Gifted 50 cal renegade and set trigger is not working.

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Crawdaddy2488

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I am new to the forum and owning a muzzleloader. I am retired military and know a little about guns but, I cannot figure out why the set trigger is not working. The renegade is a kit ML that my father owned. The ML was found in his closet with the set trigger not working and the bore has seen better days. How would I go about cleaning, servicing, and performing safety checks to ensure that the ML is safe to shoot. No accessories were found with the ML, as far as, ball starter, ramrod accessories, extra nipple, and all the above. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Phil
 
It might look worse than it is. First thing is to verify if the gun is loaded or not.
Shine a light down the barrel to see if you can detect anything. You can also drop the ramrod down the barrel and if it pretty much goes all the way down it's probably empty but if the ramrod sticks up past the bore quite a bit, it may have a load in it.
Next step is to take the gun all apart, remove the barrel, nipple,
lock. Give everything a good cleaning with hot soapy water.
Dry all the parts good and reassemble.
 
The small screw between the triggers is an adjustment screw for the set trigger. It may need adjusting. Take the triggers out of the gun to see if they work when not installed.
 
So far so the ML was not loaded and plan on looking at at triggers this evening. The bore needs some work. What are some techniques on removing the rust and corrosion from the bore? Thanks.
Phil
 
Follow Idaholewis procedure below that he got from Lee Shaver. Many of us have with great results! I'm sure Idaholewis will chime in with the Rods etc that he uses.

Follow this, even though this is for a New, or Leaded barrel, I do this exact procedure to a Bore with rust in it. The KEY is a TIGHT FIT, You want to see the Grooves imprinted in the Patch/0000 Steel Wool, not just the Rifling. And to do this you need a Good Quality Range Rod that you can get Good Leverage/Power with, The rod that is in your Gun is a JOKE here! Again, you need a Good Range type Rod, Then simply follow these directions below. I ad Montana Extreme Bore Polish/Compound, which is the Equivalent of JB’s Bore Paste

”Lee Shaver Barrel Break in procedure”

Having used the jacketed bullet/clean-between-shot process in the past and
specifically Badger’s procedure when breaking-in one of my Browning BPCRs, I
was not looking forward to repeating the very lengthy process with my other
Browning’s. Fortunately Lee Shaver came to the rescue with his much simpler and
less time consuming process. With permission from Lee I’ve included the details
of his procedure. It’s from a larger article Lee published in the May 2013 edition
of The Single Shot Exchange Magazine.

Excerpt from “Breaking In a Barrel” by Lee Shaver:
Several years ago, I developed a process for breaking-in barrels for lead bullet use
that eliminated the afternoon of shooting and cleaning with jacketed bullet. It
began because I would occasionally have to get bad leading out of a barrel for a
customer, and when you charge what a gunsmith must charge to stay in business
you don’t want to spend an afternoon scrubbing the lead out of a customer’s gun.
And I’m sure the customer would rather not pay for said services.

What I learned was that when scrubbing lead out of a barrel, I could run a tight oily
patch through a few times and then take the patch off the jag. I would then unroll a
little 0000 steel wool and cut a piece the size of the patch. Place that over the
patch and then run it all through together. (The proper fit is when you have to
bump the rod a few times with the palm of your hand to get it started in the bore.)
When you shove that steel wool over a patch through the bore of a badly leaded
barrel, it may sound like paper tearing as the lead is ripped out of the barrel in a
pass or two. I can clean the lead out of the worst barrel in about ten or fifteen
minutes that way, and an average leaded barrel will be clean in a few strokes.

After using this technique for a while, I began to notice that the rifles that I was de-
leading that way seemed to lead less afterwards, which got me to thinking. We use
fine steel wool on the outside of old guns all the time to do some cleaning or spot
rust removal, and it does not damage the surface of the steel. It just scrubs it.
Which lead me to consider the fact that we are trying to break in a barrel by
smoothing the surface without cutting, and it seems to me that process would go
much quicker if we used something on the inside of the bore that was closer to the
hardness of the barrel instead of lead or copper. So I started trying the steel wool
and oiled patch technique on new barrels before shooting them. I use it about as
tight as I can get in the bore and wear out a steel wool pad or two in about 15
minutes, then I go and shoot the rifle.

How well does it work you might ask? On a few occasions, I have built a new rifle
and taken it to a match without ever having fired the rifle. All have performed
flawlessly in their first match and several times I won the match or set a record
with them. On one occasion, I set a new 300 yard range record with the first 13
shots out of a barrel. This method has become a service we offer to our customers
here in the shop and I have shared the technique many times with others.

So the next time you get ready to shoot that new rifle, just remember it is important
to break in a barrel properly, but if the operation you are doing to the barrel cuts –
it is not breaking it in. It may be making the barrel smoother, but to break the
barrel in you need to polish the bore by burnishing not cutting either by shooting it
or scrubbing it.
Lee Shaver
 
I have to admit I have been stumped on how to figure these set triggers out. A little background on the T/C renegade 50 cal: it is a kit ML and I would assume that my dad did fire it. I have cleaned it and resembled it. The set trigger will not set and I cannot find any literature on this renegade. Any help would be greatly appreciated via the forum or DMs. Thanks.
 
I have to admit I have been stumped on how to figure these set triggers out. A little background on the T/C renegade 50 cal: it is a kit ML and I would assume that my dad did fire it. I have cleaned it and resembled it. The set trigger will not set and I cannot find any literature on this renegade. Any help would be greatly appreciated via the forum or DMs. Thanks.
If you Google how to adjust set triggers on a TC Hawkin/Renegade, you'll find a video that Idaho Lewis did a while back. Should be helpful.
 
This is how to adjust the Set Trigger Per TC‘s instructions. Some say you should adjust them with the hammer all the way forward in the Fired Position, They say you can possibly damage the Sear by adjusting the Set Trigger in the Halfcock position? I have adjusted MANY of these Old TC Renegades & Hawkens per TC’s instructions and never had any kind of a Problem. You can even do it with the Lock out of the Rifle. Again, My video here is the Way TC advises in Their Manual for their Set Trigger Rifles
 
Thanks for the replies. One quick question on the set triggers. When I removed the trigger mechanism from the stock, on the T/C Renegade, there is an Allen wrench bolt on the inside for the set trigger. Is there any adjustment made there? Thanks I will try the video this evening after work.
Phil
 
Yes, that Allen bolt can be adjusted to increase/decrease tension to the flat spring for the rear trigger.
In many cases they work out of the stock but then don't once put back in due to improper inletting of the stock. Some are set to deep and need shimmed, and some don't have enough removed so that wood is hanging things up. Over tightening when installing can cause issues too.

Be sure to test if it works now that it is removed before trying to make any adjustments. Removed from the stock you should be able to get the set trigger to set as long as the front trigger arm is down fully. If it won't you can try tightening that Allen bolt slightly. It doesn't take much, go about an 1/8 turn at a time.
Also make sure the wire in the front isn't bent or mis adjusted. The wire ensures that the front trigger returns to position correctly so the arm doesn't stay up. When you pull the front trigger you should see the arm/bar raise up, and then when you let go of it the wire should be positioned so that it applies enough force so that it makes the arm drop back down fully. If the arm doesn't go back down fully then the set trigger won't catch it and "set".
 
Quick update and thanks to Idaholewis. Set triggers are working great. Now working on supplies to get the range and zero this baby in.
 
Clean bore/burnish/remove lead as explained by Lee Shaver and mentioned by Idaholewis it is the best (safe way) to treat your bore ! World champion / and rather highly regarded /sought after gunsmith . / Ed
 
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