stoning the hammer on an 1894 Winchester

[John Y Cannuck]

I have a pre '64 assembled from parts, junker I'd like to play with.
Anyone know what part of the hammer to stone to improve the trigger?  

[Sky C.]

Mr. Cannuck-

FWIW-  Stoning of trigger surfaces is usually restricted to work on the sear; the engagement surfaces on the hammer are typically left alone.  If you are of a mind, I'd recommend two items.

1.  The book "Gunsmithing Guns of The Old West" which has an excellent few pages about trigger/sear design & function.

2.  Trigger stoning fixture to keep precise angles and provide for an accurate/repeatable means of adjustment.  The one I have is made by "Power Custom" - Series 1 stoning fixture (available from Brownell's).  It is designed to use various adapters to mount the components to be stoned but I have found that even for models that are not listed - it is readily adaptable with a bit of thought.  

Best regards-

Sky C.

[John Y Cannuck]

Thanks for the info, I'll have to do some more research it seems.

[Ganjiro]

I have a pre '64 assembled from parts, junker I'd like to play with.
Anyone know what part of the hammer to stone to improve the trigger?  

Whole article excellent but figure 3 pertains specifically to your need:
http://www.time-slice.com/mohave.gambler/favorites/LeverGuns/Winchester94.htm

[John Y Cannuck]

New design looks like this:


Mine however, all look like this:


So I presume to study the polishing of the sear (item 53 above).
I'll start with just cleaning it up. Then look at polishing fixtures.
Why I thought it was the hammer? because I had one done on my 1886 a few years ago, and he got a nice four pound pull on it. But shortly there after, the hammer broke the half cock notch, and had to be replaced. After that, the pull was greatly increased.
So, I'll have to check the sear on the 1886 for damage too.

[Ganjiro]

After posting I recalled the article pertained to the new rebounding hammer models, and you did mention yours as pre-64 so info does not fit.  Sorry  :oops:
I just finished replacing the lower tang and rebounding hammer from my Ranger Compact 94 and installing a hammer and lower tang from a 70s vintage 94 thus returning the gun to original design with decent 3 lb. trigger pull, and best of all a halfcock safety I grew up with.  Plugged the tang safety hole with an ivory plug with my initials.  Now it works the way John M. Browning meant it to.  

[Winter Hawk]

I polished the full cock notch on the hammer of my 1976 Marlin 336 V-E-R-Y carefully to maintain the same angle, and just enough to make it smooth.  Then I also polished the seer and had a trigger pull so light it scared me.  I roughed up the hammer notch a bit to make it (trigger pull) a tad heavier.

-WH-

[John Y Cannuck]

I polished the full cock notch on the hammer of my 1976 Marlin 336 V-E-R-Y carefully to maintain the same angle, and just enough to make it smooth.  Then I also polished the seer and had a trigger pull so light it scared me.  I roughed up the hammer notch a bit to make it (trigger pull) a tad heavier.

-WH-

Great, I hope it works out that way for me. My Winchesters have a variety of trigger pulls, from a reasonable 5lbs to an insane 14. If it works on the junker, the rest will follow.

[Dee]

:gun4:  :twisted:

[Dee]

Now didn't my first post make a lot of sense?
Sear match and smoothness is important but, here are some things often ignored and sometime the real culprit. Smooth the hammer and trigger pins with either a dremmel tool or 600 paper. Not even enough to take the blueing off but to make it feel slick. Also note wear surfaces on sides of hammer and trigger and inside of receiver where both contact. Polish these areas as well. Rough areas in these locations will screw up the best of sear work. When installing the hammer and trigger I use a small amount of lithium grease on the pins. NO! Not on the sear work. Also if you have a flat main spring take a jewelers file and smooth up any burrs or machine marks. This will cause the spring to flex evenly. That trick probably dates me to police officers trigger jobs on duty weapons  back when most of them carried those less deadly revolvers. If the main spring is a coil and has a spring guide. Take the guide out and put a high polish on that. This will make the entire weapon cycle smoother.

[gunnut69]

It IS permissable to work on a hammer sear. The sear on the hammer isd commonly altered to eliminate creep, that gritty feeling that goes on forever  when pulling the trigger. There are a couple of methods. Lower the hieght of the sear abutment(always polished first!) or stone a release bevel on the sear face. In either case moderation is a virtue and smoothing up the pull comes first.  Also a note, when smoothing a spring always polish along the length of the spring, the direction  along which it flexes. Polishing across can leave tiny scrathes which form stress accumulators that can cause the spring to fail. Obviously I am speaking of leaf style springs..

[Winter Hawk]

John Y Cannuck;

So how did you make out?  Do you have a light but reliable trigger?

-WH-

[John Y Cannuck]

John Y Cannuck;

So how did you make out?  Do you have a light but reliable trigger?

-WH-

Actually, it suddenly occured to me that Moose hunting starts next weekend, and i'm not ready.
So, it got back burnered for now. However, of note, I have in the past polished pins, and hammer sides, found stocks that rubbed hammers, rounded some overly sharp edges, and had considerable improvement.

What gave me a scare, is an old SMLE I picked up. Someone had messed with the sear on it, normally a two stage, it now is a long first stage, followed by a very scary hair trigger.