TC single trigger “Trigger Job”

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Idaholewis

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I finally decided to tackle my little TC New Englander trigger and either ‘make it livable for me, or break it!’ I am happy to say i made a VERY nice trigger out of it! I shot the little rifle the other day and i had forgotten just how horrible the trigger was, it was BAD, 9-9.5 pounds BAD on a Lyman trigger scale. After cleaning the rifle i sat here contemplating inletting and installing a set trigger, after some thought That seemed like more hassle than i cared to go through. I pulled the lock and studied it well, From the fired position as you start to cock the hammer you first enter the Halfcock position, as you continue the Sear passes over the Fly and finally drops in the Full Cocked notch, i noted how deep that notch was, it is a DEEP angled step. I knew i did NOT want to change the angles of the Notch, or the Sear. I wanted to ‘Shorten’ that Deep Full cock Notch. I fully lowered the hammer and pulled the lock apart, first removing the Hammer, then the Main spring, then the Bridle (after the Bridle is removed you need to lift the little Fly out or you will forget and lose it) Then push up on the Sear and the Tumbler will be completely free to remove. The Sear will also easily come out now as well, There is a small detent type spring that the Sear pushes up against, There is a Housing built in the lock for this spring and metal cup, you want to be careful and not lose that little spring and Cup. With Tumbler out I took my calipers and measured from the bottom of the Tumbler to the top of the Full Cock Notch, i got .570 (There is a nice flat spot on the bottom of the Tumbler for the Jaw of your caliper to sit flush, therefore giving consistent readings) I have 3 Brand new Tumblers, i checked all 3 of them as well and got the same .570 on 2 of them and .572 on the other.

hdfxZBZl.jpg
 
I removed 5 Thousands from the Top of the Full Cock Notch, Then used Flitz Metal polish and a Qtip with the tip broken off, the stem of the Qtip will take shape of the Notch when pushed in to it, I polished it to a mirror! I didn’t want to mess with the Sear other than lightly polish the rounded tip (where it makes contact in the Full Cock Notch) I used a tiny bit of the Flitz metal polish on my Leather Strop i made for Finishing my knives on (My Leather Strop is Glued down on a pine board shaped like a paddle so it stays flat) i then pulled the Sear tip across the Strop, 2-3 passes and it looked really good!

I put the Lock back together, installed it back in the Stock, using a folded piece of leather under the hammer i shouldered and checked the pull, Not much if any noticeable difference? Back apart, i took another 5 Thousands off, put everything Back together again and tested, this time i could tell i was getting it, but stil wasn’t to my liking, Back apart again and removed 5 more, this time i checked with the trigger scale and got 4-4.5 pounds, i almost stopped here but decided to pull it apart again and take a few more thou off, Why not make a good thing a little better? Plus i had 3 more brand new Tumblers in case i screwed up and went to far :D in total i removed 18 Thou off the bottom of the Full cock notch!! I knew i was done this time whatever the pull ended up being, so i took extra care in the polishing end and got it to a literal Mirror finish, lightly oiled everything and put it back together again and checked it, it felt AMAZING!! It now breaks at 2-2.5 pounds, and ZERO creep. I bump tested it GOOD N HARD several times, she holds like a ROCK. Again, I didn’t change angles!

Here is a pic of the underside of the lock when put together and in the full cock position, Note the super shiny flat looking spot? That is what i removed, in comparison if you look just below you will see the Half Cock notch tip, The Full Cock Notch Tip looked identical to that before i started removing Material. Sorry about the blurry pic, but you get the idea

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It’s not a difficult job, I was in and out of that lock enough i could do one blind folded now! :lol:

This kind of stuff is not everyone, if you are not comfortable with it, DON’T mess with it!!

I am so accustomed to a light quality trigger that nothing else will do! A rifle is only as good as it’s trigger allows! A 30K Krieghoff would be worthless to me if it had a stiff horrible trigger pull that i could not adjust. A quality trigger is the VERY first thing i do with a new rifle. You guy’s that are shooting stock HEAVY triggers have no idea what you are missing!
 
Lewis ,Thanks for the tutorial on your trigger job. I too have had a dislike for the single trigger on my White Mountain Carbine.
 
Saxtonyoung said:
Lewis ,Thanks for the tutorial on your trigger job. I too have had a dislike for the single trigger on my White Mountain Carbine.

I have never owned a WMC but have handled them, The WMC trigger group setup looked identical to the New Englander to me? Reducing the pull weight is not in the Trigger group anyway, as you can see its in the lock, Tumber/Hammer to be more precise. I think The New Englander, WMC, Hawken, and Renegade all share the same Lock?
 
Saxtonyoung said:
Lewis ,Thanks for the tutorial on your trigger job. I too have had a dislike for the single trigger on my White Mountain Carbine.

As i stated earlier, Trigger pull makes or breaks a rifle to me. I have shot light triggers for so long now that it is EXTREMELY difficult for me to pick up a stock rifle/Trigger and shoot it well, The New Englander i did in this thread was HORRIBLE at best, stiff, with a BUNCH of Creep. Hard to shoot tight Groups with such a nasty trigger! The way i see it, the worst you can really do is take that Full Cock Notch tip down to far, rendering the trigger unsafe. The key is to NOT mess with the Angles, just take down that tip, which has no interference with the angle that the Sear engages in. If by chance you go to far, you will need a new tumbler. The risk was WELL worth it to me, after shooting the New Englander the other day i knew I wouldn’t shoot it anymore until it either had a Set trigger installed, or i tackled the pull weight of the stock single trigger, Turned out to be an easy fix in my opinion.

The only stock triggers i like in these old old Sidelocks is the Double set, they can usually be adjusted down to a pound, if not ounces. They are easily adjusted by anyone! The trigger job i just detailed above with the New Englander is definitely more complex, but it’s really not bad at all to do. If you have semi reasonable skills/knowledge in the way they work you can see what needs to be done. Think about the amount of creep i had in that 18 thou I removed, it was HORRIBLE! If you decide to tackle it make sure you polish the mating surfaces (which is the Angle i warn NOT to change) to a Mirror like finish, get rid of any factory machining/tooling marks, by high lustre polishing you will not hurt anything, just make the trigger break super clean.
 
Idaholewis...Great job, and good pic. A couple more pics and this could be a sticky!
I'm sure it gave you a great sense of accomplishment.
I know it did for me when I lowered my Rem700ml trigger to 2 3/8.
viking
 
I wish I had this tutorial back when I owned a WMC, instead I got frustrated, unloaded it and moved on. I may have to rethink my stance on them and pick up another one.
 
Well Done Lewis!! I need to do this on my single trigger renegade.
 
idahoron said:
I might just do that

I have a good friend just up the rd from me that has a Milling machine with X y table, Cross slide vise, He would do this for me in a second! No worries of screwing it up that way, and it will be done to perfection! It takes much longer to type this than to do that job!! I know EXACTLY what needs done, if you were to remove the tumbler and measure it with your calipers like i did in the photo above you will get .570-.572, You want it to read .555, of course that’s Depending on your particular Sear engagement, But i can almost Gaurantee ya that will be the case! SUPER SIMPLE

With the lock removed and the hammer lowered as far forward as you can get it, that will allow you to remove the Mainspring, i was able to do it no problem with my thumb and index finger. They make a clamp for this, but it’s not necessary in my opinion.
 
Thanks to Lewis sharing how he performed the single trigger "trigger job" , I have been able to fine tune the locks on 5 TC Muzzleloaders. 2 Renegade, 2 WMC and 1 New Englander.
 
Saxtonyoung said:
Thanks to Lewis sharing how he performed the single trigger "trigger job" , I have been able to fine tune the locks on 5 TC Muzzleloaders. 2 Renegade, 2 WMC and 1 New Englander.

AWESOME Job Sax!! It really isn’t difficult to do, Bet you can do 1 in your sleep now huh? :lol: I got so burned out of my New Englander that i truly hated to shoot that Rifle! I knew My last outing with it was my last until i fixed the trigger, This New Englander was HORRIBLE! It’s actually amazing how fine you can tune a single trigger, makes a whole new rifle!
 
edmehlig said:
Wonder if the same could be done for a Lyman Deerstalker? Be careful of what you say Lew, you may get a package in the mail! :lol:

I bet it would be the Same, or extremely close to the same. I would have to see one to know for sure? My lyman Great Plains looks the Same as my TC’s, regardless of brand, these locks work VERY similiar. Toss that lock in the Mail someday and i will fix it up for ya Ed :yeah: Shed a few pounds from it, And HIGHLY polish the Notch of the Tumbler where the Sear engages it
 
Another thanks to you Lewis! I just did this to my WMC and what a difference. I'm off to the range to shoot this guy now. But it already feels 110%better. I measured .570 at the start and it was right at .559 when i decided to call it good enuf for me. Took about 45 minutes because i have no other sidelock experience and i just took it slowly till i felt sure in what i was accomplishing. I have no trigger scale so i don't know the weight but it's a night and day difference
 
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