I'm considering picking up a cheap (read discounted) action to stash for a 358 win build down the road. How is the trigger on the M77 Hawkeyes? I have a 90's vintage Mk II, and I wouldn't write home about its trigger.

So, are they serviceable, or should I budget for a replacement? If so, that puts the all in cost of a M77 action around ~$600.

I like the CRF, but the Howa's SAS has available are pretty tempting. Their triggers are nice! I handled one in the store and they're HEAVY. I need to go back and confirm if it was heavy barreled version because it was noticeably heavier than I was expecting.

Chris

I've modified and tuned them to be very decent, but they are no Jewel. I think RB makes a replacement that is decent, as well.

Timney makes a replacement, but just trying to make sure I'm comparing apples to apples and have my all in price.

My new one is very crisp and best as I can measure, about 3 3/4 pounds, with almost undetectable creep and little overtravel. For some reason, when it breaks, the overtravel doesn't happen until I take it up, if that makes sense. I'll get a lighter spring for it, from Ernie or the hardware store, but it's perfectly usable as is.

My other Hawkeye has the two-stage, which is a peach.

With a half hour of time, that trigger can be easily tuned. With patience one can eventually make it conform to his desires.

I have two Hawkeyes. One is a Hawkeye Predator. It has a good bit of take up then breaks clean relatively light and crisp. The other is a Hawkeye Ultralight. It is a perfect hunting trigger. No slack or take up. Just perfectly crisp.

I have reworked probably two dozen Mk II and Hawkeye triggers (and I am definitely not a gunsmith) and in all cases ended up with as good a trigger as I could want. Now, as has been said, it takes about thirty to maybe forty-five minutes and no replacement trigger would be any better.

The LC6 trigger in the Hawkeye is far and away better than the MKII trigger. Generally a lot easier to "tune". I've done a few myself...

Yes, the LC6 is better than the old MKII's. Not fantastic like the adjustable version in the Hawkeye predators, but a good start. Unless you have two rocks for hands, they are easily worked. I bought a Timney.... once I worked the factory LC6 over, I sold the Timney.

When I did my first Ruger trigger I figured the worst that could happen is I would screw up a trigger I didn't like anyway and end up with a Timney.

That was quite a few Ruger triggers ago and I have yet to replace one. M77, MKII, Hawkeye and a couple of revolvers included.

The main thing is to learn about what you need to do and how to do it, then do it carefully.

"The main thing is to learn about what you need to do and how to do it, then to do it carefully" quote.


And slowly. I re-install and check my work a lot while doing trigger jobs. As the old saying goes.....it's easy to take metal off, but damn impossible to put it back. I learned that on a Redhawk a long time ago. Holds especially true on rifle triggers.

I did a Savage several years back, pre-Accutrigger, about 8 hours with a very fine stone and super fine adjustments on the screws. Ended up with a 2# trigger that broke like glass and wouldn't trip when bounced on the floor.

Slow and steady with minimal material removal along with reassembly is the way to go.

I agree that slow important. When I am working a trigger I'll reassemble and test as many times as necessary to get the desired result but 2-3 is the norm for the Rugers.

Went a different way on one of my ARs. After being cautioned not to even attempt to work on it by knowledgeable shooters here at the fire, I proceeded under the assumption that the worst I could do is further screw up a trigger that truly sucked to begin with.

And further screw it up I did. Got a little aggressive and what I ended up with, because I didn't fully understand the geometry, was a rifle that would fire when the trigger was pulled and again when it was released. It was much smoother, lighter and crisper, though.

Ended up replacing that trigger - a happy ending as far as I'm concerned.

Should have called that one your double tap trigger job...