Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Ernie Spring for MOA Trigger

I just replaced another MOA trigger spring with an Ernie's. The pull weight was under 2lbs. without the adjustment screw. Not sure I'd be comfortable at that pull weight, but 2.25 was doable.

The problem with the MOA trigger appears to be tolerance stack. No two appear to be alike when you work on them and I've yet to work on one that is anywhere near as good as their PR states. The one I worked on today was like a military two stage regardless of pull weight.

Probably not going to find one that small. If you have never messed with a moa trigger, you might think about not responding. Hint... Stick to your clay shooting instead..

I can certainly live with 2.25 - 2.5.

I appreciate everyone's input. I'll order a couple of springs today. My BIL has one that he'll probably want to have lightened as well.

Thanks again.

Uh oh BSA getting feisty here on the forums... I figured if someone has gone through the trouble to find the correct spring and wants to charge $7 for it I will buy it. I'm not going to go down to the local hardware sort and dig through bins of springs trying to find the right one. The trigger on my BACo made model 70 is decent. I should order one of these springs, and attempt to do it.

Damn how light do guys like those triggers?

5 BACO's here and not a one needed the trigger touched. Are they coming through heavy today or something?

On my last one I couldn't do much better than about 3.75 and I keep the Classics are 2.75lbs so I swapped in the Ernies. Was able to match the pull weight but it still didn't "feel" like my Classics or Pre64. Not a horrible thing and I thought the trigger was fine, but I'm just picky with the older triggers feel.

I have had/have exactly 2 BACOS and they were about the same , no less then 3.25-3.50 lbs

Well Bob, I like my triggers set at 2.5 pounds. I'm like Scotty and couldn't get mine down less than 3.75 pounds with the factory spring. This was with the adjustment screw all the way out of the trigger. I'm also a huge advocate of the old style trigger because of its simplicity and ease of adjustment and fine tuning. A little polishing of the sear and you are good to go. However, I am not in agreement with him about the MOA not being as nice feeling as the old triggers. I've shot pre 64's, classics and BACO's side by side and compared them and to be honest, the BACO's MOA trigger is smoother as it should be because of the mechanical advantage it has in its operation/design. I know Scotty has asked me in the past if I've had the old design "worked on" to make them smoother and the answer was yes. Maybe not professionally, but when polished out, they are damn nice. Just not as nice and smooth as the MOA's I've had. No denying the mechanical advantage the MOA has over the old style. We love the old trigger, but until a person has many rifles laid out in front of him and shoots all of them in different field positions he'll not have the basis for comparison. BTDT with 5 different BACO rifles and came to the same conclusion... The only old one that came remotely close was my competition rifle made by FN back when FN was turning out good/great stuff. Not the Browning Arms Co. Portuguese chit we are seeing today... . I'd like to throw in the old adage that "YMMV", but I'm thinking if a person gave it an honest try they'll come to the same conclusion I did. If not, they may have gotten a lemon.

Rev, I got the spring for my 77/22 RSI from Ernie and it's lighter than the clipped Wolffe it replaced. Got two so I can put one in my FN .270 as well. The Ruger is very manageable offhand now.

Thanks again (you too Ernie).

That's really good to hear. I picked up a couple: one for my BACO Featherweight and one for the Super Grade I'm going to beg, borrow, or steal from my BIL. I haven't had a chance to install it yet. I'll report back when I do.

Installed the other spring in my Mauser today. Big improvement. There is some after-travel, but the pull is light and crisp. No Timney for me.

I put an Ernie's in my last M70 today. Unlike the last one I did, I could not get the pull below 3lbs. A big improvement over 4.25 and what it should have been capable of being adjusted to in the first place.

Now if someone would come up with a method of getting the 4oz variance out of the MOA pull................

Ultra fine stone on sear and trigger, Making the contact surfaces as smooth as possible was about all i could do to make it break consistantly. I would not recomment this as you can take too much off and be S*** out of luck. You have to completely disassemble the trigger to do this. Its not as easy as just changing the spring. The contact surfaces on sear and trigger had machining marks on them which made the trigger feel gritty to me(dont know how else to explain that)

(Actually, it explains it very well)

The hard part for most of us would be keeping everything square and knowing when to stop (generally before we start).

Would one of you mind telling me the correct punch size on the retaining pins? I don't want to bugger them up with a nail.

Thanks.

Can't say for sure (without pulling a gun apart), but around 1/8". I just eyeball it and grab one out of the set rolling around my toolbox. Not to worry though; the pin holding tbe trigger to the action is very loose in the hole, being held under slight pressure from the spring and also retained within the inletting. It pushes right out, no hammers required (this applies to my Ruger and Mauser. Haven't fiddled with a MOA, but should be similar. INSIDE a MOA is another matter).

Thanks. I haven't pulled it apart yet, but I don't have any punches at all in my tool box. Plenty of nail-sets, but I don't think that'll work.

I'll eyeball it and run by the hardware store and pick one up.

After I posted, I went on Ernie's site and read the 'structions. It's a bit more complex than what I faced, but not bad. I would recommend getting a set of punches as there are a total of three pins to remove and the one on the trigger itself may be a different size. If any of them require the use of any force, you definitely want the correct size. Be sure to get flat punches, not the roll-pin type with the nubbin on the end. An angled tweezers may be helpful as well. The instructions are very clear and well illustrated.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Thanks. I read the instructions on Ernie's site as well. As you said, I'll get a set with different sizes. Actually, since I need a few more screwdriver heads, I might just order the Weaver set that has punches as well as a variety of drivers.

Thanks again.

I just went out and checked mine. It breaks at a clean 2.5 pounds (with a gauge) with Ernies spring. I couldn't get it lower than 3.75 if I recall with factor springs.

My pre 64 breaks at 2.25 pounds.

Despite being a closed system and "not the p64 trigger" the MOA is a pretty good feeling trigger IMO.