Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Anyone recognize this trigger on a Mauser?

Does anyone recognize this trigger? It's on a customized 98 Mauser purchased by my father from the estate of a 1960s basement gunsmith. The only markings on the trigger are "Spain," no other brand information. The trigger pull is very long with a couple of spots that catch. Adjusting the bottom screw will remove the creep, but, then blocks the safety. Any ideas on what this trigger is or how to properly adjust it?

Don't know who made it but I have a couple in my parts box. Will take a look Monday

I would say with almost total certainty that your trigger is one made by the Spanish company Santa Barbara. The action may be from there, too. The Santa Barbara actions, fitted with the trigger shown in your photos, were the basis of various later-production rifles produced by the British company Parker Hale from (very approximately!) the mid 1960s to the mid 80s. They were/are probably used by other rifle manufacturers too. (the earlier Parker Hale rifles used a military type M98 action and a military type trigger)

I have two of the triggers like yours, one purchased nominally as a Parker Hale replacement part, and another on a complete Parker Hale 1200TX target rifle, which was made primarily for the British Commonwealth style of large bore target shooting. I have the first one installed on a rifle built on a VZ33 small ring Mauser action. As supplied, it did not have a jack screw through the front tang, as yours has, and relied on the rear guard screw to ‘hold everything together’. I didn’t care for that arrangement and installed a jack screw, cut off the rear extension on the housing, and pillar bedded the rear tang of the action. I suspect the jack screw on yours is an after-market alteration.

If the two samples I have are anything to go by, these triggers can be adjusted to perform very well indeed. The one I put on the VZ33 really surprised me – when I first installed and tried it, it had a very small amount of pre-release movement (or creep) and had a let- off weight of about half a pound or less! This was back in the late 60s – no internet, etc, back then – but I still KNEW that a basic two lever hunting rifle trigger could not POSSIBLY function safely or reliably at that weight. But what I thought I knew got clobbered by reality. I could slam the bolt shut to the limit of my sensibilities with it never failing to cock, and I could bump the cocked rifle quite severely without the firing pin dropping.

The rifle was for use in a sporting rifle style of target shooting, and the (then) rules of that game specified a minimum trigger let-off weight of 500 grams. (1.1 pounds) I adjusted it to that weight and used it for years with never a malfunction. Later the rules changed to no minimum let-off weight, and I re-adjusted it to about 400 grams. Still completely reliable, after decades of use, wearing out one barrel on that rifle and being well into the life of a replacement.

I don’t know why yours should have ‘catch’ places in its release. Dirt in the works, maybe, or perhaps some burring of internal parts, though that is probably unlikely – the sear and trigger lever in mine are as hard as the hobs of hades. Of course the s**t metal housing is very much softer. The whole unit is easy enough to dismantle to check the internals. Back off the engagement (lower) and over-travel (middle) screws, remove the weight screw (upper) and spring, and punch out the pins the sear and trigger lever are mounted on. But – if you are not completely confident of being able to do this work and repair any faults yourself, take it to a gunsmith. If the edges of the ledges on the sear and trigger lever - where disengagement takes place – are burred or corroded, some very precise stoning will be required to restore them.

My adjustment procedure is:

1) Back off the over-travel screw enough to ensure that it isn’t catching at all.

2) Set the let-off weight to about what is wanted.

3) Adjust the engagement screw to give a creep-free let-off. But – making sure to leave enough engagement to ensure that over-ride will not occur if the bolt is slammed shut, and that the rifle will pass a ‘bump test’. As you have noticed, though, when you get to a creep-free release, the safety catch might not engage. If that happens, you have to choose between accepting either some creep or a non-functioning safety catch, or removing some metal. The latter is best left to a gunsmith – you can ‘do it at home’ but it’s a bit risky.

4) Adjust the amount of over-travel. Don’t try to make it TOO small though, because that can cause unreliable trigger release, or even prevent the trigger from releasing at all.

5) Do a final adjustment of the let-off weight, if necessary. If you are going for a creep-free let-off, you might have to give the engagement screw a final tweak as well.

Hope this helps.

Thanks so much! This is exactly the information that I haven't been able to find elsewhere. I was looking at it more last night and did remove a small amount of metal at the bottom edge of the safety to allow it to block the trigger with less creep. It looks like the top edge may need a little off too to allow it to better block the sear. But, I will try your adjustment procedure first.

The action appears to be German military. Did Santa Barbara utilize those at all? The rifle itself has an unknown brand of .270 barrel, a California style maple stock and Buehler mounts. When first received, it would not load cartridges at all from the magazine without jamming and gouging the brass. A new extractor allowed the bolt to pick up cartridges. Polishing the feed ramp little by little allowed cartridges to actually feed into the chamber. It now feeds but sill prefers firmness when working the bolt. Also, the barrel was against one side of the barrel channel. I'm not sure if it was bad bedding to begin with, or, if the stock changed over time. But, glass bedding to center things up and free float fixed that issue.

FYI, I just changed my original post as I realized I had put the same photo twice instead of showing both sides.

Red rover is correct. I doubt it is a Santa Barbara action.

It hit me after I went to bed it was probably a Santa Barbara. But I was already comfortable. Red Rover hit it. They came on a couple rifles I rebuilt. As memory serves only issue I had was the safety. Very similar to the Mark X adjustable but the Mark X can be adjusted for engagement differences.

Santa Barbara used on Santa Barbaras and some Parker Hales and possibly some BSA rifles.

I doubt it too, now that I have taken a closer look at the OP's photo. The bolt sleeve is not the same as that on the Santa Barbara actions used by Parker Hale and others.

It seems like I have to go back on my suggestion that the jack screw on the OP's trigger is an after-market addition. Today I was looking at the book 'Bolt Action Rifles' by Frank de Haas. In it was a photo of a Santa Barbara action, presumably unmodified, and it had a jack screw in the tang on the front of the trigger housing, just like the OP's. So there have evidently been at least three slightly different housings used. One like the OP's, another like the one I have in my VZ33 rifle which is similar but (originally) had no jack screw in it, and another as fitted to my Parker Hale 1200TX rifle which has only a VERY short front tang, nowhere near long enough to put even a tiny jack screw into.

sbrmike: I doubt that the Santa Barbara trigger would have ever been used in BSA rifles in the Royal, Majestic, CF2 and Monarch series. The triggers in these rifles are very different to a Mauser 98 in both layout and function, and among other differences they incorporate the bolt stop. BSA would have needed to alter the machining of their actions quite considerably to accommodate M98 triggers, and they would have needed to add some sort of external bolt stop, all of which would seem highly unlikely.

Since there has been some interest in the 98 action, I thought I'd post photos of the visible markings. Any info is welcome!

Thanks to all who identified the Santa Barbara trigger and have provided advice.

GEW 98 is originally a WWI mauser The receiver ring top would identify the arsenal or private manufacturer. i.e. Mauser, Amberg, Danzig, Steyr, etc.

The top is covered by the scope mounts, which I have not removed. But, I wonder if it might have been ground or polished off. Do you know if the V91 has any significance?