Advice Needed On Single Action Trigger Job

[230RN]

I purchased a used Uberti replica of the 1858 Remington. Gorgeous firearm. Love at first sight, but I'm a complete neophyte on BP arms. All I know about them is they make more smoke.

The trigger on this gun is extremely light, approximately 1 lb, according to my precision-calibrated right index finger.

It is so light that I consider it dangerous in anything but an Olympic .22 Short target pistol.

Before I attack it with my usual ham-handed hammer and tong and Vise-Grip techniques, I wanted to check this out with you guys.

Any hints and kinks and links as to disassembly of the lockwork and possible adjusting of the trigger to get it to more or less 3 or 4 lb? (I tried checking it out on Google, but I guess I don't know the right search terms.)

I see there's a screw on the front of the grips, presumably for mainspring tension adjustment, but it seems like it's at full clockwise rotation already, because I could not turn it with moderate torque and I did not want to burr it up.

I've done trigger jobs before with good success, but I'm not a pro, and I'd like do dink around with this one on my own without making mistakes I could have avoided with a little advice from real people.

Such as you folks.

Hints and kinks and links and tips on this problem would be appreciated.

TNX
230RN

 

[Old Fuff]

I'm pressed for time, but use The High Road's search feature (seen in a green bar at the top of the page) and you should find a thread or posts that give detailed instructions on how to disassemble/assemble your Remington New Army revolver. If you don't find it, come back and I'll look for it when I can.

Also you'll have better luck if you move this request to the black powder sub-forum. It is filled with guys that know the Remington revolver forwards and backwards.

 

[Mal H]

... it's there, or rather, here.

 

[Father Knows Best]

The screw on the front of the grip frame is indeed for mainspring tension adjustment, but it won't do much for your trigger.

My advice when it comes to trigger adjustment is always the same -- leave it to the pros. While I can and do work on my own guns, including doing basic action jobs on single action revolvers, I don't mess with triggers. There is a lot that goes into making a trigger work reliably and safely, and a lot of it is non-obvious and deals with very tiny adjustments of things like sear notch angles. It's very easy to screw things up completely very, very quickly, resulting in a gun that is unsafe (won't reliably stay at full cock, misses the safety notch, etc.), at which point you have to replace all or most of the internals at great cost. So please -- take it to a professional gunsmith for work on the trigger.

And have fun! I love black powder revolvers. There's no better way to make a lot of smoke and noise in a short period of time. The Remington New Model Army (aka the 1858 Remmy) is a classic and a great choice.

 

[Cincinnati Slim]

Remmie Trigger

Howdy,

First suggestion is to just replace the trigger/bolt spring. VTI or Dixie has them. Get a couple of 'em they are cheap and it's a good idea to have a spare. They get weak and/or break. Just unscrew the trigger guard and remove the screw holding the spring. Can't hurt anything and may firm up the trigger pull some...

Slim

 

[Steve499]

When you completely disassemble your pistol you may find the tip of the trigger or the full cock notch in the hammer have worn badly. I recently replaced a hammer due to wear on the hammer cam and, like yours, a feather light trigger pull. The pistol, a Pietta, now has a pull that's actually a little TOO hard.

PERCUSSION PISTOLS AND REVOLVERS by Mike Cumpston and Johnny Bates is a must have book for anyone with a black powder revolver. It has disassembly instructions for your Remington if you don't come up with them elsewhere.

Steve

 

[mec]

Checking the trigger return spring is a good idea as is looking at the hammer/trigger for excess wear. You might check the hammer for push-off by cocking the hammer and pushing on it with a moderate amount of pressure. If it doesn't fall, I would suspect that the hammer notch /trigger sear are ok. I would not consider 1- 1.5 pounds dangerous on a single action since it needs to be pointed down range before being fully cocked anyway.

 

[230RN]

Success report

OK, Thanks all.

I disassembled it completely. Main problems were getting the pawl out and the mainspring out and then back in.

The trigger pull problem was twofold. There was a slight burring (flashing) on the hammer where the sear surface of the trigger rode which had a tendency to lift the sear off the hammer notch slightly. Since the engagement was not full, there was excessive pressure on the sear engaging surface, which tended to round it down.

There was also a little interference with this engagement on the trigger sear surface itself.

I dressed the burr off the hammer surface with a Coors stone and cleared the interference off where the sear surface would also ride on the hammer.

I then re-dressed the angle of the sear, taking care to maintain the sear angle and to keep an exact right angle to the body of the trigger. That is, keeping it parallel to the trigger pin axis, again using the Coors stone.

I used "The Machinist's Friend," a Magic Marker, to darken the mating surfaces to see where they were riding against each other and to expose surfaces where they should not be in contact. (Magic Markers are a good substitute for layout die for this use.)

All operations were done by hand.

I did not change or modify any other parts.

Despite my claim to being ham-handed, I've learned to cut once and try twice in many years of mating metal parts --although I've screwed up my share.

The net result is a crisp 2 1/2 lb trigger weight, which is still too light, but is at least serviceable and reasonably safe.

After I shoot it for the first time, on disassembly for cleaning, I will repeat the process. I am used to around a 3 or 4 lb pull.

Biggest problem in reassembly was re-installing the mainspring. I had to use a 3/8 " dowel between the spring and the front of the grip frame to re-establish the correct arc in the mainspring to get it back into its notch in the bottom of the grip frame.

I thank you all for your advice.

TNX
230RN

 

[Old Dragoon]

Next time apart try this method of installing the mainspring. Put the hammer down in the frame and attach the hand and screw then push the hammer as far up in the frame as it will go. Slide the main spring hammer tip under the hammer roller and slide the butt of the main spring into the slot. Place a dowel(i use a Chapman screwdriver extension(the round part) on top of the spring between the spring and the rear grip frame and roll the extention or dowel up as close to the hammer as you can, then push the hammer down and put the hammer screw in. Roll the dowel back down the main spring and the hammer, hand, and main spring are in. Much, much easier than fighting with the main spring any other way.

 

[230RN]

Thanks! I'll try that next time.

Another good hint!

 

[Jim K]

In spite of writings to the contrary, I do not recommend that retensioning the sear/trigger spring be used to increase trigger pull from such a light level. A very light pull usually means that the sear/notch angles are wrong and even if the spring weight is increased, the gun is still unsafe.

23ORN, you took the right approach, but I have one more suggestion. Get something called Kasenit from Brownells, and when you get the pull right, use it to case harden the sear and hammer surfaces. One of the common problems with those repros is that the internal parts are not hardened properly and wear out rapidly.

Jim

 

[mec]

fulcrum and use thumb to push base of spring into alignment with slot.

 

[rifle]

I second the Kasinet suggestion. It will keep the trigger job from wearing right back to square one in a hurry. It has to be remembered that the hammer should have a few degrees of positive engagement angle and the trigger has it to match. If the trigger is still a little too light on the pull maybe the triggers angle isn't mating quite right to the hammer(if the hammer full cock notch angle is still stock) and needs the engagement surface angled down a tiny bit towards the front of the trigger.
Anywhooo....whenever the surfaces of the hammers full cock notch and the tip of the trigger are stoned or ground or diamond filed any more than a lick or two the parts should be rehardened. If they aren't rehardened they could get to be a safety concern pretty quick. Hair trigger time.

 

[230RN]

10 E 6 tnx !

Been a while since I could get back to this firearm --still haven't fired it.

Oh, great suggestions and great pix, folks! Mec, those are super!

I've used Kasenit before many times -- worked great on a D-reamer I made for cutting a .357 chamber (conversion of a Carcano to .357 from a barrel blank), and other things.

I'm well aware of the danger of cutting through the case hardening, and I will be watching out for this with the aforementioned precision-calibrated trigger finger. (One of these days I'll make a real pull-ometer for triggers.)

The angles (trigger sear to hammer notch) look OK by my precision-calibrated trigger sear angle measuring eyeballs. I don't think there's much of a positive angle to them, but it sure isn't negative. I use a lens from an old slide projector for this kind of eyeballing.

(A suggestion for the next time you see an old slide projector at a garage sale.)

I'm also toying with the idea of getting a .45 Colt conversion cylinder for it. Anyone had any experience with these?

I was "told" that you can only use black powder reloads in .45 Colt cartridges in these, but surely there's a safe Unique or Green Dot load for these.

And aren't commercially-available Cowboy Action loads downloaded for these old guns and replicas?

 

[Bad Flynch]

>Location: Near Golden CO<

Sip some of that Colorado Cool-Aid for me, please.

 

[unspellable]

this and that

I use any standard factory load with a plain lead bullet in my R&D conversion for my Ruger Old Army. But I think the ROA is the strongest cap & ball frame around, and I'd use a lighter load for other frames. I have a box of Winchester Cowboy Action loads and I don't see where they are much lighter than regular loads.

There should be suitable smokeless for black powder loads for the 45 Colt that are milder than factory loads. Trailboss might be good powder for this sort of thing.

On my Remington, the bolt half of the bolt/trigger spring broke when I started messing with it. I was happy with the pull but not the creep. I did a bit of work on it to get rid of the creep.