Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Mini mauser trigger

Just picked up a used lefty Charles Daly mini-mauser in .223. Neat little gun, blue and polish on the barrel is very nice. And it shoots pretty good so far. But the bolt throw is rough and bindy and the trigger needs some adjusting; it has a little creep. I don't have a manual for this rifle and haven't any experience with adjusting the trigger. The Timney replacement triggr is no longer available--they sold the last one a few weeks ago, dang it. I was hoping someone could point me to a manual and/or offer some tips on working on the trigger.

Thanks,
Ella

it adjusts like the standard mk x trigger from interarms.

That's very helpful. Thanks.

Ella

I have the same action on a 222 rem.

I don't like to give too much gunsmithing advice, mainly because I'm a hack, but that quoted 3.5 lbs is a guideline perhaps.



If you take apart the trigger, (take photos when you do it, so you can put it back together properly) and polish all the parts, my guess is you'll see it a wee lower..


I agree that all the workings are kind of rough, but a nice clean and polish on all the working parts (sans removing any appreciable material) will smooth things up considerably.

RWE,
I appreciate the advice. You can't tell me anything I already know. Am probably a few steps closer to "bubba" status than "hack."
This thing definately needs some TLC: bolt is downright hard to close and feeding at the moment is iffy. Free float, bedding (I notice that it's already got pillars), trigger and some polishing on the lugs I think is in the works.
I've heard they clean up nice. Yours looks great. What kinda groups you getting?

Ella

RWE is far from a "hack".

I suspected as much. All the more gratitude for the advice.

Va, don't you have one of these actions yourself? In researching campfire threads I vaguely recall comments of yours. Any thoughts or suggestions from your experience?

Ella

VA has one, but its right handed. 7.62x39 IIRC.


My last grouping was a 4" 5 shot group at 300 yards off the sandbag on the truck hood.

It's got a 22" Shaw barrel, "heavy-sporter" taper, 12 twist, 50gr Blitz's jammed into the lands (no throat). 22.2gr H322.

With the Burris FFII on it, I got the hash marks 'calibrated' at 100, 205, 332, and 425.

That 425 is spot on (within about 5-10 yards). Ask the last yote I saw on the neighbors property....

The carrier is finicky, and will definitely benefit from the cleaning. Other feeding issues may be caused by: your OAL, a lip between the mag box and the action opening, too much downward pressure on the bolt handle as you feed the bolt forward (it may angle up the bolt face), spring set in backwards or weak, keeping the carrier too low to get the next round up, or angled so that it can't hit the ramp.

It wants to be bedded. I slept with mine for a couple days before I realized it was whispering "bed me with epoxy." After I took care of that, it started behaving better.

I've got 2 of the 799's, Rem's version of the Mini Mauser. The first is a 7.62x39, the 2nd a .223.

Both were rough when I got them, both bolt travel and triggers. I adjusted the triggers per the above post and both came out great.

I filled the actions with Flitz and cycled a few hundred times. After a tear down and cleaning they are pretty smooth.

Due to the design the bolts will tend to bind if you don't work them briskly and don't give a lot of side or vertical pressure.

Both of mine are very accurate with several different loads.

RWE and Terry,
More thanks for the suggestions. And it's good to know the potential is there.

RWE, you were spot on about the feeding. The mag spring was in fact in backwards. The more I get into this, the more I see bubba has been here before me--the trigger weight screw has had its slot stripped, the mag box wasn't seated properly against the bottom metal and the long/short action screws were reversed. It's going to end up a double-bubba specialm .
One more question: Did you bed the whole action or just the lug?

Terry, I've heard of this method of smoothing an action, but I've always just gone w. a couple hundred rounds down the tube. Maybe this baby calls for more drastic action. But how do you remove the polish afterwards? Spray it down w. brake cleaner?

Thanks again,

Ella

I gots me a Harbor Freight parts washer with some safety solvent.

Trigger is adjusted and passed a couple "slam tests," seemed to come out well. Don't have a pull scale.

Didn't do much polishing on the action, am hoping that'll mostly work itself out. Test fed some rounds, no problems now.

Just put together the stock and action, am bedding the lug and the tang, will take it out in the morning and see. It always makes me a little tense. Haven't glued one together yet but....

Ella

Ask me how I knew. Go ahead. Ask me....




The whole action. Make sure you given enough clearance for the safety to move. May have to file some out afterward.

Well, bedding turned out nice, but I'm one step forward two steps back with feeding. It ran a bunch of dummy rounds slick as can be, then quit doing it. I've turned the spring around and upside down, tried shimming it a little to give the follower a different angle, stretched it out, gave a light polish to the feeding rails, everything I could think of. Sometimes it'll do a round or two but mostly it jams em into the rails or fails to pick em up, the bolt slides over 'em. My dummy rounds have the brass beat to heck at this point.

Would like to try a new spring but am not sure where to get one. The Reminington 799 part is the same as the 700 I think....

Going to take it to the range tomorrow and single feed it. Only two groups I shot with it, it put two under an inch and the third about 3 inches away. Both were almost perfectly horizontal lines, two different bullet weights. I'm figuring to have solved that issue at least.

sure looks similar. Not sure if its the same.



Midway has them for their 700 SA 223's.

I've got one coming from Brownells. We'll see. I've been tweaking and polishing. It'll feed first and third round; and if I give the cartridge just the slightest tap, it'll feed the 2nd round.

The shooting is kinda touchy. Maybe it's just the light rifle thing. Every load I tried (couple factory loads, couple of handloads, bullets from 45-62 grains) goes between 1-2" at 100 yards. The one load that did better, just under an inch had a coal .1" longer than an otherwise identical underperforming load. Hmmm.

Anyway, I very much appreciate the help. Will keep tweaking. I do find it a fun little rifle. Will have to go after the yotes once the feeding is a little more reliable.

Ella

Well, the spring don't fit--too wide, too long. Will do some trimming and see what happens. Thought I'd post that for the archives.

Ella

Try bending the tip of the magazine box out just a little in the side it's failing to feed from. I had that problem with 2 different CRF rifles; different brands. A little bending fixed it on both.

Good luck getting a magazine spring to fit. I had to beg & plead with Charles Daly to get one, and in the end the only reason they sent me one is because they were going belly-up. Remington never had Mini Mauser parts.

You will probably have to have the spring custom made, as it is unique to that firearm.