Lightening up the trigger on a Hawken

[Seafarer12]

Hey Guys.
I have a Cabela's Hawken and I was wondering if anyone has done any kind of trigger work on them. I am looking to lighten up the set trigger on it. It has to be a 15lbs to 20 lbs pull to set it. If I shoot it much it starts to my my trigger finger sore after awhile. I have done some trigger jobs on pistols but I had some guide lines to go buy and those were usually to just to smooth up a factory trigger. I don't want to make it super light but 10 lbs or a little less would be nice. I haven't taken it all apart to see if there is any kind of adjustment like there is for the hair trigger.

 

[silverfox]

Seafarer
Not a lot you can do with set triggers. You can polish all the moving parts just like you would with a lock. But the big problem is the spring in the assembly has to be strong enough to trip your lock sear. You can loosen the spring some to lighten the set pressure but it still has to be strong enough to trip the sear on your lock. Sometimes this can be done and sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and live with a hard set trigger.
I have a Hawken with the same problem and just have to live withit if I want the hammer to fall everytime.
Other possiblities check the sear spring and engagement on your lock are they gorilla strong or medium light. Next you might be able to add weight to your trip lever in your trigger mechanism to make it hit your sear lever harder. Don't know if either of these will work or not.

Fox :thumbsup:

 

[JiminTexas]

I personally don't like a very light trigger, so I am happy with the trigger pull on my Cabellas Hawken. It may be that the adsjustment screw is a little too short on yours. Mine is run all the way in and it still has a pretty noticable trigger pull to it, but then again that's the way I prefer it. You might try taking the adjustment screw out and replacing it with a slightly longer one. I'm not too sure what size that screw is, but it is probably metric.

 

[MSW]

i asume that you've checked that nothing's binding up in the mortise? inletting black (or candle soot & vasoline, or lipstick) when properly smeared, can be most revealing: it may show you a myriad of woodworking sins.

now i'm not admitting that this ever happened on a stock which I had built, but i had this friend... and i knew good and well that an R.E.Davis trigger didn't behave like THAT and lo, i tried it and there it was. five minutes with a small chisel and two hours of What? was solved.

 

[Zonie]

MSW may be right. On the other hand, my GPR rear set trigger takes a mighty high pull to get it to set.

If it is an interference problem, you may find it by coating all of the moving parts that could hit the wood with a light coating of lipstick, then reassembling the trigger into the stock, setting it and then removing it without "firing" it.
If something was hitting the wood, it would leave some of the lipstick behind.

If it is just the heavy spring you can try to reduce its thickness but before doing that, I would consider backing out the screw that holds the spring to the trigger plate.
Sometimes a position can be found where the spring is still compressed enough to activate the sear, but not require a massive force to set it.
If this position can be found, remove the screw, coat it with the Low Strength Thread Locking Compound and reinstall it to the newly discovered position.
Do not use the red super strong thread locking compound. There may come a day when you want to readjust it.
zonie

 

[Seafarer12]

Thanks guys I will give your ideas a try. I would just like to be able to go out shooting and not come back with a swollen sore finger. I got spoiled by my flintlock.

 

[Bill Hall]

Just a thought, I've heard of guys installing an adjustment screw under the spring in the trigger plate. The idea is to lift the spring by turning the screw in, until it won't trip the hammer, then back it off a little until it works again. Bill

 

[Seafarer12]

Well I pulled the trigger group last night. Man I am not use to having so many adjustments. I need to do a bump test before I locktite everything but I got it turned down and the slack taken out of it. Thanks again for the help.