This update is concerning probably the best rifle modification you can make - the trigger.
In the first post of the series, I reported that the trigger was a whopping 6 lbs, 6 oz., and a mile of creep - not good at all for a trainer or smallbore silhoutte shooter - or for that matter, any serious shooting.
Typically, I would purchase a replacement trigger for this rifle, either a rifle basix ($82.00 to $99.00 depending on where you look) or a sharp shooter supply trigger ($86.00). Keeping with the theme of a keeping to a "Low Budget", I thought I would try my hand at accomplishing an exceptable trigger weight with a low amount of creep. I also wanted to keep the modification simple, using simple tools, that anyone could perform, at low cost.
SAFETY FIRST - remove magazine, make sure the chamber is clear.
First, I removed the receiver / barrel from the stock, removed the bolt, and got familiar with the mechanical workings of the trigger. I took pictures, made drawings, took notes,(not only for this post but to remember what i did in every step, especially during the disassembly of the trigger assembly). Especially important if you are not familiar with working on your own stuff.
bolt side view
bottom view
"clean side" view
front view
rear view
Loosen and remove the rear and front trigger assembly bolts, and just loosen the rear magazine bolt. Remove the trigger assembly from the receiver using an allen wrench. "Constrict" safety spring by lightly pinching it and lifting over pins. Remove the "E" retaining clips from the upper assembly and trigger pulling them off with needle nose pliers, push out the pins, one at a time, starting with the top. Be aware that the upper assembly will pop out some and the spring may get lost (perform all of this on an uncluter table top, even put a clean white sheet on the floor so as not to lose small parts).
Now disassembled, once again notice how it all goes back together, and the mechanical operation of it.
With no adjustment screws anywhere, I figured that if I I took the spring and clipped off a coil or two, it would reduce the pull weight. I started in 1/2 coil increments, reassembled everything, repeated three times (1/2 coil each time). This is about where I could actually start to feel a real difference, so I took it to the gun shop to get it measured. It came in at 5 lbs, 4 oz., and still alot of creep. I thought that 1.5 coils equaled a little more than 1 lb of difference, so I got a little more aggressive and took a full 1 additional coil off.
Fatal mistake - the bolt was slam firing, the spring became too light. Appears I'll be puchasing a replacement trigger.
Then it hit me....all I need is another spring. After looking around, the thought of using one from a retractable ball point pen may work. I took one apart, the spring was much fatter than the original, and wouldn't fit into the recess in the trigger used to cradle it. I put the trigger in a vice, protecting the sides with cardboard.
I had to make the factory 1/8 hole, a bit bigger for fit, starting with a drill and bit size of 9/64ths. I only went as deep as the factory depth, and then went to the larger 11/64ths bit. this was to ensure I didn't over size the hole, and ruin the entire mechanism. I then rounded the edges by hand sanding the hole a little larger so that the spring can fit and operate smoothly and unhindered by burrs. I also lightly sanded the whole upper and lower assembly to get trid of the gritty feel. Don't sand too much, just enough to smooth surfaces from machine marks.
As not to repeat the same mistake as what happened to the factory spring (of which I later determined that there is just not enough of the factory spring to achieve a satisfactory weight reduction), I started the ball point pen spring trimmed to 10 coils, and kept reducing it only by a quarter coil at a time. Install the "cut" end of the spring into the recess, leaving the flatter untouched end pointed out. After much trimming, reassembling, disassembling and trimming again, I came to a point where the pull appeared to be acceptable. At 7 coils, it was 4 lbs, but eventually at 6.25 coils was 2lbs, 12 oz. I wanted to get to just above 2 lbs. (2lb. min weight for silhoutte hunter class), however in light of safety and unknowns if the trigger would stay resiliant, I left the spring length as is, and the poundage at 2lbs. 12 oz., but still plenty of creep.
I had spent the last week coming up with some sort of solution, including shimming the trigger assembly with washers. I concluded that the creep is being caused by the top tongue that pertrudes throught the receiver and engages the bolt. The further away I can get this part lowered from the bolt, the less it has to engage the bolt, and lowering the creep or the distance it has to travel to drop the firing pin.
Usually, the washer approach produced too much lowering, which either caused the trigger not to work, cause slam fires, or have the bolt pulled directly out of the receiver (no bolt stop engaging on the tongue). I needed a way to consistantly measure and adjust the amout of shim used.
I used a sparkplug feeler gauge, to see if the measured thickness would work, and hot dog it did. I then took diagnal clippers to cut small rectangular shims to get the proper shim thickness. Two .010 shims worked for for me perfectly, almost no creep to speak of. The shims where put between the main trigger assembly and receiver, just in front of the rear mounting trigger assembly bolt. The feeler gauge is anywhere between $3.00 at Harbor Freight to $5.97 at Walmart. Naturally I bought the $3.00 one. Now I have a 2 lb. 12 oz. trigger with such a small amount of creep it's not even worth mentioning, for the cost of $3.00 and a ball point pen.
I took the whole thing apart again, to see how long it would take now that I have some direction on where to start, and to make sure it was a repeatable process and that I just didn't get lucky. It is repeatable and took little under 1.5 hours.
I did a few safety tests. After putting it in battery dropping the rifle on it's butt on a rubber mat from 2.5 feet several times, no discharge, with the safety on and off. Tried as hard as I could to have a slam fire, none to report after many, many, cycles of the bolt.
Speaking of the safety, you can adjust the ease of applying the safety by slightly bending the safety spring more open (harder to operate) or closed (easier to operate).
Throughout the seemingly endless amount of assembling and disassembling, I noticed that the rear mounting bolt was starting to sink into the stock. I had put a washer under it. Not only does this stop the sinking, but also evens the amount of torque you put in one spot, so you can actually tighten the mounting bolts more without having to worry about damage to the stock.
You can also see in this bottom view, the amount of access to the bolt you have is increased by the stock mod I mentioned in an earlier post.
So to sum it up, I met my requirement for a safe, lower weight trigger between 2 and 3 lbs for silhoutte competition, yet lowered the factory "brick" to an acceptable accuracy inducing weight with not much creep to mention, and did it for the rediculously low price of $3.00, which fits into the low budget catagory quite well.
Is it a satisfactory substitute for a quality replacement trigger? Absolutely not. But it is good enough at this point to live with to save $80.00 to put towards other enhancements such as action bedding and perhaps a tactical styled oversized bolt knob.
THIS OPERATION $3.00 1.5 HOURS
RIFLE...............$127.00
BIPOD.................39.97
B. GROUND CHECK........5.00
SCOPE.................69.97
RINGS................. 9.47
ULTRA BLACK KRYLON.... 4.44
STUDS (2 packs)....... 9.98
CHEEKPIECE+RAIL.......42.00
SLING.................16.97
BASES(USED AS RAILS)...6.49
"CHEAP ACCESSORIES
MATERIALS"............15.00
FEELER GUAGE "SHIMS"...3.00
TAX...................20.06
= $369.35
OVERALL TIME = 34.5 HOURS
Another range report coming soon, to see the effects of a trigger job.
In the first post of the series, I reported that the trigger was a whopping 6 lbs, 6 oz., and a mile of creep - not good at all for a trainer or smallbore silhoutte shooter - or for that matter, any serious shooting.
Typically, I would purchase a replacement trigger for this rifle, either a rifle basix ($82.00 to $99.00 depending on where you look) or a sharp shooter supply trigger ($86.00). Keeping with the theme of a keeping to a "Low Budget", I thought I would try my hand at accomplishing an exceptable trigger weight with a low amount of creep. I also wanted to keep the modification simple, using simple tools, that anyone could perform, at low cost.
SAFETY FIRST - remove magazine, make sure the chamber is clear.
First, I removed the receiver / barrel from the stock, removed the bolt, and got familiar with the mechanical workings of the trigger. I took pictures, made drawings, took notes,(not only for this post but to remember what i did in every step, especially during the disassembly of the trigger assembly). Especially important if you are not familiar with working on your own stuff.
bolt side view
bottom view
"clean side" view
front view
rear view
Loosen and remove the rear and front trigger assembly bolts, and just loosen the rear magazine bolt. Remove the trigger assembly from the receiver using an allen wrench. "Constrict" safety spring by lightly pinching it and lifting over pins. Remove the "E" retaining clips from the upper assembly and trigger pulling them off with needle nose pliers, push out the pins, one at a time, starting with the top. Be aware that the upper assembly will pop out some and the spring may get lost (perform all of this on an uncluter table top, even put a clean white sheet on the floor so as not to lose small parts).
Now disassembled, once again notice how it all goes back together, and the mechanical operation of it.
With no adjustment screws anywhere, I figured that if I I took the spring and clipped off a coil or two, it would reduce the pull weight. I started in 1/2 coil increments, reassembled everything, repeated three times (1/2 coil each time). This is about where I could actually start to feel a real difference, so I took it to the gun shop to get it measured. It came in at 5 lbs, 4 oz., and still alot of creep. I thought that 1.5 coils equaled a little more than 1 lb of difference, so I got a little more aggressive and took a full 1 additional coil off.
Fatal mistake - the bolt was slam firing, the spring became too light. Appears I'll be puchasing a replacement trigger.
Then it hit me....all I need is another spring. After looking around, the thought of using one from a retractable ball point pen may work. I took one apart, the spring was much fatter than the original, and wouldn't fit into the recess in the trigger used to cradle it. I put the trigger in a vice, protecting the sides with cardboard.
I had to make the factory 1/8 hole, a bit bigger for fit, starting with a drill and bit size of 9/64ths. I only went as deep as the factory depth, and then went to the larger 11/64ths bit. this was to ensure I didn't over size the hole, and ruin the entire mechanism. I then rounded the edges by hand sanding the hole a little larger so that the spring can fit and operate smoothly and unhindered by burrs. I also lightly sanded the whole upper and lower assembly to get trid of the gritty feel. Don't sand too much, just enough to smooth surfaces from machine marks.
As not to repeat the same mistake as what happened to the factory spring (of which I later determined that there is just not enough of the factory spring to achieve a satisfactory weight reduction), I started the ball point pen spring trimmed to 10 coils, and kept reducing it only by a quarter coil at a time. Install the "cut" end of the spring into the recess, leaving the flatter untouched end pointed out. After much trimming, reassembling, disassembling and trimming again, I came to a point where the pull appeared to be acceptable. At 7 coils, it was 4 lbs, but eventually at 6.25 coils was 2lbs, 12 oz. I wanted to get to just above 2 lbs. (2lb. min weight for silhoutte hunter class), however in light of safety and unknowns if the trigger would stay resiliant, I left the spring length as is, and the poundage at 2lbs. 12 oz., but still plenty of creep.
I had spent the last week coming up with some sort of solution, including shimming the trigger assembly with washers. I concluded that the creep is being caused by the top tongue that pertrudes throught the receiver and engages the bolt. The further away I can get this part lowered from the bolt, the less it has to engage the bolt, and lowering the creep or the distance it has to travel to drop the firing pin.
Usually, the washer approach produced too much lowering, which either caused the trigger not to work, cause slam fires, or have the bolt pulled directly out of the receiver (no bolt stop engaging on the tongue). I needed a way to consistantly measure and adjust the amout of shim used.
I used a sparkplug feeler gauge, to see if the measured thickness would work, and hot dog it did. I then took diagnal clippers to cut small rectangular shims to get the proper shim thickness. Two .010 shims worked for for me perfectly, almost no creep to speak of. The shims where put between the main trigger assembly and receiver, just in front of the rear mounting trigger assembly bolt. The feeler gauge is anywhere between $3.00 at Harbor Freight to $5.97 at Walmart. Naturally I bought the $3.00 one. Now I have a 2 lb. 12 oz. trigger with such a small amount of creep it's not even worth mentioning, for the cost of $3.00 and a ball point pen.
I took the whole thing apart again, to see how long it would take now that I have some direction on where to start, and to make sure it was a repeatable process and that I just didn't get lucky. It is repeatable and took little under 1.5 hours.
I did a few safety tests. After putting it in battery dropping the rifle on it's butt on a rubber mat from 2.5 feet several times, no discharge, with the safety on and off. Tried as hard as I could to have a slam fire, none to report after many, many, cycles of the bolt.
Speaking of the safety, you can adjust the ease of applying the safety by slightly bending the safety spring more open (harder to operate) or closed (easier to operate).
Throughout the seemingly endless amount of assembling and disassembling, I noticed that the rear mounting bolt was starting to sink into the stock. I had put a washer under it. Not only does this stop the sinking, but also evens the amount of torque you put in one spot, so you can actually tighten the mounting bolts more without having to worry about damage to the stock.
You can also see in this bottom view, the amount of access to the bolt you have is increased by the stock mod I mentioned in an earlier post.
So to sum it up, I met my requirement for a safe, lower weight trigger between 2 and 3 lbs for silhoutte competition, yet lowered the factory "brick" to an acceptable accuracy inducing weight with not much creep to mention, and did it for the rediculously low price of $3.00, which fits into the low budget catagory quite well.
Is it a satisfactory substitute for a quality replacement trigger? Absolutely not. But it is good enough at this point to live with to save $80.00 to put towards other enhancements such as action bedding and perhaps a tactical styled oversized bolt knob.
THIS OPERATION $3.00 1.5 HOURS
RIFLE...............$127.00
BIPOD.................39.97
B. GROUND CHECK........5.00
SCOPE.................69.97
RINGS................. 9.47
ULTRA BLACK KRYLON.... 4.44
STUDS (2 packs)....... 9.98
CHEEKPIECE+RAIL.......42.00
SLING.................16.97
BASES(USED AS RAILS)...6.49
"CHEAP ACCESSORIES
MATERIALS"............15.00
FEELER GUAGE "SHIMS"...3.00
TAX...................20.06
= $369.35
OVERALL TIME = 34.5 HOURS
Another range report coming soon, to see the effects of a trigger job.
