Pistol Trigger Adjustment

[John Walling]

Working on a pistol I just acquired in a trade with a friend. It's a CVA percussion pistol in .45, decent enough shape, no collector gun for sure, just a nice shooter hopefully. The trigger is incredibly hard to pull and the trigger gets hung up to the rear and needs to be manually pushed back forward to reset. Is there an adjustment I can make to help the trigger reset? I tried clocking the little spring to exert more force but that didn't fix it. Pulled it apart and cannot see anything dragging. Anyone run into this before?

How it should sit..


How it sits after firing...


Lock....


Close-up.....

 

[hawkeye2]

One thing, it looks like the tail of the lock is pulled far too deep into the stock. Is the lockplate flat or bent? Does the trigger jamb in the rearward position when there is on lock in the gun?

 

[DOUBLEDEUCE 1]

You might think about putting some transfer color onto the trigger bar. Lipstick or soot will do. Replace the trigger into the stock and pull it a couple of times. Remove the trigger and look to see if the coloring rubbed off onto the wood. Then carefully remove the colored wood.

 

[Zonie]

Does the trigger hang up when the lock is removed or does it pull all the way to the rear easily?

If it seems to drag as it is pulled when the lock is out of the stock, that is the problem and most likely, the blade on the top of the trigger is rubbing on some wood. Find the place where it is rubbing and remove any wood that might be in the way.

Check the tightness of that screw that is holding the sear to the lock plate. Some people think all screws should be tight. This is not the case when it comes to the sear arm screw.
It should be barely snug to slightly loose. The sear arm should move easily up and down against the spring pressure using only finger pressure.