Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Gunsmith specializing in Rolling Block Trigger work

I have a 1902 Rolling Block which has been rebarreled to 30-30.
It is turning out to be a nice piece but has a HORRIBLE trigger pull. Feels like 50lbs.

Does anyone know of a gunsmith who specializes in this rifle. The gunsmith who specialized in rolling block's from Conroe, Texas (Dave Higginbotham ??) died in accident so there no one locally does this work.

I would appreciate your assistance.

Centex Bill

Most gunsmiths should be able to do that. It's a fairly simple process.

pm sent

PM sent.

Absolutely before you do anything else, go to Womacks Rolling Block Parts at rollingblockparts.com and in their accessories section, buy one of the wire trigger springs to replace the factory trigger spring. That should drop it to under 3 pounds and most importantly, remove most of the feeling of "creep" in the trigger. For $10, it's the cheapest and most effective thing you can do.

If that doesn't work, post back here and i can help you a lot with trouble shooting it further. If you don't want to get into it here, pm me, and I can help by pm. Even if it works, I can give you some tips on how to fine tune it a bit better than just replacing the factory spring.

Whatever you do, do not stone the hammer sear notch away from a neutral geometry, or lighten the hammer spring for any reason. Both of those actions have a huge potential to make the action unsafe. The hammers are surface hardened, and wear quickly once stoned, also.

I have done hundreds of these triggers over the years, and it is extremely rare to find one that has a geometry problem. Almost universally, it is the spring weight.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm not entirely unbiased here: I invented and manufacture the springs for Womacks. I have been doing these triggers for 13 years, by now I've got a pretty good handle on it.

dave

Dave,

Just installed one of your trigger springs in a Swede RB, trigger pull went from over 8# to a bit under 4, very nice! You mentioned the were a few other things that could be done. What might they be? Thanks.

Craig

Craig,

Glad it worked for you. There are a few other easy things to do.

First, take the action apart, to get the lower tang out. If you don't do this routinely, the order is:
1) Take off the keeper on the left side, or the keeper screws on a Swede.
2) Cock the hammer, then take out the breechblock pin, and the breechblock.
3) Uncock the hammer, and take out the hammer pin, and the hammer.
4) Take out the lower tang screws, and take off the tang.
5) Take off the main spring.


Now, measure the trigger pull weight with the tang out of the action. It should be 8 to 12 ounces, if I made the spring correctly to fit your action. I make them fall in that range on the test action I final QC them on.

Next, remove the spring, then push out the pin on the trigger, and remove the trigger. Thoroughly degrease the trigger, the pivot pin, and the hammer sear notches.

Examine the sear and trigger nose to see if they have any roughness or burrs. If they do, stone them with a very fine stone. Be careful to keep the angle the same. If there's any roughness on the trigger pivot pin, do the same for it. Now, I use dry moly powder on the pivot pin, the trigger pin hole, the sides of the trigger, the trigger surface where the spring bears on it, the end of the trigger spring, and on the sear surfaces. Rub in the dry moly with a popsicle stick, really agressively work it in, it will "soak" into the metal surface if you rub it in, and make it very slick.

Now, reassemble the trigger and spring, and measure them again. If the pull is still more than 8 ounces, bend up the wire spring just slightly. A little goes a long way. If you overbend it and make it too light, take it out, and bend back down. When you get the trigger in the tang to 8 ounces, put the whole thing back together, (reverse steps 1 to 5 above) oil with your normal oil, and test it again. Normally you should be down to 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 pounds. Do a severe bump test on the assembled action, hit it with your hand several different directions, and make sure the hammer won't fall accidentally. If it does, increase the trigger spring weight by bending it down, or if that doesn't work, stone the hammer sear (back of the notch more than the nose) to increase the angle the trigger bears onto it.

Good luck!

dave

Thanks very much Dave! I've got 3 RBs sort of in and out of the fire right now. All 3 are gonna get "springed" and tuned.