Sneaking up on lightening an SA trigger

[Bill in Oregon]

Having been enabled by Scott T to wrap my mitts around a Cimarron Frontier Sheriff 3 1/2 in .45 Colt, I put a couple of dozen rounds through it yesterday -- the Lee 255 over 8 of Unique --and have two issues. The gun prints about five inches low at 7 yards, so I will play with loads to try to correct this before touching the front sight. More troubling is the trigger. While crisp, it has to be at least 8 pounds. So I am considering ordering a couple of stones and attempting to reduce that pull by half. Normally, touching sears is something I have always avoided, but I am tempted this time to try -- very carefully. I will hunt up some Youtubes on the matter, but any additional pointers from the experts here would be mucho appreciado ...

[Scott Tschirhart]

Since the trigger is crisp, I would first explore a spring kit. You may find that it breaks exactly where it should with the proper hammer and trigger springs. I recommend the Wolf kit that gives you a wire trigger spring that can be bent to give you just the amount of tension you want.

If you had a gritty trigger with a lot of creep, I might recommend stoning the sear nose to see if you have a burr.

On the load, your 8 gr of Unique is just about perfect for this package. If it shoots well, I would do the trigger first and then deal with the sights.

[OldWin]

I put the Wollff springs in a Colt SAA with a stiff trigger and it helped a lot. I did stick with a leaf spring for the trigger/bolt.
Scott's advice on doing this first is sound, IMO.

[Scott Tschirhart]

If you still want a better trigger after changing out the springs and shooting a hundred rounds or so, I can help walk you through cleaning up the sear and full cock notches.

[Bill in Oregon]

Thanks Scott. I will try the spring change first.

[GunnyMack]

Bill, I've done a burnishing job on a few triggers, very easy, no tools,stones and ya don't even have to take the gun apart!!
Step 1, empty the gun
Step 2 cocktail the hammer
Step 3 place the spur against a hard surface, apply DOWN pressure( ill take pics)
Step 4 pull the trigger
Step 5 repeat numerous times and TRY the trigger. Continue to burnish until you are happy with it.
First time I saw it done I was skeptical but it works!!!

16454786464332712280884298250502.jpg

(my one of a kind Ruger single six 44 special)
All you are doing is evening out the engagement surfaces.
Works on any gun with exposed hammer. I dont like to stone sears, hammers only because you never know how good the heat treat is. Case hardening is literally only. 010- .015 " deep most likely. Ive seen sears that people went too deep with a stone and they get into dead soft steel.

[OldWin]

Yes Gunny! It does work. I have done that too.

[GunnyMack]

Also, IF you insist on stoning the surfaces wait until you have a bunch of rounds down the bore( it'll self burnish with use). Then get a spring kit!

[Sixgun]

Elmer Keith used to do it "a-la-GunnyMack".........

Unless it's a target/silhouette competition gun, you don't want it less than 3-4 pounds....---if it's crisp.......on a 3.5 inch single action, I wouldn't go less than 4 pounds......on my competition guns I like 2.5 pounds.....zero need to go lighter if you grip the gun proper and don't flinch......there's an old saying that MAY ring true.....a 6 ounce set trigger will eliminate the results of a flinch.......dunno......the trick it to hold steady, hard but not too hard, slowly put pressure on the trigger and maintain follow through.....like you were shooting a flintlock M.L.

Doug Koenig took out a factory NIB 1911 and only lost milliseconds....shooting proper eliminates the need for self perceived flaws in the gun.

Scott and Gunny both gave excellent advice to which I can't add.....I've done probably 40-50 triggers on single and double action guns......DONT STONE unless you know EXACTLY what you are doing......good gunsmiths have jigs set up so the angle does not change.

Your gun is new with expected creep and grit and like Gunny says, by putting pressure on the notch and sear then releasing the trigger actually burnishes the contact ends.....I'll put in the spring changes and take out the hammer and buff the notch on a motorized buffing wheel....with caution....along with any other contact areas such as the pawl and its recesses, the bolt (very lightly) and even the screw that the hammer rides on.

It's not rocket science....only common sense with an understanding of the type of metal you are working with.---006

[Scott Tschirhart]

Unless there is a serious problem, I don't like to stone the contact surfaces of the sear and hammer. They will burnish themselves in far better alignment than any of us can hold a stone. But a general deburr or making the shelf more shallow is helpful when you have some creep.

[BenT]

I polish the sear surfaces. I take 600 grit sand paper and bend it once around a 1 foot metal ruler. Place ruler on the flat surface of a counter top with it over hanging a little. The hammer needs to be out of the gun. Oil the sand paper and place sear surface against sandpaper making sure that it is square and the complete surface is touching the sandpaper. Slowly slide along paper making sure it is square. Do this a couple times and you will see the surface polish up. No angles are being changed. I don't do this on every gun but some sear surfaces are coarse. They will eventually polish up with use, but if I have it taken down this far I will polish a little.

[marlinman93]

While you have it apart to swap in the spring kit, be sure to oil all the sear and friction points with a slippery lubricant too. I use Kroil on all my friction points, and that alone reduces trigger pull a measurable amount.

[Sarge]

The "Door Jamb Trigger Job"! I will admit to a couple of those myself.

Try the music wire bolt/trigger spring first. These usually yield a substantial improvement and, with the normal wearing in through use, you may not want or need anything else.

[Sarge]

Unless there is a serious problem, I don't like to stone the contact surfaces of the sear and hammer. They will burnish themselves in far better alignment than any of us can hold a stone. But a general deburr or making the shelf more shallow is helpful when you have some creep.

I will second all of that.

[GunnyMack]

While you have it apart to swap in the spring kit, be sure to oil all the sear and friction points with a slippery lubricant too. I use Kroil on all my friction points, and that alone reduces trigger pull a measurable amount.

Have you tried powered graphite? All I use in my S&Ws.

[Bill in Oregon]

By gum, Gunny, I tried your method and darn if it didn't greatly improve that trigger directly.

[piller]

Good information here. Now, just from the point of view of someone who has a metal working hobby: always think before removing material. You can go back later and sand or polish it more, but putting anything back after taking off too much is not always possible.

[GunnyMack]

By gum, Gunny, I tried your method and darn if it didn't greatly improve that trigger directly.

Thats what 3 years of gummsmiff skool tawt me! ( among other things)