Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors 99 Trigger

Hello
Just went through the useful information sticky thread above, looking for some information on how to lessen the trigger travel.
I have a lever safety 99, and the trigger travel is quite a bit.
In stripping it down, and cleaning it this past week, I see where it looks like I have 2 options.
Bending the "hook" that is on the end of the actual trigger metal or, file the sear down that the firing pin/striker assembly rests on.
Is there another way to accomplish this?
Thanks

Don't do it!

Lots of people have fiddled with the sear engagement to shorten trigger pull and end up with an unsafe gun.

If you watch the sear engagement during a full cocking cycle you will see it get's pretty short during the cycle. Take off too much and you get a slam fire.

Polish the mating surfaces and leave the engagement length alone.

Truer words never spoken. A 99 trigger is never going to amount to a creep-free, extremely light let-off, and zero over-travel trigger like folks have come to expect on well engineered modern rifles. Do what Lightfoot said, and learn to live with the results. Guys have been doing excellent shooting/hunting with 99's and their triggers for about six generations now.

Helping the OP understand the dynamics, the trigger mechanism has several parts, all with their own manufacturing tolerances that combined amount to what you can call slop. Remove too much metal and you get an unsafe mechanism. You would need a full understanding of all of that crap to work on it. The good news is they aren't complicated and knowledge is there waiting to be gained. If you screw with it, check for slamfire before turning it loose on the world. Replacement parts are not unobtainium however they require fitting and not every part works in every gun, leaving you trial and error fitting looking for one that will work should you screw up original parts.

Frankly, working on 99's is a PITA unless you have a bin full of used parts to play with. Even then, they're still a pita.

Your mileage may vary.

What he said.

Great advice here Guys!

HS 58

Yeah,
Kinda thought I was going to have to live with it.
Poundage is not that bad, but the squeeze, travel, travel, travel, bang, is a bit frustrating.
Thanks to all
Anyone else ?

Enjoyed this topic. Been there done that.

Have a 99 F ... featherweight... 300 Sav..... that i bought NIB in 1960. Used it alot in the Whitetail Wars in NE Minn and east central Minn and 2 tours in Montana.

Still in good shape.

Had the same issues with my 99. Not an easy trigger to use, plus in my case...the recoil bothered me. especially when I was younger and smaller and a lot lighter in weight.

Did ask a gunsmith about reducing the trigger pull. He told me that smiths dont mess with 99 trigger pull issues. He told me to learn to live with it.

Did work on the action. Polished some of the bearing surfaces very lightly with a very fine small abrasive stone. emphasis on 'very lightly'. the surfaces did feel a little smoother to the touch. Mostly i learned that there wasnt much i could change.

I have learned to live with it. Yeah, the trigger action is not as nice as on my Model 70. And its light weight makes it easier to move around when i am trying to hold it steady.
On it sits a 1964 Weaver K4 [post & cross hair ]. For deer I shoot 150 gr Hornady SP pushed by a medium load of IMR4320. [am hoarding what i have left ] On a good day i can get about MOA groups when i am doing my part.

I learned to really grip the rifle firmly.... more so that with my other rifles. Especially my trigger hand--the fingers/thumb that grip the stock--so my hand doesnt creep forward when my finger is pressing the resisting trigger. Dont have to worry about that with some of my other rifles.

Learned that the more shooting i did with all my rifles the easier shooting the 99 became. So: practice practice practice.

Yeah, the 99 is a little different. It is a classic. about the trigger action? Like some other stuff in our lives... the trick is learning not to mind.