Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Ruger American trigger

A friend bought a RAR and wanted me to lighten his trigger. He likes them at around 2# or so. I took this one down to a little over 3#'s with all the tension off the spring. I would need to go with a weaker spring to adjust below 3#'s. With the adjustment screw completely out of the trigger housing, the spring stays in. So, I guess the trigger would have to be taken apart to get to that spring.

This is the first RAR trigger I've messed with. I have experience taking 700 triggers apart, etc. Just hate to tackle one I've never taken apart before and on another man's gun.

Any suggestions or help would be appreciated.

DF

They come apart pretty easily, not too much fuss. If you're taking the sear apart it's a little more complicated to get back together, you have to compress a spring while driving a pin back in, but it's not too bad. The trigger spring is pretty easy though.

You can get a different spring, or cut/compress a couple coils on the factory spring. I prefer to heat a couple coils red and compress them, it leaves a more stable base for the spring than cutting, but either way works.

My RAR trigger is down around 2-ish lb doing this, although I also stoned the sear a little to get rid of most of the creep; it had quite a bit of creep out of the box.

Thanks, may give that a whirl.

DF

Just got back from the shop. Removed the trigger "C" clip and pin, then the trigger. Removed spring, cut a couple links off and replaced it. 2 1/4# pull without creep.

My bud will be very pleased.

Thanks,

DF

How many coils did you snip I would like to lighten mine. Any pics

Two coils at first, then an additional half coil.

The trigger is easy to take apart, much easier than I thought it would be, much easier to work on than a 700 trigger.

Sometimes inexpensive triggers don't respond well to light settings, develop creep and/or instability. Not this one. It may be low cost, but it ain't cheap. Quality for less, sorta typical for Ruger.

I'm impressed. I've worked on a lot of guns over the years. The RAR is a masterpiece of low cost, high quality design/engineering/manufacturing.

The bedding points, front and rear of the box mag, is a lot like my Alpha Arms Alaskan. Same idea. The way the stock attaches to the action is pure genius, more for less.

DF

DF, I agree, lots of good engineering went into the RAR to make it good but also easy to manufacture. Good example of "work smarter not harder".

I don't have an RAR.

If someone needs a low cost, high quality rifle, the RAR is a great choice.

I think Ruger knocked this one out of the park.

DF

Mine shot a eight shot group at a MOA at seven hundred yards tonight.

Fact.

Not much left to be said.

Only 'improvement' I've made to my .308 was to tune the trigger and fully bed the the barrel with Good Stuff expanding foam from Home Depot. Seems to be a bit more consistent than the floppy free float. Remains to be seen what effect cold winter weather will have on the foam bedding though. Epoxy bedding would have added more weight and I was curious how the foam would work out.

I've not had good luck with conventional bedding material sticking to Tupperware.

Let us know how your bedding works.

The way Ruger designed the hook up, I'm not sure bedding will do anything for the action. The floppy forearm is another matter, but may not affect much. I'm not sure. RAR's seem pretty accurate right out of the box.

DF

I snipped two coils and polished the sear it will easily brake at 1#. I turned the screw in three turns and am very happy at 1 1/2 #s. I could easily turn it back up to 4# thanks for the info this will make a very accurate rifle even better.

The foam bedding in the fore end seems to reduce the few unexplained flyers that I was getting. Don't know for sure since I have shot the rifle less than 100 times (still have a few bullets left in the once full box of Scenars) since adding the foam. The idea was not to stiffen the fore end but to make the contact between the fore end and barrel consistent with as little induced stress as possible. I don't use a bipod with the RAR so don't know how one would affect consistency. Experiment is still ongoing.

I like the Marlin X guns better than the RARs, but they are no longer in production and that has left a weak market niche for the RARs to exploit. The RAR-Predators that I have shot are all accurate, but I can see them becoming money pits if you swap the trigger to a Timney and the stock to a Boyds. I put Boyds Heritage laminated stocks on RAR-Ps in 223, 243, and 6.5 Creed, but the price for a stiffer stock was an added pound of weight, from 8lbs. to 9lbs. out the door.

I don't think a bipod would be a good idea with that stock. Would like to hear from anyone who's tried one.

DF

How does the Thompson Center version compare?

DF

I use a bipod with mine sometimes, but opened up the barrel channel generously when I got it. Mine is also the newer stock with the X reinforcements in the forend, so it doesn't flex as much. No issues so far with or without a bipod. I haven't shot it as much as I'd like either though.

I have done a few Ruger American triggers and have found them very similar to the Ruger MKII how they work. As such I have found that the sear engagement angle has the most affect on the trigger pull weight and feel. You can run it without the spring and it will only go so light. I have a jig for changing the angle and going towards neutral I can get the weight as low as one pound and still use the factory spring. Shortening the spring is not always indicated because if the pull is aborted the spring and positive angle will return the engagement to 100 percent. I recut the angle for the pressure I want, then adjust the sear engagement using a dial indicator to between .007" and .014" depending on the intended use of the rifle and the experience level of the shooter. The surface finish must be very smooth and consistent to eliminate the creep feel. This is near impossible to do freehand. I can only get it with super fine stones. A Foredom/dremel or buffer will wreck one of these in a quick second. My next investment for trigger work will be a stereo microscope with a hook up for a big screen monitor for doing these. Head band magnifiers just don't offer the resolution a guy really needs to do a first rate job on a sear.

The only T-C that I own is a 1970s vintage .54 caliber Hawkins.

A few comments:

As Yondering mentioned, the newer RAR stocks have much stiffer forends, and so far most I have seen don't even require any rasp work to keep them truly free-floating, unlike the original stock.

In my experience, if the barrel is truly free-floated (whether in the older stock or newer) there aren't any "fliers" with good ammo. An example is my stainless .243, which will keep 10 shots (not 3 or 5) at 100 under an inch with handloads using 105 Berger Hunting VLD's. Dunno why anybody would go to all the trouble of stiffening and bedding the forend when it's so simple and quick to modify them slightly to be really free-floated.

The stock triggers will normally adjust down to 2.75 to 3.25 pounds, but if you lighten the return spring a little they will go around 2 pounds. Some people may not like the pull itself but I've shot a bunch of RAR's at varmints, big game, paper and steel (the steel out to 1000 yards) and haven't had any problems. A friend's 6.5 Creedmoor outshoots his expensive custom 6.5 Creedmoor silhouette rifle with the trigger modified exactly the way mentioned above in competition.

The T/C Venture is another good one. I have a Compact (20" barrel) in .308 that's as accurate as an RAR, but with a more adjustable trigger and stiffer stock. It's also heavier: Mine weighs 8 pounds 2 ounces scoped, while my RAR standard weighs exactly 7 poounds, but to be fair 5 of those extra ounces on the Venture Compact come from its 3-9x42 Zeiss Terra, while the RAR has a 6x38 Weaver. (Rings on both are Weavers.) The T/C costs around $100 more.

It always baffles me when people buy a cheap rifle that shoots very accurately with a decent (if not spectacular) trigger pull, then spend a bunch of money and/or time to somehow make it "better." But it's free country.