Here's the official method, complete with a diagram.

 

Did the illustration come out of a book of somekind?  Ive been wanting to get the How to accuraize a enfield rifle book ever since i saw it on the net a few weeks ago.  Did this come from that book?

 

Aif

 

:D
Aif

 

 

Aif

 

 

The #4 Mk1* Long Branch has a pull of 5lb 12 oz. but has less creep and it appears that the amount of engagement is less on this gun.  IE the Bent is not as far up the sear as it is on the other gun.

 

Also the MK1 had a substantial groove in the sear face of the original cocking piece, no doubt from the Mad Minute drill. The replacement part was new, but I still buffed it to a mirror finish anyway.  I used silicone grease on these parts as they do slide against each other.

 

After reading Shamu's instructions on modding the trigger I can see how the engagement can be altered slightly.  I might do this someday when I am bored.

 

Another way I prefer to look at this subject is,,, if the let off is crisp and the creep is minimal you can learn the trigger.  Every gun is different, and that is to be expected. Every gun I own and shoot frequently must be approached from a "what does it take to get a proper surprise break with this gun," mentality, everytime I shoot it.  This usually takes 1-2 shots to refresh my memory as to what works with the gun I'm holding.

 

I think a 5-6 lb. trigger on one of these guns being used in the field as a hunting rifle is entirely appropriate, as long as it is a clean let off. On a gun that might get dropped or be used as a walking stick ultimately safety is more important that a light perfect trigger break.  As long as the trigger is a reliable one, down in the 3-4 lb. range would be as low as I would go for a field gun.

 

I have a friend who is a big time bench rest shooter. he let me dry fire his gun and the trigger is about 2-3 oz and I literally had to touch it 10 times before I could get a let off when I wanted it. However that gun is only fired at a bench at targets so the trigger is appropriate for it.  As a hunting rifle, even a Varmint Rifle, you would negligent discharge every shot for sure.

 

Sometimes you gotta run what you brung.

 

Trigger work in my opinion is a place where you have to know when to quit. It is not a case where more is necessarily better and safety should be your main concern.

 

I installed a Dayton Traistor Trigger in my Swedish Mauser.  I ahd to fool with it a lot to get it to where it didn't fire when the safety was released.  If you pulled the trigger when the safety was on it would not reset as the safety was not lifting the striker far enough off the sear to allow it to reset.  I finally got it to work right and congratulated myself and put it aside.

 

Well,,, a few days ago I picked up and decided to try and see how fast I could run the bolt.

 

It fired everytime I closed the bolt!

 

It will be replaced with a Timney.

 

Randy

The beauty of the WWI Bolt Action Rifle is definitely in the simplicity of the designs.  The Mauser, Nagant, Enfield, Springfield, and 1917's  all had this simplicity built in.

 

Randy

 

Engage and disengage safety with it cocked.  It should stay cocked. Then drop butt to the floor and see what happens.

a 3-4lb pull if all is smooth is no problem, but yours may be OK. just test it fairly severely To Be Sure. 

 

Best,

R.

Absolutely!

I made a custom Rem 700 LR rifle a while back. Custom stock, Shillen "phone pole" 24" BBL Timmey trigger, Tubb alloy firing pin, al the "super-acurate" goodies & so on.

It regularly shot 1/3 MOA with hand-loads @ 300yds. (I went nukkin futs trying to get 1/4 MOA!).

When I had it "just right" I checked the trigger pull, mainly because I was concerned it might be "too light".

It was 3 1/4 Lbs! (But so smooth it felt like about 1 3/4!) it was the classic "like a glass rod breaking".

Smooth is better than light IMO.

I like that rifle Shamu. Is it in .308?

Would love to try out something like that at long range.

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Actually that's a variation on a factory technique! (scary as it may sound). The factory had a special tool you could make which "split" the rear of the frame, peeling a small "finger" down to achieve the same result.

Its not the engaging (rear) surface, you can polish that too, but what it does is slightly lower the engagement between the sear's upper bent where it contacts the front of the cocking pieces bent. Done properly its safe, but the amount you have to drag the sear over the face is reduced so reducing "creep" in second pull.

Instead of bending the receiver lip down he's adding metal to the top of the sear arm.

Another common related and connected problem found is the sear tip dragging or clipping the under lug on the bolt as it passes. I have seen instances of the under lug filed down to give clearance. I did see armourer's notes about removing material from the lug, but only a minimal amount.

As the body wears, it allows the sear to sit at rest higher and higher until the tip starts to touch the lug as it goes by. The fix is to use the handy dandy tool as your diagrams show, the tool pretty well locates itself and a whack with a hammer upsets material where the sear rests against the receiver body. Armourer's notes says that this can only be done once, then the body is scrap.

I get exactly the the same result using my pet center punch. I put a pair of punched dots approx 1/16 inch from the edge of the body down inside the gallery. The punch marks are enough to displace material to lower the sear. If not, tap, tap, tap to make the punch marks deeper displacing more metal. There is fine window of adjustment between the sear tip sitting nicely to the bent's edge and clearance to the under lug. 

I have found that often with reworked and 'adjusted' cocking pieces, a happy medium cannot be found. Too easy to try to fix one thing and screw up another. I have had much practice in screwing things up. However, I do learn from my mistakes. I screw up less as I get practice.

I have learnt that if and when I inspecting a cocking piece for selection for a project, if it has anything other than the original factory grind on the bent, I pass on it. A slight wear mark is fine, but no improvement with a stone thanks.  Not worth the headache, the result is always a disappointment.

Too many people think that they know what they are doing and f*** things up with triggers and sears. I spend a lot of time undoing others' 'improved trigger pull'. Invariably I end restoring proper function by changing out modified parts for untouched ones to get things working as they should.

Junk rifles get stripped and sold off as parts. Lots of buggered sears and cocking pieces for sale on ebay. I can tell just by looking at pics, or, by the lack of pics. Caveat emptor.

Yeah its a subtle thing. but if done properly it worked. The weld dot is a different way of doing the same thing though you can put on  a dab & stone back to fine tune with some "Dykem"to show engagement on the sear face.

Also I guess I have some misunderstanding on the names of the parts.

What I have found on my guns is that the sear on the cocking piece always seems to have a little groove in it where the Bent engages it as the bolt is closed, or more properly Slammed shut during reloading. This needs to be stoned out.

The Angle of the Sear is such that as the bent slides down towards release it actually pushes the cocking piece rearward.  I don't think this was done on purpose but is just the product of the tip of the Bent moving thru an Arc due to being pivoted around a fixed point. Instead it proved to be an important safety feature. 

Changing the angle of the Sear would be unsafe IHMO as that resistance of the cocking piece moving to the rear prevents the Bent from inadvertently sliding off the sear and firing if mis-handled, which happens frequently in the Trenches of a Battlefield.

Both my guns have a trigger pull which is right at 6 lbs with about a 1/16th to 1/8th" of creep. The point in the creep just before let off is easily learned. We call it Slack Plus and then bang.

The "6 lbs" part is mostly due to the power of the Striker spring not the mechanics of the trigger system. If you want to reduce the trigger pull weight the easiest way is to install a weaker Striker Spring.  Wolf Springs from Brownell's probably has something.

I have found that a little dab of some Moly Grease on the sear face and on the bumps of the trigger itself works wonders on the smoothness of the trigger on these rifles.

My personal opinion is that trying to radically improve the Trigger pull on these guns is similar to improving the trigger on a 12th Century Crossbow, as this mechanism is about one click above that in sophistication.

My .02

Randy

The upper bent (arm) of the sear (the "V" shaped thing) rests about 3/16" up the front face of the cocking piece (the flat bit at the back of the bolt.)

By stopping the sear rotating 100% bringing the top bent UP fully you reduce the "extra" engagement beyond the actual tip itself. This in turn means you don't have to drag it across the "extra bit" of the cocking piece face before it releases.

This gives a feel of a smoother trigger. It should be fully engaged, but as little as possible extra.

The thing is, as deceptively simple as the mechanism seems there's a lot of compound leverage going on in there, dropping the 20Lbs, or so, of striker spring pressure down to the 3 1/2 ~5 Lbs of trigger pull! Very small changes can be magnified dozens of times as the process goes from slack to first pressure to second pressure & then releasing the striker. Because of that great care & a big dollop of experience is needed before safely messing with it.

Just look at how switching from the first trigger "bump" to the next one changes the dynamic of the action (A & B) for example, that how "First & Second" pressure is created.

You mention stoning the groove out of the cocking piece, which brings another 2 variables into play!

The face is only case (surface) hardened, if you stone that away the metal is quite soft & will wear abnormally, you also have to dead nutz on accurately maintain the exact angle too as that determines a lot of the triggers weight!

The angle of the bent and action of the sear moving the cocking piece rearwards when you pull the trigger, as you have observed, is not by accident. With a properly adjusted trigger group, if at the point of trigger break, you relax trigger pressure, the sear should slide back up the bent and the cocking piece moves forward returning to its rest position. This is useful in that the trigger resets if you change your mind and dont fire. Otherwise the trigger would sit still at the point of breaking when you let off which could be unsafe.

Changing the angle of the bent lightens trigger pull but at the expense of the trigger resetting. Another reason not to adjust if you don't know what you are doing.

The system is very clever, two trigger pressures using two different mechanical advantages by use of two moving parts. Uses just one spring common to both trigger system and magazine release. Brilliant! Simple but sophisticated. (Can you tell that I am a big fan of the design?)

For simple, check out the early Lee Metford system. It also resets if you release the trigger.

The part about Case Hardening is for sure, but it has to be a little more than .002 deep so you can do this at least once and get away with it. Even with the case it is not all that hard if the sear will dent it.

Randy

I cheat by holding the cocking piece in a tiny bench vice that has parallel jaws and a flat top. I position the nose of the cocking piece so that its bent is flat and level with the top surface of the vise jaws. I then use that top surface to keep my stone flat and square. I finish off with with jewellers rouge on a linen cloth wrapped on a flat metal backer to bring on the polished shine.

The mark where the nose of the sear has worn, I find usually does not make a problem with pull off, even if there is a little divot. The initial movement of the first stage trigger pull overcomes it without one even feeling it. 

A new old stock cocking piece right out of the preservative will benefit from a bit of a polish too. Just ensure that you work with strokes in the same direction as the travel of the sear (vertical). No matter how polished surfaces are, when they slide against each other, there will be drag. The goal is just try to minimise it. 

Changing out the striker spring for a lighter one actually has a minimal effect on the weight of trigger pull, but can cause other issues. I have a .22 trainer that has a lightened striker spring, lightened sear spring and a polished bent. It breaks crisply at about three pounds, but way too sensitive for a battle rifle. I can get away with it because .22 rim fire cartridges don't take much of a striker hit to crush the rim and fire.

In all honesty I don't stone the parts.

Zed has a neat jig he made too.

I have "polished" them with a bit of "Scotchbrite" if they're brand new though. I find this smoothing together with a small dab of embedding graphite grease I get the same effect without risking klutzfingerdness to become involved!

(A little schmear on the trigger "bumps", the flat on the lower bent where they contact the sear, the cocking piece front face & the tip of the upper leg of the sear with a single Q-tip is plenty)