Gunsmithing Savage Timney Trigger pull weight issues

[NMguy]

I recently installed a Timney trigger on my sons Stevens 200. With the rifle empty the trigger pull is set at 3 lbs (he's 12 so we will lighten up later) but when there is a round in the chamber it goes to almost 6 lbs. Why is this happening?

 

[gnochi]

That’s weird.

All I can think of is a severely non-concentric chamber or off-axis barrel threads causing a lot of additional force to be added to the trigger sear - the floating bolt head aligns the firing pin, which can float to push against the cocking piece, which pushes against the bolt release/sear, which pushes against the trigger.

Did you encounter this with the original trigger? Is this the original barrel? Can you take a bunch of pictures of the barreled action?

 

[NMguy]

It is a new Criterion barrel and a new Timney trigger 631 I think? Rifle shoots great but we went through this on a remington a while back and replaced the trigger and it is fine now but this is a totally different mechanism. Crazy thing is after replacing the barrel the crosshairs were one click off up down and two left right (not that it has anything to do with anything just interesting.) I will call Timney and see what they say as well. It definitly seems like something would have to be binding when there is a case in the chamber, though you can't feel anything?

 

[NMguy]

Come to find out we had installed a new "higher" safety and as we cycled the bolt it would push the safety to an almost on position which would cause the trigger pull weight to go up. We will have to file it down a bit so the bolt will clear.

 

[stangfish]

Sounds right. I have no idea what gnochi was trying to imply......