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Set trigger adjustment Safety

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nick_1

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This most recently happened with my trapper pistol but since set triggers are mostly a rifle thing I am posting here. I had a similar incident with my TC hawken a decade or so ago. I didn't have an AD with the hawken but it was close.

I was teaching my lady friend Isa how to shoot my trapper pistol last winter and she had a very scary AD when she went to set the trigger and the hammer fell from half cock on to the nipple and fired. Apon inspection I determined that the trigger adjustment screws, both of them had loosened up from recoil. I had put about 500 rounds through the new pistol. I took the lock apart, inspected it. read the owners manual and properly adjusted both triggers. two different screws. Once I had it correct I then super glued both those set screws in place. No problems since with perhaps a thousand rounds fired post fix. I now periodically check the trigger by firmly pulling the trigger when its on half cock and empty. if the hammer drops from a trigger pull on half cock the trigger is not adjusted properly and the gun is very unsafe.
 
Good to be safe. But the hammer dropping from half cock is due to the lock not the trigger adjustment. The half cock notch in the tumbler holds the sear and is under cut. If the hammer drops from half cock with a firm pull of the trigger or from the set trigger being tripped then the lock’s tumbler is defective. The triggers could be holding the sear from engaging the tumbler and that may be the case but for safety I’d suggest you check the tumbler as well.
 
it was not defective the adjustment was off. I just looked at my hawken and it has only one set screw for the trigger. I believe the problem I had with that rifle years ago was that the hammer was dropping when i set the trigger in the full cock position. I can't remember if i had an AD or not. good muzzle discipline so if i did have an AD nothing bad happened and i don't recall the details but i do remember having the action fail and need readjustment. i can see the shiny superglue on that set screw so my recollection is correct.
my traditions trapper pistole has not one but two adjustment screws as well as an internal lock adjustment screw. I had to adjust all 3 screws to get it right. It does say in my owners manual when adjusting the set trigger that one of the steps is to pull the trigger when in half cock position and that it should be impossible for the hammer to fall from this position. If the hammer does fall do not continue until this problem has been addressed. follow the instructions under double set trigger adjustment in this booklet.
 
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