Tips to help trigger pull on a winchester 190

[amishfarmer]

I bought a consignment winchester 190 for my 9yo daughter and got it cleaned up yesterday and was teaching her about it. Showed her how to load it with some snap caps and was trying to show her how it operates. She was having a hard time pulling the trigger back far enough. The stock is a bit long for her, and the trigger does feel heavy but not impossible to me, but i'm a 39 yo man. Is there any tricks to lightening the trigger in this rifle? Doesn't have to be much, just enough where she can squeeze it. Otherwise I'll just wait for her to get a little older and stronger, and I'll shoot it in the meantime. lol

[oilcanhenry]

I bought a consignment winchester 190 for my 9yo daughter and got it cleaned up yesterday and was teaching her about it. Showed her how to load it with some snap caps and was trying to show her how it operates. She was having a hard time pulling the trigger back far enough. The stock is a bit long for her, and the trigger does feel heavy but not impossible to me, but i'm a 39 yo man. Is there any tricks to lightening the trigger in this rifle? Doesn't have to be much, just enough where she can squeeze it. Otherwise I'll just wait for her to get a little older and stronger, and I'll shoot it in the meantime. lol

The Winchester 190 hasn't been produced for over 30 years, so there isn't a lot of interest in them, although I think they were fine .22 rifles.

I am not sure there is much you can do to lighten up the trigger. I never found the 290 to have a bad trigger pull and it was quite accurate. The 190 is nothing but a 290 without a walnut stock. All the internals are exactly the same. Perhaps someone here with more knowledge can help you out.

[alpha_romeo_XV]

I've got a trigger pull gauge and will measure the pull weight on my Win 190 when this evening after work, and reply what it reads.

A caveat, I've got a couple of rimfire rifles with very light triggers e.g. 2 lbs. Even shooting them off the bench it is too light for a new shooter. Shooting off hand with a hair trigger would not be a good combination for a 9 y/o new shooter.

[amishfarmer]

I've got a trigger pull gauge and will measure the pull weight on my Win 190 when this evening after work, and reply what it reads.

A caveat, I've got a couple of rimfire rifles with very light triggers e.g. 2 lbs. Even shooting them off the bench it is too light for a new shooter. Shooting off hand with a hair trigger would not be a good combination for a 9 y/o new shooter.

I agree 100% I'm not looking to make it super light. I just want to lighten it so she can shoot it. I've been reading around on line and they do tend to get dirty and if it's been sitting dirty for who-knows-how long usually a good cleaning/soak will help. But it seems most of them always had a pull around 10#'s. Not sure where mine is, I might have to invest in a tigger pull gauge and see. It feels fine to me but I shoot my Mosin alot and i"m much older than her so I don't notice it.
Please let me know what you find out. I'm going to spray the ever loving crap out of it the trigger group with some carb cleaner and soak it in Hoppes cleaner upside down and see if that helps get the gunk out and maybe loosen the trigger.

[amishfarmer]

The Winchester 190 hasn't been produced for over 30 years, so there isn't a lot of interest in them, although I think they were fine .22 rifles.

I am not sure there is much you can do to lighten up the trigger. I never found the 290 to have a bad trigger pull and it was quite accurate. The 190 is nothing but a 290 without a walnut stock. All the internals are exactly the same. Perhaps someone here with more knowledge can help you out.

Well that was kinda the novelty of it. This winchester gets to help teach young shooters again. I don't know the history of the rifle but it was in good shape a the stock only had a few signs of wear and marks consistent with bench shooting and sitting in a cabinet. It was really dirty with alot of unspent powder in it(common for rimfire) but I'm happy to find it. I might need to find a shorter stock for it even tho my daughter is tall for her age the LOP is a bit long for her. I don't want to cut it down cause then it ruins the original stock.

[oilcanhenry]

I agree 100% I'm not looking to make it super light. I just want to lighten it so she can shoot it. I've been reading around on line and they do tend to get dirty and if it's been sitting dirty for who-knows-how long usually a good cleaning/soak will help. But it seems most of them always had a pull around 10#'s. Not sure where mine is, I might have to invest in a tigger pull gauge and see. It feels fine to me but I shoot my Mosin alot and i"m much older than her so I don't notice it.
Please let me know what you find out. I'm going to spray the ever loving crap out of it the trigger group with some carb cleaner and soak it in Hoppes cleaner upside down and see if that helps get the gunk out and maybe loosen the trigger.

The 190/290 series semiautomatic rifles could get real dirty and still fire. I used to shoot brick after brick of Winchester Wildcat .22 LR ammo through mine, before it complained.

I'd soak the trigger group in petroleum solvent, brush all he crap out of the receiver and the barrel, oil it back up with WD-40 and it was good for 10,000 more rounds of cheap, dirty Wildcat non-copper plated lead ammo.

Some people say the barrel castle nut gets loose but it never did with my Win. 290. As many rounds that I shot through that great rifle, it should have.

[amishfarmer]

So I was out of Carb cleaner(of course) and I wasn't feeling well so I didn't want to drive and the wife had bowling so I used wd40 then I soaked it in some Hoppes cleaner and oiled it up and put it back in the rifle. It feels lighter to me. I'll have to wait and see what the kiddo thinks.
I didn't know it had shiny parts in the trigger group!!!

[oilcanhenry]

So I was out of Carb cleaner(of course) and I wasn't feeling well so I didn't want to drive and the wife had bowling so I used wd40 then I soaked it in some Hoppes cleaner and oiled it up and put it back in the rifle. It feels lighter to me. I'll have to wait and see what the kiddo thinks.
I didn't know it had shiny parts in the trigger group!!!

It will have if you use it enough. Half the time I'd pull the trigger group, shoot some WD-40 on the bolt, shoot some in the chamber, hose down the trigger group with WD-40 and my 290 was good to go. Well I was a young man back
then!

[alpha_romeo_XV]

OK, it took me longer than expected to get to it, but I pulled my 190 out the safe and using a Lyman trigger pull gauge it did read pretty darn high at 12 lbs. So the good news is that for an auto loader, nobody is going to pull a second shot without meaning to do so.

I could list what some of my other rimfire rifles pull to with their factory triggers - Marlin, Savage, Ruger but let's just say they're well below 12 lbs.

Because of it's simple iron sights, I used the Win 190 standing offhand and it wasn't an issue for me/grown man to pull 12 lbs. trying to hit a 3" steel gong at 50 yds or a 6" gong at 100 yds, making noise about half the shots.

[bohoki]

i got the lever action version and its not really user servicible its a bit weird since the trigger pull is not really to the rear but it levers up maybe she needs to choke up and pull the very top of the trigger not the bottom hook

[amishfarmer]

I had her try it over the weekend and she was able to pull it back pretty easy. So now I just gotta take it out and run a few rounds through it and make sure there's no live fire issues with it, then out to a range for Daddy/Daughter shooting.

[6mmintl]

Easiest way to reduce weight a little is to put moly paste ( engine Assy lube at autto parts store) on trigger sear, Springs, wear/parts rubbing areas.