Author Topic: Weatherby Vanguard trigger adjustment. (Read 2464 times)

SeaBass · « **on:** October 24, 2004, 04:43:29 PM »

Anyone have any advice on how to fine tune the trigger on my vanguard?

I have backed the weight screw (fwd) out as far as it will go with out falling out.

I turned in the creep(aft) screw in as far as I can and still have the safety work.

Is this the best I can hope for or should I keep tinkering with it and see if it gets better.

The trigger is actually pretty decent. But it is still a bit heavy at about 5#. (on my digital fish scale). There's not a huge amount of creep but more than I would like. There's no real overtravel and everyone who has tried it says it has a really nice trigger. When I shoot on the bench though I can feel the trigger "scrape twice" then break cleanly.

It will shoot 1" groups at 100yds but I think it could be better.

What do you guys think?

P.S. I borrowed an RCBS premium trigger scale and the pull was 4.75lbs

Triple4 · « **Reply #1 on:** October 25, 2004, 02:27:10 AM »

Yes you can work the trigger but it involves more time and effert then most people want to do, it is much easier to just buy a good trigger brownells or Midway have after market triggers.

Dangerous advice edited out by Graybeard.

Greybeard · « **Reply #2 on:** October 25, 2004, 02:40:51 AM »

I'd rate that piece of advice as very dangerous and highly recommend you ignore it.

Filing on a sear is a NO NO for real. NEVER EVER file a sear. The most you'd ever do is to stone it with a hard Arkansas stone and not even that unless you are really sure you know what you're doing. To even think about using silver solder to replace excess metal removed is lunacy.

Thinking on it that's so dangerous I'm gonna go in and edit it out. I just cannot and will not allow such dangerous advice to be posted here.

Triple4 · « **Reply #3 on:** October 25, 2004, 04:45:48 AM »

GB do as you please but the part of the sear I'm refering to is the part that makes contact with the safety. As I stated before it would be better to buy a new trigger then mess with the factory one.

safetysheriff · « **Reply #4 on:** October 25, 2004, 01:30:30 PM »

Group,

I have answered a PM' from Seabass re: this trigger group. I referred him to www.centerfirecentral.com to see how the work is done on a somewhat similar trigger engagement on the Ruger 77 MkII. It is as GB' has stated, in my opinion, a no-no to work on the sear; and the work that is done must keep a reasonable trigger-sear engagement and the proper angles at the engagement points. I have re-worked some Rugers using the posting at that site, without working on the sear. They work very well when done properly.

The Vanguard I worked on: I Briefly polished the trigger with 600 grit wet-dry machinists paper and put everything back together. I kept a proper angle doing so. I took off a minimal amount of metal to do so; and the trigger is now up to very reasonable standards. I lubricated the trigger at the sear-engagement point with Valvoline Extreme Pressure -type automotive grease.

"Don't do this at home" if you are not sure what you are doing. A 'smith can do it easily for a reasonable fee.

Take Care!

SS'

SD Handgunner · « **Reply #5 on:** October 30, 2004, 06:30:41 AM »

Seems most of the Weatherby Vangards suffer from the same problem. I worked on one earlier this week for a buddy. With the engagement screw set so the safety still functioned, there was at least 3 distinct points of creep I could feel.

With the trigger removed from the Rifle, I then removed the trigger lever from it's housing. The contact point of this part was horrible, and it looked like some filed it crosswise or something. I clamped my HARD knife shaprening stone into the vise and set everything up under a magnifying glass so I could see exactly what I was doing every step of the way. I carefully honed away the 3 little high spots on the surface, and that is all I did. I actually honed so little as to not even change the texture of the entire engagement surface. When viewed under a magnifying glass the part looked as though it was investment cast and just came out rough.

This was a very tedious job, and unless you are competent working on Trigger leave it to a gunsmith. Either that or be prepaired to buy replacement parts and turn it over to a gunsmith in the end.

After I had things smooth I still was not able to achieve under a 4 1/2 pound trigger pull weight with the factory spring. I found some spring stock and was able to make a replacement spring that brought the pull weight down to 3 pounds. The replacement spring I made this spring out of is in a box of bulk gun springs I purchased from a gunsmith many years ago.

The end result was a really decent trigger that took 2 1/2 hours of work. If you are not totally familiar with triggers, how the operate and confident in working on them, take it to a gunsmith as I am sure the bill for tuning the trigger will be less than if you mess it up, have to buy replacement parts and ultimately end up taking it to a gunsmith to fix (been there, done that many years ago).

SD Handgunner

SeaBass · « **Reply #6 on:** November 04, 2004, 09:56:39 AM »

Thanks for the input guys. I think what Triple4 was talking about is when you adjust the creep "too" low the safety will not work. This is done by the front of trigger(not the sear) contacting the safety's detent plunger as the creep screw pushes the trigger forward. The area of the trigger that hits the plunger is not machined very well. I stoned the high spots of this area but did not polish it as it is not meant to be smooth. This allowed me to take out most of the creep and still have a reliable safety. I polished the sear engagement points with six thousand grit paper and applied a little moly to them. I resisted the urge to trim the trigger tension spring but I did compress it fully with a pair of pliers though I doubt it made a difference. The end result is a rather nice trigger with very little creep and a clean break at just under 4 pounds. I could have taken all the creep out but I left a tiny bit to ensure proper(SAFE) sear engagement. I think the best way to lower the weight would be a new spring. As it is now it is very usable for a hunting rifle. It shot sub moa before tuning the trigger so I can't wait to see what it's like now. I could tune it a bit more but rifle season starts next weekend so I'll leave things as they are for now and see how they work out.