Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Shilen, Rifle basix, Timney or jewell trigger?

Guy's, I have been thinking about replacing a trigger in my remington 700. It is a custom gun that had the stock trigger re-worked. It shoots ok, but there is some creep that i wish was not there. The gunsmith that did the work is out of the gun business so I have been thinking about a new trigger. I have had timneys that have worked great, but have not had any others. what does everyone think?I am leaning towards the Shilen because I have had great luck with there barrels. I have heard great things about the jewels, but they are double the cost,....are they twice as good as the others?

I've run them all cept Jewell. Shilen would be my first pick of the other 3.

I have faced this question many times before myself, I have taken the more expensive road and I have taken the cheaper road.
I can tell you without any doubt in my mind that the Jewell is #1 , the Shilen is a good trigger, the Rifle basix can be a good trigger but they can vary from lot to lot in quality.
The Timney is a good up-grade for other action's. but for a Rem700 it is a down grade from a tuned stock trigger.
If some salesman talkes you into a Timney can I talk you into a Yacht 20 miles south of Phoenix. Sell it real cheap!!!!!!!!!
B

If you have the "old" M700, Neil Jones can do a tuneup on it that will knock you out for $75.

Neil Jones Custom Products

He is great guy.

My experience with "good" triggers is limited to tuned M700, Kimber, and Jewell, so that's all I can offer... that said, in my opinion (and I'm gonna get flambe'd for this!), the Jewell is not the way to go IF what you want is, say, a 2-lb hunting trigger. I have two Jewells and both have an annoying amount of movement before they let go, when set to that pull weight.

Where the Jewell's really shine is set to a pound or lower. The one currently living in my Sendero is set just under a pound. Bliss.

For a hunting trigger on a M700 I would pop those pins out and send the trigger group to Neil Jones. I've done it twice now and will be sending him my M7 trigger in the offseason. He does great work. He even made my BLR trigger acceptable, and if you want to get a sense of the man, ask your favorite gunsmith if they'll do a BLR trigger job, and watch them turn colors!

I've Jewell,Timney,Shilen, and Rifle Basix. Tuned to say 1 1/4 pound range or over the biggest difference is the size/width of the trigger itself. Under that the Jewell.

I have two Rifle Basix, and they are both creepy.

Jewell ALL THA WAY give Larry D Scott a call he has FREE shipping tell em OlePopapi refered ya!!!!!
http://www.varminthunters.com/greatscott/index.html

I have factory Rem,Rifle Basix and Jewell, Jewell is the clear winner,whether it is 3.5# or 1# nothing feels as crisp as a Jewell!!

Tried them all and I prefer Jewell.Rick.

Ackleyfan,

The "break" on a Jewell is indeed in that glass rod category we all like to talk about, but the movement before the break is what keeps me from using the word "crisp" with them. Set to low enough pull weights I don't feel the movement as much (though it's easy to see); set higher it drives me batty.

I take it our experiences are different in that regard? I am still trying to sort out if I got (2) funky Jewell triggers, or if "crisp" means something different to me, than it does to others.

Absolutely NO offense intended; just on an info hunt here.

You should contact Jewell and talk to them about your problem. I have talked to Arnold Jewell, quite a character, and he was very responsive to my question, solved it over the phone.Rick.

I will second Neil Jones' work, I have been running one of his modified Rem triggers in a M700 for about 20 years in a hunting rifle (long enough ago that it was $25 IIRC). No change is pull or whatever over the years.

You could also go with one of the new Rem XMark Pro triggers. I bought a couple for $50.

http://www.remington.com/xmark/

I have also used Timney. I interviewed the Shilen folks on their trigger once, and I liked what they were doing (basically a modification of the M700 trigger). I have not had the reason to try a Jewell.

jim

Duuude . . .

Get an Accutrigger.

Savages are the B-E-S-T.

BMT

Jeff, no offense taken,we have gone over this Issue before, not sure if there has been some changes between the old and new Jewells, but that creep should be able to be taken out, and I have never had to adjust mine so I'm no expert on how to get rid of it as mine was adjusted by someone at Jewell triggers when ordered,for the coin you gave it should be creep free. set it at 2 3/4# and don't watch it just concentrate on your target start squeezing,good things will happen!!

Slam dunk 4 me Jewell all the way!

Dober

At that kind of pull, the Kimber or Neil-Jones'd M700 trigger works better for me as a 2-lb hunting trigger... I don't feel ANY movement, I just apply pressure until the sear breaks loose.

I have a buddy who has had (3) Jewell triggers, starting some years ago for the first one. Maybe 4 or 5 actually as he's had to send a couple back for rebuilds after piercing primers (they don't like that <g>). He reports considerable variability, with more movement (creep is just too strong a word) in the most recently bought one. That's post-adjustment movement.

I really want to be certain that I am not seen as bashing Jewells. I really, really like them set at a pound or so; they are amazing. My 30-06 and Sendero are currently set up that way. It's awesome.

But at 2.5 lbs... eh... not so much love from me <g>.

As far as adjusting them I don't want to get too far off on a tangent here, but you basically have 3 screws. The overtravel screw has no effect on the pull weight or creep that I can feel or see. That leaves sear engagment and pull weight. You HAVE to have enough sear engagement to be safe, and sear engagement is the one single adjustment that by itself, adds "creep". By the time I've taken the sear engagement where it needs to be, I've got the creep, and there's no screw that takes it out again!

By the way my sear engagement amount is considerably LESS than what the manual says is the minimum, or what Mr. Jewell's son said when I called them... I'm talking about the minimum amount to keep the firing pin cocked, plus a skootch more.

Anyway I'm NOT dogging on Jewell triggers, I'm just adding my little bit of experience with two relatively recent ones to the pile of info here. And three things are possible-

- I'm an idiot and can't adjust a Jewell trigger;

- I got TWO sub-par units;

- I am hyper-sensitive to trigger movement.

I suspect that it's the last one, that I'm particularly sensitive to trigger creep for whatever reasons, but who am I to say. Maybe it's the first one <G>.

Hey Doberooski, I forget- what pull weight do you run yours at?

goodshot
I have Jewells on my five benchrest rifles.This might sound odd but,1.5 oz. actually feels "heavy" after awhile.I typically dont bother with a jewell on a hunting rifle.Overkill.I've used everything else and the skill of the gunsmith installing it has more to do with the feel,than the quality of the trigger itself.
That being said.Neil Jones is the man for a worked over 700.Hands down.
dave

Have you changed the springs that come with a Jewell to match your desired weight?Rick.

Rick,

They've got the heaviest of the springs in them... unless Jewell shipped them wrong or something.