Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Trigger pull on 99

As you all know I had a smith mount a scope on my 99. At the same time I had him break it down and service the rifle. I figured it had not been done for some time. He told me other than some laquer build up everything was in good shape. The problem seems to be now that I notice a significant increaase in trigger pull. Dry fireing the rifle this increase is not evident. Only loaded with live rounds do I notice the increase.

Is there a problem that some of you may know of?

Thank You for any help

My 250 R has a pretty stiff pull, and it is almost like a 2 stage military trigger. When I'm at the range I have to take a couple warm up shots just to get me tuned into it, or I'll pull the pattern to the right. If your's was smoother and crisper before he went into I don't know what it is. I'm sure help is on the way, Joe.

Shouldn't be any difference between a dry fire and a loaded chamber in regards to the trigger pull.

About the only thing that is safe to do is polish the sear engagement. Remove any metal at all and you start risking gun going "boom" when the safety is on and the gun is dropped/slammed/whatever.

I've never had a trigger worked on and never plan on it. They are what they are. If you want a really nice factory trigger, buy a new bolt action Savage with AccuTrigger.

The trigger pull on the 22-250 I have was about two dwarfs and a midget before I honed it. It's down to a small dog now. It can be done.

PLUS 1 on that.


You Can have a Better Trigger How Ever you REALLY NEED TO KNOW WHAT YOUR DOING, and A FIND A SMITH THAT ALSO KNOWS WHAT THERE DOING>

Or as Calhoun-Rory Said KABOOM>

Yeah, I messed with a couple, with great trepidation. All I dared to do was polish the engagement surfaces on the trigger and the sear with a slipstone and called it good.

George from Idaho ordinance has done great trigger work 4 me. Hazelton idaho. PM me if you want a phone number or E mail.

[quote=Calhoun]Shouldn't be any difference between a dry fire and a loaded chamber in regards to the trigger pull.

I think there is a perceived differance from dry firing standing and shooting from bench.

I would go with the more conservative guys here. It is really a bad idea to go farther than polishing the engagement surfaces and applying a lite coat grease. If you look at the parts involved, there is a lot of long leverage and "spring" involved that other rifles that have more compact trigger groups do not have. A good cleaning usually helps a lot. It is unreal what gets down in there.

I greased the trigger and sear engagement area on my 99R. The apparent trigger pull weight was greatly reduced. Since yours was cleaned, maybe the gunsmith removed some lubricant.

I did not plan on messing with the trigger. My concern is whether when the gunsmith put it back together if there eas a way it could have increased the pull. The rifle was cleaned and servised. Sitting at the bench concentrating on the trigger probably inflated the apparent pull in my mind. No one notices trigger pull with a deer in front of them.

If there was lube, or grime acting as lube on the sear engagement and he cleaned it off then it might be slightly worse. Or if he somehow roughened the surface during his cleaning. But I'd consider that not too likely.

Probably just needs to be shot some to get loosened up. So.. shoot it some more.

Not only the sear/trigger contact surfaces but also all the pivoting surfaces can benefit from a touch of dry lube.

A thin washer between the trigger return flat spring and the lower receiver tang can also reduce trigger pull a bit.

Dear EKP:

I use G-96 Oil on the sear engagement for my Savage 99R, and just a little dab of Lubriplate grease.

Big difference.

I believe your trigger sear is too dry. The sear engagement on a Savage 99 is a lot, about 1/8", if memory serves.

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

I put some Lithium grease on the surface of the sear. I asked for Lubriplate and everyone I talked to looked like they had no idea what I was talking about. Pretty hard to believe no one ever heard of it. Lithium grease (generic) was easier to find.

I also decided to break down my 99 in 300 Savage. What a bear. The stock screw will not budge. I put some Kroil down the hole and going to leave it stand over night to see if it will break loose.

Dear EKP:

To get that stock screw out, I suggest the following.

Get a proper hollow ground screw bit that fits the screw head from Brownells. Fit the bit into a Craftsman or similar 3/8" drive socket used for a hex head/allen screw. The hex of the screw bit will fit perfectly.

Use a long 3/8" drive extension and a 3/8" drive socket wrench, and that bolt will come out like warm butter.

I would place the rifle in a vice with leather over the vise jaws, so you don't mar your bluing.

This is the set up that I use to remove the buttstocks from my Savage 99R, Winchester Model 12, Browning Superposed, etc.

Lubriplate you can obtain from Brownells or from an outboard motor boat shop. Its outboard motor grease, and is the modern replacement for RIG.

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

As to the problem with trigger pull on my 99...I found the root off the problem yesterday. I overlooked one of the fundementals of reloading. Check the length of the shell. I had misplaced my 25 caliber pilot for my trimmer and did a cursory check of the shell and thought I was OK. I had only resized the case 2 or three times. What I found was that some of the cases were over the maximum by quite a lot. When chambering with the lever I was fighting the grip safety on the overlength ones with the trigger. Thus the heavy trigger pull. I have more experience with bolt guns and never had this problem. I did get a new pilot and trimmed the cases and I believe the problem will be solved.

I know this is a stupid mistake but oh well I am human after all.
Also it does seem levers and maybe just 99's are very sensitive to the problem. More attention to this issue is necessary.

All's well that ends well.

That's a new one on me. Difficulty chambering or closing the bolt on overly long brass I've seen or heard of, but not making the trigger worse.

Definitely let us know for sure if it fixes it. Good luck!

It did solve the problem. It became apparent to me when I could not even fire the rifle. I had to actually hit the lever with my hand to make sure the lever was fully closed.

At the range today not only did the trigger pull improve but so did my accuracy. Which when thinking about it makes a lot of sense.