Ruger No. 3 sticky trigger

I own one Ruger No. 3 in 30-40 and no Ruger No. 1s. So, I don't know how similar the internal lock work is between them.

I haven't fired this rifle in a while. Maybe two years? And I have never had the stock off to look at the lock work. I recall it as having a very nice and quite light trigger.

Took it out with a view to possibly elk hunting with it next month. Imagine my horror when the trigger would not release the hammer! Wouldn't move.

Pulled the stock and...ugggh. As I wrote above, no idea if the internals are the same as a No. 1, but I hope not. The trigger components reminded me of an old Armi San Marco Colt repro I owned. Pretty flimsy pot metal. Anyway, dry, gummed up oil and no trigger movement. Gave it all a good soak in Hoppe's and let it sit overnight. Then dried and a good soak in Breakfree. Wiggle, wiggle, snap goes the hammet. Trigger is back to crisp and light.

Wondered if anyone had had this experience? The trigger linkage is unlike anything I am used to.

Anyway, I have a great load for this rifle that launches the Berger 175 grs VLD Hunting bullet at 2640 fps. So, think I will take it out next month.

Fyrstyk said:

Was this a typo (39-40)?. I have never heard of a 39-40?

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30-40

Kp321 said:

The No 1's and No 3's have the same trigger mechanism which looks like it was designed by Rube Goldberg ( you young guys need to Google him) but it works. The bad thing is what you ran into, dried lube has several places to really gum up the works. The factory lube/rust preventative needs to be washed out and the trigger should be lightly lubed with a non-gumming oil.

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I'm old enough to get the Rube Goldberg description. Quite apt. All good now, but I was definitely stumped as to what was wrong at first.