trigger pull, best ways to ease it up?

[Rudy Thompson]

Fired my , new to me, pistol yesterday and I need to know some ways to ease the trigger pull, it is very hard.
I would remove my post but can not figure out how to do it . I was reading the search forum and have decided that I need to redo my trigger setup, the sear is not in a good location on the trigger.
Still open to suggestions.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Well one of the easiest ways to FUBAR a revolver or a rifle lock is to mess with the sear/tumbler area. IF the angles are changed too much that tumbler will slip off the sear and always be dropping to half-cock, or if the sear gets too thin, you can snap off it's tip....


The ONLY thing that I will do for such a situation, after having tried other things in the past, and having to replace a tumbler or two or a hammer or two, or a sear/trigger or five ..., is to polish with emory paper and oil, the bearing surface of the tumbler or hammer where it bears on the trigger. Prior to this you also need to check the sides of the trigger when working with a revolver, to ensure that you don't have a trigger that is rubbing too much on it's sides, giving you more friction than intended and thus a harder trigger pull. Then, after checking the trigger and polishing the tumbler or hammer see if there is an improvement. IF not... only then you do the same to the sear/trigger where it bears on the hammer or tumbler. Hammers and tumblers tend to be harder than triggers and sears thus giving you more "forgiveness" when trying this, so that's why you do the hammer or the tumbler first.

You do NOT want to change the angles of the metal, but merely to give the surfaces a very smooth polish and thus reduce the micro-friction that may be giving you the hard trigger pull.

Under no circumstances do you use anything other than a hand file wrapped in fine emory paper and a drop or two of oil. IT's a slow process and when it works it takes very little actual polishing for success.

LD

 

[Rudy Thompson]

I will not do anything to the lock parts , the lock action is good , though worn. I have decided that the sear contact with the trigger is to far from the pivot point I will have to rework that. when I built it I put the trigger to far forward.
Couple of beers and a day maybe I can fix it.
and thanks for the reply

 

[Phil Coffins]

Seems like you’re on the right track. It’s a matter of leverage.

 

[Eddie2002]

I had to move the pivot point on the trigger of a pistol which I built. It took less than a 1/4 inch to go from a 10 lb pull down to a 3 lb pull. Good luck with it.

 

[ZUG]

Gee -- how about sending it to a QUALIFIED BP pistolsmith and have it done correctly

 

[Kansas Jake]

Gee -- how about sending it to a QUALIFIED BP pistolsmith and have it done correctly

Good suggestion with a couple of caveats. If it is a single shot finding a smith isn’t real easy. The second is the cost may be half or more than the cost of the pistol after shipping etc. to have it done. This is especially true for lower cost new or used guns.

 

[M. De Land]

Actually in most cases there is really no sear at all but rather the trigger engaging the hammer acting as a sear, A true sear is actually a separate component of a trigger/hammer interface.
Any way I have found that a sear/trigger lift along with main spring and trigger spring tuning or replacement in some cases are the best ways to produce a safe and reliable target grade trigger. This lift usually is a bit of spring wire positioned vertically in a drilled hole right under the full cock notch in the hammer. The top of the rod is dressed off at an angle so as not to catch the trigger nose tip ie. "sear" as it passes over in cycle. The purpose is to partially limit the vertical engagement surface of the full cock notch, still retaining the full width engagement. I used to use a bit of steel soldered to the hammer under the full cock notch but have found the vertical rod of spring wire seated in a drilled hole purchase in the hammer to be more stable and less likely to fail. I'm careful to make the hole a snug fit to the wire and then use a bit of red loc-tite to secure it.

 

[M. De Land]

Moving the pivot point is a juggling act because to gain mechanical advantage you increase trigger travel and change the sear engagement angle. The trick of course is to balance leverage and movement. One of the best ways I know of is to limit sear vertical engagement with hammer full cock notch through the use of a mechanical lift. This retains the proper (designed) engagement angles and often halves the movement as well as reducing contact and thus friction load resulting in less trigger pull weight and travel.

 

[Stony Broke]

I just bought a Pedersoli Bounty Hunter to play with, and the trigger on it was absolutely terrible ! It must have had a 20 lb. pull !! I notified Pedersoli and they referred me to Lee Shaver, as I guess he does a lot of their warranty work. He said he had one other of the same model with the same problem. I sent the lock to him yesterday, to see what he can get done. I sure hope he can help it along. He mentioned the sear spring possibly too stiff, but we'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, I took the lock off of a Pedersoli Kentucky model and put it on the Bounty Hunter....it seemed to fit just fine. It has made the trigger pull about half of what it was, and the hammer is a lot easier to pull back into the cocked position than it was.

 

[M. De Land]

I just bought a Pedersoli Bounty Hunter to play with, and the trigger on it was absolutely terrible ! It must have had a 20 lb. pull !! I notified Pedersoli and they referred me to Lee Shaver, as I guess he does a lot of their warranty work. He said he had one other of the same model with the same problem. I sent the lock to him yesterday, to see what he can get done. I sure hope he can help it along. He mentioned the sear spring possibly too stiff, but we'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, I took the lock off of a Pedersoli Kentucky model and put it on the Bounty Hunter....it seemed to fit just fine. It has made the trigger pull about half of what it was, and the hammer is a lot easier to pull back into the cocked position than it was.

Lee Shaver has a good reputation with Black powder cartrdge shooters as that is what he specializes in as a gunsmith and competitor. He should be able to get it working like you want.

 

[Pete G]

Gee -- how about sending it to a QUALIFIED BP pistolsmith and have it done correctly

...But what is the fun in that

 

[Rudy Thompson]

I was able to modify my trigger assembly and now have a decent trigger pull. thanks to all that replied to my post.
this is a very good place to get information and some of it works!

 

[Phil Coffins]

The hard part is sorting the wheat from the chaff.