LIGHTENING TRIGGER PULL

[maxposner]

Fella's, I need to lighten my trigger pull on my old Gold Team 45. I know that Henning offers kits with hammers and such and I would like to go that route, but alas I need it by Saturday and I foolishly bought a Tiger and spent all my money. As irresponsible as that sounds, I haven't told the significant other about the Russian babe in the safe yet either. What I need to know is what parts to polish and what springs to cut. Hopefully, I will be able to take a couple of pounds off of it by Saturday, any help or solid suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I may have it apart here in a few minutes and then I'll lose some springs or pins, so by Saturday, I should be shooting my Paraordinance. Such is life!

[Jeff686]

You bought a tiger? Impulse buy? That's what you get for window shopping at an exotic pet store.

[CHA-LEE]

The majority of the trigger pull weight comes from the trigger spring, sear spring and the hammer spring. You can lighten up the trigger spring by bending the two legs so that they are a little less than a 90 degree angle from one another. Be careful with bending the trigger spring though as it is very easy to go too far and either break a leg off of it or make it too light. The hammer spring needs to be replaced with a lighter one. If you are using the Henning Extra Long firing pin you can use a 13lb hammer spring and it will reliably ignight the primers. I am not sure what lb hammer spring you can go down to with the stock firing pin and still have reliable ignition. The Sear spring tension can be easily adjusted lighter by cutting a notch into the sear where the short leg of the spring rests. The deeper the notch the lighter the spring tension on the sear gets. You can use a cutoff wheel on a dremel to make a nice clean notch for the sear spring leg. Adjusting these three springs tension has a significant effect on the overall trigger pull weight but not so much the smoothness of the trigger pull.

Creating a smooth trigger pull is mainly achieved by polishing up and smoothing out the head of the trigger bar plunger and its mating surface on the under side of the trigger bar. These two mating surfaces are usually poorly finished from the factory for whatever reason. You can also cut a coil or two off of the trigger bar plunger spring to reduce the friction between the two surfaces as well. Once everything is polished up and reshaped to optimize the mating surfaces you need to use a light grease between them such as the Brian Enos Slide Glide Lite grease.

You can also polishing up the out sides of the trigger bar as it will also reduce friction between it and the frame. If you are going to use the stock sear and hammer trying to polish up anything else is a waste of time because the parts are case hardened and once you break trough the hardening the metal is very soft and it will wear out quickly. So DON'T try to polish up the sear lip or hammer hooks. If you do it will feel awesome for about 500 rounds and then quickly degrade to a point where it gets gritty and eventually causes hammer follow issues. An EGW sear and hammer are needed to make a really kick ass trigger on the EAA pistols because their metal is hard all the way through and you can modify them without fear of reducing their service life.

I hope this helps. Good luck and be safe.

[carlosa]

Dang Cha-lee you know your stuff!! Nice post!!

[maxposner]

Dang, thanks for the in depth description, that is exactly what I was looking for. I will carefully follow your advice and hope for the best results. In regards to the Tiger, I will only feed it at the range, ahd it may move out if the accuracy results are disappointing.

[jlat32]

The majority of the trigger pull weight comes from the trigger spring, sear spring and the hammer spring. You can lighten up the trigger spring by bending the two legs so that they are a little less than a 90 degree angle from one another. Be careful with bending the trigger spring though as it is very easy to go too far and either break a leg off of it or make it too light. The hammer spring needs to be replaced with a lighter one. If you are using the Henning Extra Long firing pin you can use a 13lb hammer spring and it will reliably ignight the primers. I am not sure what lb hammer spring you can go down to with the stock firing pin and still have reliable ignition. The Sear spring tension can be easily adjusted lighter by cutting a notch into the sear where the short leg of the spring rests. The deeper the notch the lighter the spring tension on the sear gets. You can use a cutoff wheel on a dremel to make a nice clean notch for the sear spring leg. Adjusting these three springs tension has a significant effect on the overall trigger pull weight but not so much the smoothness of the trigger pull.

Creating a smooth trigger pull is mainly achieved by polishing up and smoothing out the head of the trigger bar plunger and its mating surface on the under side of the trigger bar. These two mating surfaces are usually poorly finished from the factory for whatever reason. You can also cut a coil or two off of the trigger bar plunger spring to reduce the friction between the two surfaces as well. Once everything is polished up and reshaped to optimize the mating surfaces you need to use a light grease between them such as the Brian Enos Slide Glide Lite grease.

You can also polishing up the out sides of the trigger bar as it will also reduce friction between it and the frame. If you are going to use the stock sear and hammer trying to polish up anything else is a waste of time because the parts are case hardened and once you break trough the hardening the metal is very soft and it will wear out quickly. So DON'T try to polish up the sear lip or hammer hooks. If you do it will feel awesome for about 500 rounds and then quickly degrade to a point where it gets gritty and eventually causes hammer follow issues. An EGW sear and hammer are needed to make a really kick ass trigger on the EAA pistols because their metal is hard all the way through and you can modify them without fear of reducing their service life.

I hope this helps. Good luck and be safe.

Great summary! My Match had some polishing done to it by the first owner, but I had it apart a few weeks ago and noticed even the polished surfaces had gouging and other imperfections from initial machining. I was planning to go over it again and smooth things up.

What is the best way to smooth out imperfections on the plunger and trigger bar/bow? I was thinking of starting with 600 - 800 grit sandpaper and working finer and finer until I get a smooth surface, then final polishing with Flitz and wanted to know if I'm on the right track.

Can too much material be removed from the plunger and trigger bar/bow from doing the process above? I assume so long as I don't change overall shape I can smooth out the imperfections.

I'd also like to change springs to try lighten the pull. I was going to run the 13# hammer spring with Henning XL firing pin. Do they make lighter trigger springs, or am I at the mercy of tweaking my stock trigger spring?

How much will notching the sear for the sear spring affect trigger pull weight? This seems like the first part I could mess up royally and don't want to risk it if there is minimal gain.

I'd eventually like to try Henning's flat trigger, but for now want to try lighten things up with the stock trigger unless Henning's flat trigger will really make a difference.

Final question, when I had the gun disassembled, I noticed the pretravel adjustment set screw was worn to a flat that matched the surface profile of the trigger. I'd like to replace this screw. Anyone know the size or where to purchase a stock replacement?

Thanks Tanfo gurus!

[CHA-LEE]

What is the best way to smooth out imperfections on the plunger and trigger bar/bow? I was thinking of starting with 600 - 800 grit sandpaper and working finer and finer until I get a smooth surface, then final polishing with Flitz and wanted to know if I'm on the right track.

CP - I use a stone grinding bit on a Dremel to remove the bulk of the uneven surface. Then I use a polishing bit to smooth it to a mirror finish.

Can too much material be removed from the plunger and trigger bar/bow from doing the process above? I assume so long as I don't change overall shape I can smooth out the imperfections.

CP - While its possible to "Ruin" anything by going too far, its pretty hard to screw up these two parts by taking too much material off.

I'd also like to change springs to try lighten the pull. I was going to run the 13# hammer spring with Henning XL firing pin. Do they make lighter trigger springs, or am I at the mercy of tweaking my stock trigger spring?

CP - The lightest hammer spring I would suggest would be the 13lb along with the XL firing pin. That combo will ensure solid primer hits. Going to a lower weight hammer spring below a 13lb will only have a very minimal reduction in overall trigger pull weight. As stated before the primary things that cause the trigger pull weight are the trigger return spring and the sear spring.

How much will notching the sear for the sear spring affect trigger pull weight? This seems like the first part I could mess up royally and don't want to risk it if there is minimal gain.

CP - The sear spring has a decent impact on trigger pull weight but that is usually felt after the take up point. You should only feel the added sear spring weight when the sear is moving upwards as it slips past the hammer hooks. Reducing the sear spring weight is a good way to minimize the trigger pull weight difference between the take up trigger movement and the sear push through movement of the trigger pull. The Sear spring can be very light and still function properly so don't worry too much about screwing it up.

I'd eventually like to try Henning's flat trigger, but for now want to try lighten things up with the stock trigger unless Henning's flat trigger will really make a difference.

CP - The Henning Flat Trigger kit has a totally different trigger return spring configuration and uses WAY lighter springs. Since the trigger return spring affects the trigger pull weight the most, using the Henning Flat Trigger kit will dramatically reduce the overall trigger pull weight of the gun. You can easily get a 1.5lb - 2lb trigger pull by using the Henning Flat Trigger Kit.

Final question, when I had the gun disassembled, I noticed the pretravel adjustment set screw was worn to a flat that matched the surface profile of the trigger. I'd like to replace this screw. Anyone know the size or where to purchase a stock replacement?

CP - I don't remember what size the screw is, but its a metric thread. Take the set screw over to an Ace Hardware and use it as an example to find a proper replacement. Ace Hardware is a very good local resource for finding one off strange size or thread fasteners.

Edited April 14, 2014 by CHA-LEE