Trigger Job

[00bullitt]

Any chance you would ever do a tutorial on how to do a trigger job or any of the tricks associated with doing so?

I've got the EGW sear and hammer and prefer to do stuff myself. Any help is appreciated.

[LeoHallak]

Any chance you would ever do a tutorial on how to do a trigger job or any of the tricks associated with doing so?

I've got the EGW sear and hammer and prefer to do stuff myself. Any help is appreciated.

Henning is in Norway at the moment shooting the Nordic Rifle Championships and will be gone till the end of the month. But I do know I have talked him about this and at the present he doesn't have any plans to do any trigger related videos. Its too risky someone doing a trigger job and not fully knowing what they are doing and having accidents happen.

On a different note.. depending if you have prepped you are getting very close to a decent trigger right there and a smith should be able to smooth out the rest. And maybe he will let you watch him work?

If your trigger and sear arent prepped it takes a little bit of work to get them going.

Leo

[00bullitt]

Thanks Leo. I have prepped the sear and hammer both to a mirror shine with an arkansas stone. I filed the trip leg back on the sear to shorten the reset and also added a light relief angle to the sear to get it to break a bit sooner without so much creep. I did not change the primary angle.....only stoned it to remove any imperfections. I filed the tab to clear the safety. I did not cut the hammer hooks any. I did tweak the sear spring some to lighten it. I'm at about 2.75# with a good short positive reset. I had to add in some more overtravel so the sear would not bump the hammer hooks upon release or it would be much shorter. Am I on the right track? Could you maybe PM me what you do. I'm not an amateur when it comes to trigger jobs on most guns. This is just my first ever experience with a Witness.

Thanks!

[LeoHallak]

Thanks Leo. I have prepped the sear and hammer both to a mirror shine with an arkansas stone. I filed the trip leg back on the sear to shorten the reset and also added a light relief angle to the sear to get it to break a bit sooner without so much creep. I did not change the primary angle.....only stoned it to remove any imperfections. I filed the tab to clear the safety. I did not cut the hammer hooks any. I did tweak the sear spring some to lighten it. I'm at about 2.75# with a good short positive reset. I had to add in some more overtravel so the sear would not bump the hammer hooks upon release or it would be much shorter. Am I on the right track? Could you maybe PM me what you do. I'm not an amateur when it comes to trigger jobs on most guns. This is just my first ever experience with a Witness.

Thanks!

Honestly sounds like you are well on your way... what do your hammer hooks measure now? they should be cut to around .012. a lot of the time you have to make sure most of the half cock is shortened or even removed so it doesn't have problems with it.

Did you also do the other standard things for a trigger job on one? smooth the trigger shoe sides, polish the top of the trigger plunger? sounds like you have the 13lb hammer spring.

Leo

[CHA-LEE]

00bullitt> I sent you a PM on this process

[00bullitt]

I pulled the gun down again last night to rework some things and measure the hammer hooks. The hooks on the EGW hammer were .020"

I was too scared to cut them all the way to .012 the first time so I cut them to .016"

I polished every contact surface and reassembled. Definitely much smoother feeling and break dropped to a touch over 2.25#. I'm prettty happy with the feel and reset right now. I'm pretty sure if I cut the hammer hooks a bit lower it will drop another quarter off the break but I think I like it where it is.

Thank you guys for the help,it was much appreciated. A good trigger really makes the Witness an awesome platform.

[CHA-LEE]

Cutting the hammer hooks lower will just lesson the trigger travel needed to drop the hammer, other known as “Trigger Creep”. Watch out with making them too low for two reasons. First, if they are too short it is easier to end up with a hammer follow issue due to the Sear Cage squirming around under load while firing. Second, you can end up with a situation where the trigger pull distance to the break verses the trigger reset release distance is very lopsided and you have this dead band of “Take Up” between the two trigger actuation positions. This is a personal preference thing but I prefer to have a trigger setup where there is more trigger creep verses more take up before it breaks. To me this feels more consistent as you pull the trigger because there isn’t too much of a pull weight difference during most of the trigger pull stroke. Otherwise you would end up with a really light take up, then hit a stiffer trigger pull at the end of the trigger pull as the sear lip is pushed past the hammer hooks. Some people like that, others don’t. That is the personal preference part of doing trigger jobs.

All I can tell you is that I am able to shoot the best and most accurate when more trigger creep is present verses there being less and you tend to mash the trigger through the second level of trigger pull weight. When the trigger goes from light to stiff it’s a lot easier to induce movement into the gun before the shot breaks. Verses the same pressure being needed for the majority of the trigger pull. I hope this makes sense.

Take your time and sneak up on the adjustments in small increments. As you already know, if you go to far with the adjustments your parts are useless and you will have to start over with new ones.