I have a Savage with their Target AccuTrigger, which they claim can be set down to 6 oz. pull. However, I have had issues with it "false firing". You get a click, but no fire. I'm sure it is part of the AccuTrigger safety system. The cause seems to be closing the bolt too quickly, but at times it happens even when you close the bolt very slowly. When it happens once, it seems to repeat the cycle a few times. It was pulling this trick on me about 10 out of 50 shots.

So I took my AccuTrigger apart to see what I was dealing with here. I have modified a rimfire AccuTrigger before, but this one is a bit different. The parts seem to be better in quality and finish, compared to the rimfire version. The AccuTrigger leaf is stamped and shows some evidence of not being totally cleaned up. It also sits very loosely inside the real trigger, with lots of side to side clearance. It would seem it may benefit from some spacer washers to center and tighten it up some. Did not do it this time.

I checked the pull and it was surprising lighter than I thought it was -- 7 oz. A couple of questions:

1. The article on the Adjusting the non AccuTrigger that is below says not to put any lubricant on the sear itself. I found this one has a liberal amount of moly or graphite paste on it. What are your thoughts on lubricant or not on the sear? I just put back what was there for now, and used a dry graphite coating on the other parts, as I did with my rimfire.

http://www.varminthunters.com/tech/savage/

2. This AccuTrigger seems to have most issues with lock up on closing the bolt. On my rimfire if that happened the blade leaf would immediately go tight indicating a lock up. This one is different. The leaf stays loose, but when you pull the trigger it just gives a click, instead of firing. Any idea what is happening different there? It does not seem to be the leaf that is locking the mechanism. Also, I can't seem to replicate that mode of lock up in the shop. For now all I did was cut a turn off the leaf spring to lighten the leaf pull, but I don't think that is going to solve the problem.

After the minor tweaks described I had the gun out to the range yesterday, and had two "click" lock ups instead of 10. It is probably tolerable now, but I would like it to be more reliable without increasing the pull.

Wait 60 years for the CNBC exposee that Savage knew about your problems all along and chose to do nothing.

Or... The few dealings I have had with the acutriggers leave me to believe the old trigger was far better.

Had not considered the need to tighten up the leaf...

NEVER EVER CUT down a trigger spring! I have never seen a situation where that was anything other than exactly the wrong thing to do. If anything, replacing the spring with a lighter gauge spring of greater length is a better answer.

I would under no circumstances continue to use a trigger with a shortened spring. It actually stiffens the spring rather than lightening it.
art

Good advice from SD.

I completely agree that the older 3 screw or 2 screw Savage triggers were better than any permutation of the Accutrigger.

My old 2 screw is one of the finest triggers I've used.

Savage Target AccuTriggers do not work very well that low.

I have mine set at 15oz and it is reliable and safe during fast cycling.

Lots of guys say they are having success at 8-10oz. but I tested mine pretty extensively down at those pulls and it still tripped when cycling fast.

Usually I am pretty gentle at the bench but if i catch a condition and want to run fast, I don't want a malfunction in the heat of the moment.

Actually it's not a malfunction, but the trigger doing it's job preventing a mis-fire. Lots of fellas don't care for the accu trigger but IMHO it's the finest factory trigger you can get and adjust without a gunsmith.

This is of course you don't mind a 2 stage style trigger.

I'm still not quite understanding totally how this thing works. The photo below from this article shows the AccuRelease in the left image in the up pre-fire position. Then if the sear disengages accidentally the AccuRelease catches the sear preventing it from firing, as shown in image 2. However, when that happens the AccuRelease is locked up, and it is quite easy to tell what happened. In my case the AccuRelease is not locking up. It still pulls back normally until you contact the real trigger, and then when the trigger is pulled all you get is a click. It seems there is something else besides the AccuRelease in the system. Any idea what that is?

This is quite different from my rimfire. On it if I cycle the bolt too quickly or roughly, the AccuRelease plate is firmly locked up.

You say your accu release still pulls back normally, what is the sear doing when this takes place?

Don't know, as I have not been able to replicate the problem in the shop with it disassembled to see what happens. I may have to be rougher with the bolt. However at the range when it acts up, there is no way the AccuRelease plate is holding the sear back, or I would not be able to pull the AccuRelease back. It feels like the sear is in place, but something further up, catches the firing pin.

I wonder if somehow the safety is moving partly into place. I never intentionally use it at the range. I know occasionally the safety on my rimfire seems to magically move into the safe position. But, it just stays there and nothing works until I move it back to the fire position. Now that I think about it, the rimfire sounds similar in that you hear a click, but no fire. I always think I have had a misfire and eject a perfectly good shell, before I realize the safety is on.

Worked on it again today. Yes, by pushing quite hard sideways I can make the AccuRelease catch the sear. Quite sure I have never pushed the AccuRelease that far off center when shooting for real. I also was really really rough closing the bolt, and I could occasionally get the AccuRelease to lock up. But again it was obvious it was locked up, and this is not the way it goes click while not firing.

Then looked at the safety. It is a three position device which allows nothing, no bolt movement, or firing in the full safe. In the half safe it allow bolt action, but not firing. In both of these positions I believe the trigger mechanism is physically blocked and you can't move the trigger. The sear stays in place no matter how hard you pull. In the fire position, it fires normally.

What I learned was that in the mid position, you can't get any click or trigger movement, so that is not the mode it is in when I get the click and no fire. If it is the safety, then it must be going into some other half way position between mid and full off. The block does slide further to full off and springs back some, so it may be possible. I found some plumbers putty in various places from the bedding job I did, and cleaned that out. So I'm hoping that it may stay in the full fire position more reliably now, but I did not get that "ah ha" moment, saying that was it.

Savage uses a little spring that sits in three recesses machined in the safety block, to hold it in each of the three positions. It almost seems the full fire position recess is a little short of where it should be, and the recess pulls the block back some from the maximum travel position. That might be the root of the issue...