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Trigger Re-do
I originally did the trigger job on my 10/22 about 18 years ago. I took my time, re-cutting the angle on the hammer to about 3-4 degrees and cut the sear to match. I also added a trigger stop to the trigger guard. The result was a pretty clean breaking trigger, with a 2-1/4 lb pull, and very little take-up, which I always planned on eliminating at some point. Well 30k+ rounds later, I still haven’t done anything about it, but all of these threads on triggers, trigger groups, etc. finally got to me, so I decided to re-do my trigger this weekend.
When I pulled the trigger group apart, the first thing I noticed is that it still looked great, with no real wear on the hammer and sear. I patted myself on the back for a job well done way back then; the cuts on the hammer and sear produced no discernable movement of the hammer until the break, indicating the angle cuts were good, so I wouldn’t need to change them. At that time, the finest grade of sand paper you could get in the big box stores was 600 grit, so I decided to smooth out all the contact points with 1000 grit which is common now (starting at 240 for parts that I never polished, and 800 for parts that I had already hit with 600). I decided to shoot for a clean 2 lb pull, so I started by polishing all contact points on the hammer, sear, and disconnector that rub against each other when the trigger resets, since I planned on clipping a coil or two off of the trigger return spring. I also polished and radiused the trigger return plunger.
Left to right, sear with portion above the engagement area polished. This is where the bottom of the hammer rides while cycling, before resetting. Next is the disconnector, installed in the trigger. The top is polished, but I really only needed to polish the front portion where the hammer touches it to disconnect from the sear. On the right is the trigger return plunger that I buffed and radiused, so it can travel smoothly in the hole in the trigger guard, and against the trigger itself. Further over is the trigger return spring, which I clipped three quarters of a coil off of.
Both the hammer and sear looked exactly like they did when I first did the trigger job, but I could see exactly where they engaged by the clean edge along the hammer’s sear notch. I clamped both in my vise and gave them 3 or 4 passes with my trigger/sear stone. I used the same India stone on all of my trigger jobs, which was fine at the time, but there are some really fine ceramic stones on Brownell’s now that I’ve been eying that would give an ultra-high polish for the lighter pull I’m using. $30 a pop for the gray and white stones, so I’m still deciding, but I know if I get them, I’ll be redoing more than my 10/22 trigger.
Upper left is the hammer face that rides against the bolt, polished for smoother cycling. Upper right is the bottom of the hammer, which rides on the sear when resetting. Lower left and right are the engagement areas of the sear and hammer, before hitting them lightly with the stone. If I get the ceramic stones, I’ll polish these further.
This is the bolt radius, where the hammer rides when cycling, polished to 1000 grit.
Finally, to eliminate the take-up, I decided to try to JB Weld trick on the sear the eliminate the slop. If it worked, I would later remove the JB Weld, and hit that part of the sear with a blob of silver solder, then do the same mod with something more permanent.
This is the blob of JB Weld that I applied to the sear after roughing it up with my fine trigger/sear file. I reshaped the blob with 800 grit until the disconnector would reset, and then gave it another 4 or 5 passes. This eliminated 80% of the take-up that I’ve been living with all of these years. I doubt most people would have noticed the take-up before I did this, but I think I’ve grown ultra sensitive to it, so I needed to address it.
Results: The take-up is basically eliminated. The only thing that might make it even better would be to replace the hammer, trigger, and disconnector pins with oversized stainless pins, which I haven’t been able to locate. Some forums mention Kidd pins, but I haven’t seen them on their website, and suspect that may be on purpose. I may need to fabricate them from drill bit stock, if I can find it with the right specs. Measuring the pull with my trusty coat hanger, plastic water jug, turkey baster, digital scale and water method, the trigger breaks at 31 ounce, plus or minus a quarter ounce, averaged over 10 pulls. Very consistent.
Next steps: 1) Re-do the JB Weld mod with silver solder, which will be a permanent fix. 2) Bite the bullet and get either one or both of the finer ceramic hammer/sear stones to give the engagement surfaces an ultra smooth finish. I’m guessing this may take another ounce or so off of the pull weight. 3) Locate or make tighter tolerance hammer, sear, and disconnector pins. This might require some minor adjustments to the hammer and sear if the tighter tolerances change the angles at all.
This is the best video I’ve seen that shows exactly how all of the trigger group parts work together. If you go to about the 16 minute point, you can really see how the slop between the disconnector and the sear causes the trigger take-up. The JB Weld trick eliminates that slop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ks6...ature=youtu.be
When I pulled the trigger group apart, the first thing I noticed is that it still looked great, with no real wear on the hammer and sear. I patted myself on the back for a job well done way back then; the cuts on the hammer and sear produced no discernable movement of the hammer until the break, indicating the angle cuts were good, so I wouldn’t need to change them. At that time, the finest grade of sand paper you could get in the big box stores was 600 grit, so I decided to smooth out all the contact points with 1000 grit which is common now (starting at 240 for parts that I never polished, and 800 for parts that I had already hit with 600). I decided to shoot for a clean 2 lb pull, so I started by polishing all contact points on the hammer, sear, and disconnector that rub against each other when the trigger resets, since I planned on clipping a coil or two off of the trigger return spring. I also polished and radiused the trigger return plunger.
Left to right, sear with portion above the engagement area polished. This is where the bottom of the hammer rides while cycling, before resetting. Next is the disconnector, installed in the trigger. The top is polished, but I really only needed to polish the front portion where the hammer touches it to disconnect from the sear. On the right is the trigger return plunger that I buffed and radiused, so it can travel smoothly in the hole in the trigger guard, and against the trigger itself. Further over is the trigger return spring, which I clipped three quarters of a coil off of.
Both the hammer and sear looked exactly like they did when I first did the trigger job, but I could see exactly where they engaged by the clean edge along the hammer’s sear notch. I clamped both in my vise and gave them 3 or 4 passes with my trigger/sear stone. I used the same India stone on all of my trigger jobs, which was fine at the time, but there are some really fine ceramic stones on Brownell’s now that I’ve been eying that would give an ultra-high polish for the lighter pull I’m using. $30 a pop for the gray and white stones, so I’m still deciding, but I know if I get them, I’ll be redoing more than my 10/22 trigger.
Upper left is the hammer face that rides against the bolt, polished for smoother cycling. Upper right is the bottom of the hammer, which rides on the sear when resetting. Lower left and right are the engagement areas of the sear and hammer, before hitting them lightly with the stone. If I get the ceramic stones, I’ll polish these further.
This is the bolt radius, where the hammer rides when cycling, polished to 1000 grit.
Finally, to eliminate the take-up, I decided to try to JB Weld trick on the sear the eliminate the slop. If it worked, I would later remove the JB Weld, and hit that part of the sear with a blob of silver solder, then do the same mod with something more permanent.
This is the blob of JB Weld that I applied to the sear after roughing it up with my fine trigger/sear file. I reshaped the blob with 800 grit until the disconnector would reset, and then gave it another 4 or 5 passes. This eliminated 80% of the take-up that I’ve been living with all of these years. I doubt most people would have noticed the take-up before I did this, but I think I’ve grown ultra sensitive to it, so I needed to address it.
Results: The take-up is basically eliminated. The only thing that might make it even better would be to replace the hammer, trigger, and disconnector pins with oversized stainless pins, which I haven’t been able to locate. Some forums mention Kidd pins, but I haven’t seen them on their website, and suspect that may be on purpose. I may need to fabricate them from drill bit stock, if I can find it with the right specs. Measuring the pull with my trusty coat hanger, plastic water jug, turkey baster, digital scale and water method, the trigger breaks at 31 ounce, plus or minus a quarter ounce, averaged over 10 pulls. Very consistent.
Next steps: 1) Re-do the JB Weld mod with silver solder, which will be a permanent fix. 2) Bite the bullet and get either one or both of the finer ceramic hammer/sear stones to give the engagement surfaces an ultra smooth finish. I’m guessing this may take another ounce or so off of the pull weight. 3) Locate or make tighter tolerance hammer, sear, and disconnector pins. This might require some minor adjustments to the hammer and sear if the tighter tolerances change the angles at all.
This is the best video I’ve seen that shows exactly how all of the trigger group parts work together. If you go to about the 16 minute point, you can really see how the slop between the disconnector and the sear causes the trigger take-up. The JB Weld trick eliminates that slop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ks6...ature=youtu.be
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