Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Winchester M70 EW Trigger Adjust

I planned to leave the factory trigger alone on my M70 EW, but after shooting it beside a couple other rifles at the range, I now plan to adjust it. Anything special to watch out for when adjusting the MOA trigger? Any special sequence in replacing the action screws...torque specs, etc?

OK should have looked at the owners manual first as it gives instructions and torque specs. Can the weight adjustment screw just be removed all together?

I adjusted my .308 EW soon after getting it a year and a half ago. You have to carefully scrape the epoxy used by the factory to retain the screw, then loosen (counter clockwise). I don't know about removing the screw, but why would you want to? Mine took about one full turn to get it like I like it. I just put a dab of epoxy back on the screw head and have been good to go ever since. I think you're gonna like your rifle.

Thanks for the reply. I do like the rifle and liked the trigger until I shot it at the range the other day alongside a couple of my other rifles.

The reason I asked about the weight adjustment screw is because, in the owners manual, it says in bold: "Notice! The trigger pull weight screw will fall out when the trigger has been adjusted to its minimum pull weight of 3 pounds."

Before I do the job I need to find another torque wrench as the lowest setting on mine is 10 foot pounds.

My EW measured 3.5 lbs out of the box.

I backed mine out about as far as I dared and it felt pretty good. I had already ordered an Ernie's spring, but decided not to install it. I put a little blue Loctite on it and called it good. I recently got around to buying a trigger pull gage and it says 2 3/4 pounds.

Did you torque the action screws back in any specific sequence?

Get an Ernie the Gunsmith trigger spring and stick in it.

The interior dimensions of the spring housing are such that you can remove the trigger pull screw completely and get the lightest pull intended by the factory. On mine, that was still close to 4 lbs, so I put in an Ernie spring, which got me to about 3. YMMV. I just took the screw out, it serves no function unless you want to make the pull heavier.

I also put a little molybdenum disulphide on the release point of the sear per Ernie's advice. On mine that lightened the pull another few ounces and made the pull more consistent.