Question For Browning BLR Owners

[Fiddler]

Can anything be done to lighten the trigger pull? Not that it's a bad trigger, it's just that all my other firearms have had their triggers lightened one way or another and my BLR is the last holdout. This throws my shooting style off a little because I'm used to light triggers. My local gunsmith says nothing can be done for a BLR trigger.
Is this true?

[tman]

i'd like to know also. this is a great gun. a lighter trigger pull would make it some much the better.

[CowboyTutt]

Guys, I can only share what happened with mine. Mic McPherson agreed to slick mine up out of freindship as he does not work on BLR's (mine was his first, I believe). The first attempt involved lighter springs and polishing, but resulted in light hammer strikes and unreliable ignition so I had to send it back to Mic. After determining it was not my handloads, we decided to put the factory springs back in (which are very heavy by the way) and NP3 plate parts to reduce friction. Well, the tolerances were so tight on that gun that the thickness of the plating made it so the gun would not function. So Mic had to spend hours hand-fitting everthing to make it work again. All in all, I think this rifle made 3 trips to Mic before we got it all sorted out.

It has an awesome trigger now, probably about 2 1/2 lbs.

I don't recommend taking the route that we did however. Just polish the parts, and use the stock springs would be my recommendation based upon my experiences.

The gunsmith may have told you what he did as BLR's are notiorously finicky and hard to work on.

I would only allow a BLR specialist or a VERY competant gunsmith to even attempt such a thing.

Anyhow, hope that helps.

-Tutt

[Lastmohecken]

I have have had trigger jobs done on a couple of my BLR's. You can get a fairly decent trigger, but not like a good boltaction. I had a local gunsmith do mine, and while he is not fast or cheap, he has always done good work for me.

One of my BLRs has been used hard for several years after the trigger job, and I believe the trigger has gotten better over time and use. At any rate It's as light a trigger as I need, anymore.

[BenT]

Yes there is a way to lighten the trigger a little. I went from a 5 3/4 lb trigger to a 4lb trigger using this method. Basically you need to put in a lighter sear spring. I bought through Brownell a selection of small Wolff springs . I believe it was a pack of 100 springs with 2 of each. I would look for some type of illustration for disassembly. I suggest firearms assembly /dissassembly gun digest book , I think Midway has them for under $20.

None of the gear cluster needs to be taken out. Take off the stock , use a brass punch to drift out the Hammer pin (left to right) or unscrew a screw for the newer ones. Remove hammer, drift out pin holding in sear. Replace sear spring with a lighter spring . It's a guessing game of feel on comparing spings for tension. If the spring is the same wire guage and has less number of windings it will be lighter. I stayed with the same guage. This will make the trigger pull lighter not eliminate creep or anything else. If you start messing with the hammer spring then you can deal with light hammer strikes. I was happy with a the 4 lb trigger for hunting.

Good Luck !

[Triggernosis]

Fiddler,
Apparently http://www.neiljones.com is the place to go for BLR trigger jobs - I haven't used him, just seen several referrals on the 'net over the past couple of years. If you have him do work for you, please let us know how it turns out.

[Kismet]

Fiddler, I had long been searching for the same information. Here are some links I saved:

http://shootersforum.com/showthread.htm?t=20946
http://www.huntingtalk.info/hunting-arc ... t1632.html
http://www.shootingworld.com/bbs/viewto ... faffa98faf
http://www.midwestgunworks.com/page/mgw ... g-services

As I have been out hunting this fall, I really wish I had just spent the money and gotten it done. I have both significant creep and a heavy trigger. It seems relatively expensive to me to send it out and get it taken care of, but no one locally will touch it. I love everything about the gun except the trigger.

Good luck. If you have something done please post it back here to let the rest of us know.

Regards, Michael in NH

[Wes]

I have a BLR in 358 Win that's got a very decent trigger. Around 3 pounds and reasonably crisp. I got it from a man on this forum who goes by MtnGun (I think). He had the trigger done and whoever did that job did it well. It's the best trigger on a BLR that I've ever felt.
My neighbor has one in 284 Win that won't shoot less than 2.5". He's been messing with it for quite a while and thinks it's his reloads. When I shot it I couldn't believe how bad his trigger is. I'm certain it's over 8 lb and really creepy. I guess the good part is that you NEVER know when it's going to shoot. Never breaks the same way twice in a row. I'm very sure he could shrink his groups with a decent trigger by nearly half.
He was wanting to find someone to work on his also, but has had no luck as of yet.

[Don McDowell]

Wes get ahold of ZHat customs in Casper I understand they are doing fantastic BLR work.

All the BLR's I've been around and own have better triggers than the majority of the Savage 99's I've been around or owned. But I have not been around any of the post 81 steel recievers.

[wilbur-wa]

I have a new BLR takedown in .243 and had heard about the stiff triggers, and mine confirmed this in spades. I measured mine informally with a digital strain gauge at 8-10 lbs. On several forums I read that Neil Jones in PA is about the only gunsmith that will do a trigger job on a BLR (814-763-2769, njones@mdvl.net, http://www.neiljones.com). So I emailed him and didn't hear back right away so I called him. He answers his phone and sounds like a very nice guy. The next day I sent him my rifle.

For $120 plus $20-25 each way for UPS ground shipping and a week of his time, I now have a trigger that feels wonderful. He said it would be about 2.5 lbs and I told him 2.5-3.5 would be just wonderful, thank you. My strain gauge measures 2.5-3.5 lbs. I haven't shot it yet but I've never heard of any problems from a Neil Jones trigger job. Didn't have any misfires previously in maybe 60 rounds shot before the trigger job, so hopefully it will still fire reliably now that the trigger feels good.

Getting instructions from UPS on shipping it took a bit of work. I'm in WA and UPS will accept a rifle (unloaded of course) from an owner going to a gunsmith (and back) as long as it is in a package that doesn't say "gun." I had purchased a $20 hard case and had to fabricate a carboard outer carton for it, partly to hide the "gun" molded into the plastic, and partly to reinforce it and make sure it couldn't open during shipment. UPS told me to show the package to the driver that picks up at my business and tell him it was a rifle. Well, I did that and the driver almost freaked out. But he took it, and brought it back two weeks later with no problems. Neil re-taped the outer carton thoroughly for the return journey.

[Tycer]

My old steel ones have all had OK triggers. But I shoot a Daisy Red Ryder almost every day.

I'll post my 2¢ on the new one when it get's here.

[MZ5]

I know this thread is old, but I wanted to add a couple things that may help those in the future looking for this info, since I recently (finally!) got my first BLR, and was looking for this or similar info.

BenT's info regarding not needing to take out the bolt carrier or gears is correct. Removing the buttstock and hammer pivot pin or screw (depending upon model/age) will allow you to drift the sear pin out. There is a gunsmith in the Phoenix area who claims skill & experience w/BLR triggers. I have not used him for mine, but he can be contacted as Glockmongergunsmithing on the web.

Finally, I REALLY appreciated some information a highly regarded and highly experienced retired gunsmith recently posted over at the Ruger Forum. Look at this thread concerning hammer and sear relationship information, particularly the info posted by "Iowegan:"
http://rugerforum.net/gunsmithing/47408 ... heory.html

[jjames]

I had Niel Jones do my two BLRs and was please with the results and the turn time.

[BenT]

MZ5 that ruger link is spot on. When you pull the trigger and see the hammer moving in the cocking direction, you are going to have a heavy trigger pull. Eliminating that by squareing up the angle is the first step in making a better trigger. It takes time by taking apart and putting back together many times to get it right.Take baby steps. I also use the factory springs in my sixguns and leveractions. I learned that lighter springs doesn't mean a better trigger. I'm working on a 10/22 trigger right now ,I'm slowly getting it better.

[MZ5]

Thought I'd follow up again on this one. I removed the hammer and sear of my BLR and just polished the engagement surfaces thereof with a hard Arkansas stone (after thoroughly cleaning off all the gray/black factory grease). I did NOT alter any engagement angles. The results are terrific! The trigger no longer has the extended, super-gritty creep it used to. On-target results are significantly better, too.

This makes other BLRs (in the future) SOOOO much more do-able for me. That trigger sorta had me thinking this would be both my first and my last BLR, but I see now that it needn't be that way at all.

[Woodsman]

Sorry for the dead-thread picking, but can anyone (MZ5, maybe?) shed a little light on exactly HOW to do this?

I keep running across horror stories about disassembling BLRs, but I'm up for trying a DIY trigger job on mine if I come across a decent description of "how to".


Woodsman

[Rusty]

Not trying to be a wise guy here but it looks like someone needs to do a DVD on the BLRs just like Steve's Gunz has for '92s.

[M. M. Wright]

As the owner (and giver) of 13 BLRs I've got to say that the old steel ones, Belgian in particular have very good triggers while the the aluminum Japanese ones are not consistently good. They can be improved however but: BEWARE!!! Do not take those gears apart. As stated above the trigger is accessible without disturbing this beast. Even with the Browning field service manual beside me it is not an easy trick to put them back and you have to work out a method of moving the linkage only one tooth at a time until you try enough combinations to find one that works. Someone needs to make a jug for stoning the sear/hammer engagement. Just a little plate with pins the right diameter and spaced correctly would be immensely helpful. Sounds like I need to fire up the mill and make one like the one I have for the 1911.

[Hawkins]

Woodsman,

If you decide not to go the do-it-yourself route, I can second or third the recommendations for Neil Jones. He's done a couple of mine, and got them into the 3.5 pound range. Very good, quick service.

If you do want to give it a try, I posted links in another thread to a couple of more detailed manuals, that might help with the take-apart and put-together:
http://www.levergunscommunity.com/viewt ... =1&t=52433

M.M.,

That would be an excellent idea!

Hawkins

[CustomJako]

IT CAN BE FIXED

Hey guys, I like many bought myself a BLR a year or so ago and love it, but the trigger was simply horrid. Travel, heavy, creep, the works. I did all the googles and reading up I could and found nothing (I'm outside the US so this recommended gunsmith wasn't a lot of help). Plenty of people also warning me away from even thinking about doing it myself (apparently getting the gear timing right during reassembly is a nightmare). I expect I'm a few years too late to help the asker but for anyone else reading I hope this helps, I made an account for this sole purpose.

It's really not that difficult, the trick (which isn't really a trick and more like common sense) is to not touch the gear screws or the bolt. They can stay. All we want to do is take out the hammer and sear. Unscrew the recoil pad (screws are hidden behind two very fine cuts in the rubber, push a philips head through with a little oil or soap for lubrication. Now remove the stock by unscrewing the screw inside the cavity (which you just uncovered by removing the recoil pad).

With the stock removed you should be able to see the housing for the mainspring. This is threaded and can be unscrewed from the action block (do so with the hammer down). remove the housing, mainspring, and two pieces of steel that connect the spring to the hammer.

Drive out the sear pin left to right (it should be pretty obvious what the sear is). The sear may not come loose just yet, you'll need to unscrew and drive out the hammer pin too. It's a bit of a fiddle sometimes to get these out, basically the action needs to be closed to get the hammer out. When you do this be careful to catch the hammer, sear AND sear spring, a tiny little 3mm diameter spring.

Now I did two things to improve my trigger. Firstly, I wanted to make it as crisp as possible, with little travel and no creep (which I achieved, but don't go into this expecting target grade stuff, just a good hunting trigger). This involved honing and polishing the two contact surfaces on the hammer and the sear. By reducing the length of the hook on the sear, I eliminated almost all travel (could go further but I didn't want to go too far). Just take it slow and check frequently. I made up a dimple wooden jig to hold the hammer and sear at the correct separation so I could monitor my work without having to reassemble. I polished the metal to 2000 grit, which eliminated all creep.

I found that after I had removed enough metal to reduce the travel, the sear spring needed to be longer in order to properly engage with the hammer. I also wanted to use a lighter spring to reduce the weight of the trigger. I ordered a selection from a local supplier (remember it's a 3mm diameter you want). I ended up settling on the lightest I could find, which had a wire diameter of 0.355mm. I haven't a trigger pull gauge but I would guess that it's around 4-5 pounds. Using a lighter spring would further reduce the weight, but going too far might prevent the sear from engaging properly. I trimmed the spring to the required length (just a few mm longer than the original).

Well that's it, hope it helps someone! Reassembly is nothing complicated. Put the hammer in first, then the sear with the sear spring. Getting the mainspring housing on is a bit of a pain, since the small metal rod connecting to the hammer can misguide the thread. I found that putting a 10mm diameter dowel in-between this rod and the action block made life easier. I'f you've gotten this far without ripping your hair out the rest should be a breeze!

As I said, I've gone from a 10lb, creepy trigger with stacks of travel to a 4-5lb trigger with absolutely no creep and very little travel. Not expecting to shoot 1/4" groups but a very acceptable hunting trigger, which is what I was aiming for.

Good luck!