Lighter Mauser 98 Sear Spring

[mrh477]

After lightly polishing the sear and cocking piece I've finally gotten the right combination to make the second stage on my VZ.24 pretty crisp. But it's about couple pounds too heavy. I'm hoping to get it in the 3.5-4 lb range but I've done about as much polishing as I'm comfortable with.

Has anyone found a suitable lightened replacement sear spring for a Mauser 98 2-stage trigger?

I haven't been able to find one and no one I've talked to at the parts dealers has had any suggestions. I've heard of people using the springs from ballpoint pens but this sounds a little dubious to me. Thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[rcmodel]

Just about any hardware store should have a drawer display of compression springs in all sizes & strengths.

rc

 

[sage5907]

If you want a new spring there's a guy named Brian Gertsch that sells new springs on the internet for $3. His eMail address is [email protected] His latest add was posted on youtube in December. He has a whole pile of them and I would ask him to pick out the shortest one in the pile. You can see a picture of the pile on youtube by typing in Mauser 98 sear spring.

 

[Kp321]

An old Mauser trick is to swap the spring from the floor plate retainer button to the sear.

 

[HankC]

I've heard of people using the springs from ballpoint pens but this sounds a little dubious to me. Thoughts?

I have done that, very light trigger but it would not reset trigger when you half pull the trigger without firing. Potentially unsafe, I won't do it again. Floor plate spring is a good option, but I have not tried that myself.

 

[JackSprat]

When I was a kid,I traded around, and ended up with an old FN 98 Belgium Military in factory 30-06 that had been semi-sporterized,and scoped,but still had the stock trigger..My Dad knocked the pin out of the trigger assembly,and braized a wee little tap to the forward edge of the trigger itself.He made a set screw for the tap by cutting the head off a little machine screw that fit the tap, and cutting a little slot in it.He put a lighter spring in the assembly,but I don't know were he got it,but it was a very good trigger,and had no creep,because the set screw over rode the first stage.

 

[Slamfire]

Having worked on a number of two stage military triggers, at some point, you are limited by the lever angles. The distance between trigger pins and the mating surfaces, call them fulcrums, is fixed. Therefore your lever angles and distances are fixed. There is only so much jiggering with surface finish, mainspring strength, and sear springs that you can do to reduce trigger pull weight and still have a safe trigger.

I call these triggers direct pull triggers and they are easy to mess up stoning. After much experimentation I decided a crisp trigger pull was more important than a light creepy trigger pull. This is sort of the extreme choices you get with the things. Safe trigger pull but 3.0 pounds or light trigger and accidental discharge. You can also stone the sear angles such, the trigger won't reset. This is dangerous. Cocking piece surface and trigger sear surfaces are angled such that the mainspring force will reset the trigger when your finger releases trigger pressure. It is a dangerous condition when they won't reset.

If you really must have a trigger pull that is less than 2.5 pounds, it will be hard to achieve that in a military trigger. You might want to look at timney triggers. I don't consider the over ride triggers as safe or reliable as direct pull, but, you can get a lighter trigger pull out of them.

 

[Jim K]

^^^^

Especially the part about sear reset. That sear spring is strong for a reason; a ball pen spring is nowhere near strong enough.

Jim