6 trigger isn't bad, it does come with a stiff trigger spring. I searched for aftermarket (and Ruger) replacement parts and didn't come up with too much.
Timney makes a replacement trigger kit, but some fitting may be required: https://timneytriggers.com/trigger-upgrade-for-the-ruger-m77-mkii/
RifleBasix also makes a Ruger M77 replacement trigger kit: https://riflebasix.com/product/ruger-markii-m77-trigger-ru-mk-ll/
However, since my trigger felt OK except for the pull weight I didn't want to spend the money for a trigger replacement kit and went looking for just spring replacements. Again, there wasn't a lot of choices.
Ernie the Gunsmith has one but there is no phone number that I could find on his website: http://erniethegunsmith.com/store/-...Spring---CLICK-PHOTO-FOR-DETAILS---p356433257
M*CARBO has a spring that comes with other things in a kit: https://www.mcarbo.com/ruger-77-22-trigger-adjustment-spring-kit.aspx
But I didn't want to spend $20 just for a single spring.
I decided to take the stock off and look at the trigger. When I did I discovered a burr on the breaking edge of where the trigger engages the sear. I took the trigger and spring down to my gunsmith and asked him if it would be safe/wise to remove the burr. He agreed and very gently stoned off the rough burr. He also gave me a couple pieces of spring stock he had to try to make a replacement spring.
I put the deburred trigger back in the rifle and found that it had made a difference. The pull weight was down to about 4-1/4 to 4-1/2 lbs and still broke cleanly. However, the pull weight was still too high for my liking.
As I was looking at the Ruger LC6 trigger spring I realized it looked just like the trigger springs in the Remington models 1100, 870, and11-87 shotguns. When I used to shoot A LOT of (competitive) skeet and trap back in the 1970's and 1980's I used to rework all the triggers in my shotguns. Sometimes I replaced the triggers with a complete Timney trigger, and sometimes I would replace the springs, and sometimes I would adjust the spring by over compressing it.
Then I remembered that I used to get complete spring kits for the Rem. shotguns which had numerous springs of varying weights. I couldn't remember if I got the spring kits from Timney, or from Brownells, or from specialty skeet and trap shooting vendors. I wondered if I could find those springs kits I used to have.
It took me two days to find two packages of the assorted weight springs. BINGO – the springs were the size, and shape, and approximate pull weights, of the Ruger LC6 spring.
I had obviously used some of them from one package since most of the remaining ones were all the same (original Rem. Springs). However, the other package appeared to be a complete set.
Included in the complete set was an instruction sheet. It even tells how to fine tune a spring by slightly stretching it or slightly compressing it. However, there was nothing on the instruction sheet to indicate where I had gotten the spring set. My apologies for plagiarism but I don't know who to acknowledge.
Next, I set about to tune a spring for my new Ruger. I found a safe way to carefully stretch a spring uniformly (without distorting it) and how to control shortening a spring.
To slightly lengthen a spring, I used Allen hex wrenches to wedge between the coils of the spring. I could “chase” the Allen hex wrench along the coils uniformly spreading them just a tad. This makes a spring feel stiffer in the rifle.
To slightly shorten a spring (to make it feel lighter in the rifle) I placed it in the jaws of a vernier caliper and compressed it, noting the reading of the caliper. You keep trying shorter and shorter readings until you finally find that the uncompressed spring is slightly shorter. It only takes a few thousands of an inch to make a change.
For example I ended up using the original spring from the Ruger. As it came from the factory it was approximately 5/8” (0.625”) long and gave me a trigger pull of about 4-1/2 to 4-3/4 lbs. I shortened it to about 0.575” and ended up with a trigger pull of 2-1/4 lbs. Then I stretched it to 0.585” and got a pull weight of about 3-1/4lbs. Finally, I shortened it again to about 0.582” and ended up with a pull weight of just under 3 lbs. (44-46 oz.) I think I had to compress the spring to a caliper reading of 0.350" to get the spring's relaxed length to change from 0.585 to 0.582.
Curious if a person could still purchase spring kits for Rem. shotguns, I did an internet search and found this: https://lumleyarms.us/remington-7600-7615-870-1100-trigger-spring-kit
A large number of Remington shotguns and rifles are listed as matches for these springs.
Also, these springs fit the Ruger LC6 (and probably other versions) trigger.
This seems like a “must have” for the tinkering gun owner.
Dan
I found this one advertised on the internet by Ruger: https://www.ruger.com/products/HawkeyeHunter/specSheets/57120.html
During our trip to trip to Montana we stopped in the SODAK gun shop in Mitchell, SD and I found a new one sitting in their gun rack. It was still in the gun rack during our return trip, and I brought it home.
I switched out the 20MOA Picatinny rail for regular Ruger rings to give me more finger space when loading single cartridges on the bench.
I tested the trigger and found the pull to be stiffer than I like at about 5 lbs.
Some internet searches revealed that although the Ruger LC6 trigger isn't bad, it does come with a stiff trigger spring. I searched for aftermarket (and Ruger) replacement parts and didn't come up with too much.
Timney makes a replacement trigger kit, but some fitting may be required: https://timneytriggers.com/trigger-upgrade-for-the-ruger-m77-mkii/
RifleBasix also makes a Ruger M77 replacement trigger kit: https://riflebasix.com/product/ruger-markii-m77-trigger-ru-mk-ll/
However, since my trigger felt OK except for the pull weight I didn't want to spend the money for a trigger replacement kit and went looking for just spring replacements. Again, there wasn't a lot of choices.
Ernie the Gunsmith has one but there is no phone number that I could find on his website: http://erniethegunsmith.com/store/-...Spring---CLICK-PHOTO-FOR-DETAILS---p356433257
M*CARBO has a spring that comes with other things in a kit: https://www.mcarbo.com/ruger-77-22-trigger-adjustment-spring-kit.aspx
But I didn't want to spend $20 just for a single spring.
I decided to take the stock off and look at the trigger. When I did I discovered a burr on the breaking edge of where the trigger engages the sear. I took the trigger and spring down to my gunsmith and asked him if it would be safe/wise to remove the burr. He agreed and very gently stoned off the rough burr. He also gave me a couple pieces of spring stock he had to try to make a replacement spring.
I put the deburred trigger back in the rifle and found that it had made a difference. The pull weight was down to about 4-1/4 to 4-1/2 lbs and still broke cleanly. However, the pull weight was still too high for my liking.
As I was looking at the Ruger LC6 trigger spring I realized it looked just like the trigger springs in the Remington models 1100, 870, and11-87 shotguns. When I used to shoot A LOT of (competitive) skeet and trap back in the 1970's and 1980's I used to rework all the triggers in my shotguns. Sometimes I replaced the triggers with a complete Timney trigger, and sometimes I would replace the springs, and sometimes I would adjust the spring by over compressing it.
Then I remembered that I used to get complete spring kits for the Rem. shotguns which had numerous springs of varying weights. I couldn't remember if I got the spring kits from Timney, or from Brownells, or from specialty skeet and trap shooting vendors. I wondered if I could find those springs kits I used to have.
It took me two days to find two packages of the assorted weight springs. BINGO – the springs were the size, and shape, and approximate pull weights, of the Ruger LC6 spring.
I had obviously used some of them from one package since most of the remaining ones were all the same (original Rem. Springs). However, the other package appeared to be a complete set.
Included in the complete set was an instruction sheet. It even tells how to fine tune a spring by slightly stretching it or slightly compressing it. However, there was nothing on the instruction sheet to indicate where I had gotten the spring set. My apologies for plagiarism but I don't know who to acknowledge.
Next, I set about to tune a spring for my new Ruger. I found a safe way to carefully stretch a spring uniformly (without distorting it) and how to control shortening a spring.
To slightly lengthen a spring, I used Allen hex wrenches to wedge between the coils of the spring. I could “chase” the Allen hex wrench along the coils uniformly spreading them just a tad. This makes a spring feel stiffer in the rifle.
To slightly shorten a spring (to make it feel lighter in the rifle) I placed it in the jaws of a vernier caliper and compressed it, noting the reading of the caliper. You keep trying shorter and shorter readings until you finally find that the uncompressed spring is slightly shorter. It only takes a few thousands of an inch to make a change.
For example I ended up using the original spring from the Ruger. As it came from the factory it was approximately 5/8” (0.625”) long and gave me a trigger pull of about 4-1/2 to 4-3/4 lbs. I shortened it to about 0.575” and ended up with a trigger pull of 2-1/4 lbs. Then I stretched it to 0.585” and got a pull weight of about 3-1/4lbs. Finally, I shortened it again to about 0.582” and ended up with a pull weight of just under 3 lbs. (44-46 oz.) I think I had to compress the spring to a caliper reading of 0.350" to get the spring's relaxed length to change from 0.585 to 0.582.
Curious if a person could still purchase spring kits for Rem. shotguns, I did an internet search and found this: https://lumleyarms.us/remington-7600-7615-870-1100-trigger-spring-kit
A large number of Remington shotguns and rifles are listed as matches for these springs.
Also, these springs fit the Ruger LC6 (and probably other versions) trigger.
This seems like a “must have” for the tinkering gun owner.
Dan
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