Scotty.

ShadeTree

Handloader
Mar 6, 2017
3,515
3,019
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.
 
Old trigger or the new MOA trigger? I always found the old trigger pretty easy to work on, the new MOA isn't bad either. I just ordered a new spring for my MOA trigger from Ernie the Gunsmith rather than clip down my old one though.
 
Old trigger. I could see nothing wrong with the rifle out of the stock and dry firing it while watching the trigger and sear. The trigger just pulled like a tank with the same spring adjustment that had it previously around 3 lbs or slightly under. After removing the trigger I still could see nothing wrong. It wasn't until I removed the sear that I could see and feel some corrosion and roughness on the sear pin, as well as see some corrosion in the pin hole in the sear, and at the base of the sear spring hole. The pull weight on this one is with a factory unaltered spring.
 
Good deal, glad you got it cleaned and lubed up. Hard to beat a 70 trigger.
 
They are pretty darn nice Scotty. No creep adjustment but they do a good job of keeping that to a minimum or virtually non existent. Simple to adjust over travel and pull weight on them and they are consistent at it once they're set.

The model 7 I have is fully adjustable on creep, over travel, and pull weight once you dig out the NASA approved concrete glue Remington puts in the adjustment screw holes to keep you out of there, but even though it's close to the same pull weight with very little creep or over travel and is in its own right a nice factory trigger, it just doesn't break as crisp as the model 70 by my feel. Difference in design I guess.
 
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