Trigger Job Post-Mortem

[Mainer]

I threw all caution to the wind and did a trigger job on my Handi over the weekend.

Getting the pins out was slightly tough.  Unfortunately, I dinged the hole for the larger trigger guard pin.  Cosmetic only and you'd have to look for it to see it, but it makes me MAD! :evil:

Polishing and stoning were straightforward.  Making the slave pin was time consuming, but not difficult.

Even reassembly was easy (I had both Raynor's and Perklo's instructions and I removed only the hammer pin and the two trigger guard pins.  I also remembered Fred M's advice about keeping the hammer back and the barrel release pushed in while re-installing the trigger assembly.) . . .

It was easy UNTIL I had to hammer in the spline side of the pins.  And I mean HAMMER!!  What a huge PITA it is to get the larger pins fully seated!  It was the worst part of the job.  I assume the factory uses some sort of a press and not hammers and punches.  There has got to be a better way than hammers and punches!!

Some disturbing items:

I wanted to test the trigger pull after performing the trigger job.  I did not have snap caps so I tried using a fired case.  The action would not lock up with a fired case in the chamber.  Also, the ejector did not always want to eject the previously fired case (not a big problem, could probably be remedied by chamber polishing).

Worst of all, it seems that I have to close the action firmly in order to get it to lock up.  This was the case before the trigger job and I am pretty confident I reassembled correctly.  I think I just paid more attention to this after have worked on the gun.  Is this typically?  The gun is very new--only five rounds have been fired through it.

I think the trigger job itself came out well.  The only way I've been able to dry fire the gun is with my thumb on the hammer to keep it from striking, but from what I can tell, the trigger feels much better.

I will range test the gun at the soonest opportunity.

Does anyone have any insight on the lockup issue?  Is it normal to have to close the action briskly to get it to lock up?

[raynor]

Mainer,

For dry firing, cock the hammer and stuff a wad of cleaning patch material or paper towel between the hammer and transfer bar. Pack enough in there so the hammer barely drops at all. Works with any hammer gun, pistol, revolver, Contender, Encore, and lever guns.

Dry fire to your hearts content without worry of any damage. I've done it 1000's of time with no problems, even shoulder the gun for a better feel of what your pull weight is.

For the lock-up issue, have you cleaned the barrel lug and breech face good. These things all seem to come from the factory pretty grubby.

[Mainer]

Raynor:

First of all, thanks for your trigger honing directions.  I haven't seen your new and updated directions, but I relied in large part on the "prior edition" to get me through this project.

Also, great tip on stuffing cleaning wad under the hammer to allow dry firing.  I'd never thought of that.

I just dry fired the gun for the first time since performing the trigger job.  It turned out great!! :grin:

The trigger breaks absolutely cleanly.  If I had to quess, I'd say at 4lbs (but this is just a guess, it could be lighter).  It is substantially lighter than what it had been (I would guess 6+lbs).  It is now just what I want, not so heavy that you have to think "WHEN is this thing going to break?"  Not so light that it breaks prematurely.

I followed what I'd heard and went really light on the honing.  About 20 light strokes on a fine Arkansas stone for the hammer sear and 20 for the trigger.

As suggested in Perklo's directions, I also polished some of the exterior surfaces of the hammer and trigger where the respective parts ride on each other so the newly honed surfaces wouldn't get roughed up.

The only other polishing I did was of the holes in the hammer and in the trigger.  I used Noxon 7 metal polish and Q-Tips to do this.  Perklo had suggested using 600 grit sandpaper, but I feared I might take off too much material using sandpaper.

One thing that helped me out on reassembly was layering small pieces of masking tape on the receiver around the pins.  This helped to protect the receiver in case the punch slipped.

On the lock up thing, yes the gun is clean.  I cleaned as much of it as I could get to shortly after I purchased it.   Then, while doing the trigger job I sprayed out the receiver with Gun Scrubber.  I must have gotten a bucket full of metal shavings.

Oddly, too, for some reason this morning the gun seems to be locking up better.  It locked up without extra effort on about 5 out of 6 tries.  It was late last night when finished reassembly, so maybe that was part of the issue.

Still I would appreciate any further feedback on the lockup issue.  I just noticed I can see a small gap between the top of the barrel and the top of the receiver.