Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Ruger Hawkeye replacement trigger suggestions

I have an all-weather Hawkeye 30-06 I bought a couple years ago, I want to replace the trigger. Anyone have a recommendation for a good drop in replacement trigger?

My older Mk II's have Timney triggers. They required a bit of fitting of the 3-position safety.
I thought the Hawkeye trigger was supposed to be better than what came in my rifles. Rife Basics is also worth a look, they used to be true drop-in.

The Wolffe spring works wonders. Did 2 or 3 of them with that, and 2-3 pounds is easily attainable.

If your hawkeye trigger is good. ie: breaks pretty clean, just heavy, try one of the aftermarket springs. I have used Earnie's with success. In my experience that will take some of the weight off. You can do some very minor polishing the engagement surface too. Some folks would stone it, but I have had some luck hitting it with a dremel polishing wheel.

The timney will require you to file to fit the trigger under the safety. Its a bit of a PITA, but takes less than a half hour and if you can move a file it shouldn't be a problem. The timney will break clean and is adjustable to less than 2 lbs.

The spring option is ~$10, the Timney is ~$120. I have done a few of both and both can work depending on what your goal is.

I have the Ruger M77 Hawkeye Guide Gun. Bought the Ernie spring and took it to my local gunsmith. He has an assortment of springs he uses. I told him to use whatever spring he that was best. My trigger was 4.5 before I took it to him. He honed sear and replaced spring. Got it done to 1.5 pounds with no creep. Past the bump test. He also honed bolt rails, free floated and glass bed action. Total cost was $45.00.

Not to derail the thread but, I'd like to find a gunsmith that would do all that work for $45.

I went with a Rifle Basix Trigger and really like it. Easy enough to install. A spring kit may be even easier and less expensive?

His wife is an owner operator truck driver and he is retired. He doesn't do gunsmith to make a profit. He does it to met gun friends to keep him occupied.

On my hawkeye, I just ground a couple of coils out of the factory spring. It is about 4 lb now, good enough for a big game rifle.

I just ordered a spring from Ernie's. Might try polishing the surface where the sear meets the trigger too...

I have a Hawkeye that had a Timney in it when I bought it (second-hand). The PO said Timney installed it). It is a very nice and quality trigger, but too light for a field/hunting gun, IMO. I put the Ruger spring back in, but kept the Timney shoe and sear.

Jard also makes a Ruger trigger. Never used one of those before.

My suggestion is to keep the open design Ruger trigger and do a little work on the trigger engagement surface and the sear. I'm no mechanic, but in about thirty minutes I can make you forget about wanting a replacement trigger...........and in all likelihood, so can you. Just follow the directions on these two sites.

http://www.centerfirecentral.com/77trigger.html

http://www.centerfirecentral.com/images/trigger.gif

If you are talking about a replacement trigger anyway, what have you got to lose other than about 30 to 45 minutes of your time. It ain't that hard.......

Goes without saying. If you can't work on a Ruger 77 trigger, you probably shouldn't be allowed to own a gun...

I have done 4-5 Timney's in M77 MKII and Hawkeye configs and 3 Rifle Basix in Hawkeyes. If had to order another tomorrow, it would be the Rifle Basix. Very easy to install and adjust to a crisp light break. Very nice for the price.

Mark in GA

Not to hard to work over the factory trigger