Trigger help

[Tonyd]

I just acquired a Zoli? .58 Zouave cheap--really cheap. It one of those cheapies you see with the golden colored stock. Lock had a problem--would not cock so took to smith who replaced some parts and stated that the previous owner had done some bad "home brew" filing trying to lighten the pull. Lock and trigger work OK now, but the trigger pull is really heavy--MUCH heavier than my Pedersoli Bess. Lock does not appear to have a half-cock on it. I would like to get the lock/trigger smoothed up a bit and lightened if possible. The gun is really not worth dumping a lot of money into and I do realize that you cannot "make a silk purse out a sow"s ear". Probably needs to polished, etc. and then contact surfaces hardened? I recently moved to Seattle and am not sure about a local smith to do the work. Some posts indicated that any competent smith should be able to do the work--I called some and they do not do ML work and can only find one guy locally who does ML work and he was not keen on fooling with the gun.

The gun does shoot like a champ (considering that trigger)--once I went from a .577 mini to a larger one that requires a bit of tapping to start. Any suggestions on how to proceed? Is this sort of thing that I could do--never done any trigger work before. Previous smith who replaced trigger stated that there was no way to safely reduce the pull weight - BTW.
And thanks to all for help on getting set up for the new Bess I bought--info provided on loads, flints,etc. saved me a lot of time and frustration and really had a ball with it first time out!

Tony in Seattle

 

[FASTFRED]

Tony...Believe those locks should have a haft cock notch in them...Need it to carry it capped in the field or you have not safety...

Anyway the setup between the tumbler and the sear is very critical...Too much "playing" with the tumbler notch and sear tip usually results in either an unsafe gun at full cock with the sear spring tension holding the gun cocked or a caming action between the parts that results in the trigger and eventually the sear having to cock the hammer a little (working against the main spring) in order to get out of the full cock notch...The second ususally evident by looking at the hammer as you pull the trigger...If the hammer moves back even alittle, there is camming problems going on...To repair this either of these problems usually means new parts fitted or welding up the old and refitting, depends on the offending pieces..

Believe your best bet is to contact a smith on this forum and send the lock to him for the fix...Would be hard for anyone to tell you what needs to be done without seeing the lock first hand..The Best...The Lizard...

 

[bob308]

i have a 1841 rifle which uses the same lock. rather then stone the sears i drilled through the tumbeler and tapped it for a 4-40 set screw that pushes the trigger out of the sear notch. that way it is safe you can adjust it for wear.

 

[jdstrang]

Tony:

Here, courtesy the Web site of the N-SSA's Northwest Territory, is a link to an informative article on modifying musket locks:
[url] http://www.nwtskirmisher.com/useful-locks.shtml[/url]

Most skirmishers I know prefer the last suggestion you'll find here, what the author calls the weld-bump. But rather than a weld, we solder a thin brass shim onto the fullcock surface of the sear, which does the job well.