Smoothing up a trigger system is harder than it used to be. More and more part restrictions are the reason. Here’s how to overcome them.

by Chick Blood

Remember the good old days? Used to happen every time a customer would walk in lugging a long gun and announcing it had a rough trigger. Knowing the correction wouldn’t demand countless man hours. I’d tell the lugger, “No huge problem,” and take in the job. Back then, I knew all I had to do was detail disassemble the firing system, slip on my Optivisor, locate the rough spots, smooth them away with fine and superfine polishing grits, air blow away any grit residue, lightly lube all internal parts, reassemble the system, and test fire.

That was then, when firing systems resembled the old locks in muzzle loaders and replacement parts for them were readily available. Fortunately, they still are. With the exception of replica black powder models, “back then” is making a beeline toward extinction. My first hint of this came my way quite a few years back with the introduction of owner-adjustable trigger pulls.

I get at least a dozen guns in from major manufacturers and importers every year for articles appearing here. Signs that “parts prohibition” was looming began showing up in the form of an epoxy-like material blocking any entry within the trigger housing. The blockage is most apparent with owner-adjustable trigger screws. The stuff doing the blocking is proprietary to the individual manufacturer. The same is true of the dollop of color announcing the presence of the blockage to all observers. Both these measures exhibit a visual alarm to factory service personnel that the firing system may have been tampered with beyond acceptable pull adjustments. By whom and when doesn’t matter. Some unknown has been foolish enough to believe overcoming these barriers and violating the integrity of a trigger mechanism are mere child’s play. They are not. And anything as easily perceived as damaged epoxy or a dollop of the wrong color risks cancellation of any warranty.

Read more in the March 2016 issue.

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