Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles The foolproof Model 70 trigger.

Pre-64 M70
Fool me once, shame on you.

Wow, never saw that.

What vintage?

DF

I'm not following - who's fooling you? You've never seen a metal part fail?

I'd bet it wasn't heat treated properly...

Nor I.

OTOH, I've seen Remington bolt handles fall off, and Walker triggers fail

Yep, have seen those.

Just a first for a classic M-70.

Just wondering what vintage, pre-64, later versions?

DF

1951 vintage, the gun looks like it hadn’t seen a box of shells.
I replaced it with another post 64 trigger but the shoe is too wide to fit through the hole in the trigger guard. So it will be in pieces until I can get it milled down.

The bolt handle is still on fortunately.

Brother Peters had a mechanical failure

Always fixing [bleep] it seems…

Google pre-64 trigger parts, they’re available.

If it’s not a collector you could relieve the bottom metal, widen the trigger slot.

DF

Interesting
I have only had two mechanical failures.
First, pre64 M70 trigger broke
Second, 98 Mauser extractor broke

Any mechanism can fail

Very interesting, I've never seen that before either. I'd buy another one off of ebay for $35.00.

I haven't seen that either. Not surprised, they made a few of them!



Jesus, like a bull in a china shop....

Knew a fellow who would break anything. Friends got together and bought him an anvil. He was taking it into the shop, dropped it on the concrete and broke the beak off.
Trigger might have been overly hard. Undoubtedly had some sharp corners and/or toolmarks which created a fracture point (works just like a glass cutter).
As for the post-64 replacement trigger; What, you don't have a file?
A breakage like this can sometimes be cause by having the overtravel set too tight. A person can do a lot to prevent this by allowing for a little overtravel and by polishing out any toolmarks which may create a stress point. I am convinced that the very BEST trigger, if you want one which will not break, is the 98 Mauser, two-stage, trigger. Having said this, I've not managed to break any on any of my rifles. Maybe just lucky. GD

The very unlikely can indeed happen…..even with the older Model 70 trigger! memtb

Well it’s fixed. Luckily it didn’t happen on the side of a mountain. But instead in my basement. Where most catastrophic internet broadcast hunt ending failures occur. Phew!

Ditto.

Man, I wanna know what might have caused THAT issue...

Did you open up the bottom metal to accommodate the wider trigger?

DF

No the new trigger was ground down to the same width as the original one.

More trouble but a better solution.

DF

That’s not original Winchester Factory work. Actually, it’s almost Criminally Stupid work by Bubba.
Appears that someone modified the bearing surfaces on both the trigger and sear and messed up catastrophically. Instead of welding, milling and re-hardening the trigger and sear or just buying a replacement trigger and sear they somehow attached (silver solder or super glue?) the little piece of metal that fell off in an attempt to remedy the problem. The trigger and sear are only two pieces in this assembly, the piece that fell off is not an original Winchester part. Very dangerous as this is the type of situation where a gun will discharge when the safety is taken off.