Help with my Remington 510 trigger?

[GJgo]

Hey folks,

I recently inherited my Great Granfather's 1940 Remington Targetmaster 510. It's been sitting cased in a basement for oh at least 30 years so it needed quite a bit of cleaning. Underneath it all though, it's actually in pretty good shape. No rust & the bore is pristine, could use re-crowning though. There's also a crack in the stock but I'm working on fixing that up with some super glue, it wicks in the crack real nice. I also thought it was odd that the stock only uses one screw to mount the action when there's another threaded hole in the action farther back, but hey it's only a .22 so.. Worth glass bedding?



Now to the point. I gave it a super cleaning with Rem Oil & compressed air so everything is clean & lubricated. I grabbed some spent 22 casings to safely dry fire it & check the action. The firing pin is working well. However, the trigger pull measures at 7 pounds & feels like 14! VERY heavy pull. So, I've been doing some research on it. It appears that due to the geometry of the action, working the trigger isn't very easy on these. I certainly don't want to mess anything up, so here are two things I came across but was looking for some backup to see if they, or something else, is worthwhile. I have to lighten this trigger some or it will never be a shooter.

a) I found this Patriot trigger kit, looks to be a lighter spring. Anyone used one of these?

b) My sear looks to not be super smooth. I read that you can coat the sear with JB bore paste, and fire a bunch of rounds to lap the surfaces together. Clean thouroughly when done. Is this a good or a bad idea?

 

[788Ham]

First off, see if you can dis-assemble the bolt, use some carb cleaner to really scour it out, especially the inside of the bolt housing. After years of sitting, it'll probably need it, then lightly oil it before re-assembling. As far as the sear, I won't/can't comment on that, out of my expertise. Someone will be along shortly though, hang tight.

 

[Jim K]

The trigger pull should be less than that but that gun does not have a target trigger - it was intended to be a beginners' rifle with a moderate but not light pull.

Did you work on any of the screws? Those rifles are sensitive to screw tightness that pinches the receiver sides together and binds the parts. The screw heads were staked at the factory for a reason.

Jim

 

[GJgo]

Thanks Jim, the screws are still in their staked position. With the bolt removed the trigger moves quite freely, I think the sear is just a little rough w/ a heavy-ish spring hence my thoughts above on things to try out. I have also thouroughly cleaned the bolt & it is working freely.

 

[orionengnr]

A few years ago I ran across a pair of the "teens"...511/512 maybe? One had a detachable magazine and the other might have been a tubular magazine? Again, it's been a while.

Anyway, price was right for the pair--IIRC, about $120 for the pair. One was not functioning, so I used the functioning one as a Tulsa Blueprint.

Ordered some parts from Numrich and got it working. I don't recall exactly, but they were ignition/fire control parts. Once agian, IIRC, about $50 delivered (used, obviously).

After thorough cleaning, lubing, and reassembly, both had horrible triggers--creepy and heavy. One had to be 18-20 lbs (that was the one I had replaced parts on, so it would have benefitted from fitting/tuning) and the other 10 or 12. I did some reading on RimFireCentral and got some leads to other folks who were knowledgeable. I was not confident enough in my abilities to modify fire control bits, and did not want to pay what would have likely been more than they were worth...I also became disillusioned when I found that there was no provision for mounting a scope-- drilling/tapping was another expense I was not ready to undertake.

Took them to the gun show hoping to get my money back, and did pretty much exactly that. I think I got $175-200 for the pair. Saw the same guy who bought them from me selling them at several subsequent gun shows, asking ~$200 each.

A few shows later, they were gone. So I guess we were all happy.

Not sure I have been much help but maybe someone else will come along and tell you how to tune that trigger. Check RimfireCentral just for fun.

Good luck, and please post back and tell us how it works out.