I recently purchased a Shilen trigger to replace my Rem 700P 40xLE trigger. I had already performed a trigger job on the 40x, and had a crisp, no creep, zero overtravel 2 1/2 pound pull. That was as low as I could get it and have it break at the same weight (+/- 1.5 oz) with every pull. I wanted to go lower than 2 1/2 lbs, so I decided to give the Shilen a try. Upon receiving the Shilen, I noted that the sear appears to be a hardened stainless steel, not plated like the Remington. Also, the trigger is a one piece design made of hardened steel. I was not impressed with the "polish" on the engagement surfaces. I went ahead and installed the Shilen, and checked pull weight and creep. My pull gauge gave me a reading of 1 1/2 lbs. There was no creep/over travel. Sweet! Next, I performed a function check. Without fail, when the bolt was operated quickly, the firing pin would de-cock, a.k.a. "slam fire". This is not good. I started to adjust the trigger. I added some over travel before adjusting engagement. I slowly began increasing the engagement, checking for "slam fires" after each incremental increase of engagement. There seemed to be no amount of sear engagement that would prevent the slam fires. Since I planned on setting this at 1 3/4 - 2 lbs, I decided to increase the pull weight. I had to increase to 2 1/4 lbs before the slam fires stopped. I still had a ridiculous amount of sear engagement, with a LOT of creep, so I adjusted the engagement back down. I had to play with all three adjustments and ended up with a 2 1/2 lb pull force, zero over travel, but way too much sear engagement and "creep". There was simply no other combination of adjustments that would either lower the pull weight, or reduce the creep, without the slam fires resurfacing. I was ready to give up on the Shilen, but before I did, I took everything apart, and checked engagement angles for the trigger and sear. With the naked eye, it was apparent that the sear/trigger do not have 90 degree engagement angles. The engagement angles were obviously cut to give a lower pull weight. Now, since I needed a reliable/safe trigger for the field with a good pull weight, etc., I would either have to re-install my 40x, or get to work cutting new engagement angles for the sear and trigger. I started with the sear. For this, I used a simple jig that gives me a 90 degree engagement angle. This took a lot of time/patience, but I got the sear done. Before working on the trigger, I decided to see if the Shilen sear would work with my 40x trigger. It just so happened to fit perfectly, and I didn't need to adjust anything on the 40x. This yielded a 1/4 pound drop in pull weight to 2 1/4 pounds, with no creep or overtravel. Good enough for me, I thought, so I put the 40x back in. Later, I got the hair brained Idea to start again on the Shilen trigger. One reason I didn't do this before, was that I could see I would have to cut away a lot of material before the trigger would be squared up. Since I already had a workable trigger, I wasn't too worried about mucking up the Shilen trigger, so I used a dremmel to do the cutting, taking care not to actually cut the engagement surface. It wasn't pretty, but It worked. I finished squaring the trigger by hand stoning. I re-assembled the Shilen with all it's original and re-stoned parts. I started with the adjustments and safety checks. Now all the adjustments went much easier. I only had to set the engagement, and overtravel once. I noted the pull weight was 1 3/4 lbs. There was no creep or over-travel. The slam fires were gone. It passed all my other additional safety checks. I went ahead and increased the pull weight to 2 lbs, and put lock tite on all the screws. The only disappointing thing about how this came out is that the pull weight varies +/- 1.5 oz., just like my 40x did.
Now, had I known all that I would have to do to get to my end result, would I have ordered the Shilen? Probably not, but If you have one with creep, or slam fires, you may be able to salvage it, as I did mine...
Now, had I known all that I would have to do to get to my end result, would I have ordered the Shilen? Probably not, but If you have one with creep, or slam fires, you may be able to salvage it, as I did mine...
