Mosin Nagant - Positive & Negative Trigger Engagement

[carbine85]

My question is how do you see if you have positive or negative trigger engagement with the Mosin Nagant?
The bolt on my best trigger doesn't move prior to release. I'm thinking this is neutral engagement.
My Mosin with the worse trigger the bolt moves downward as you pull the trigger and the pull is long. I'm thinking this is positive engagement.
My M38 has a shorter pull and the bolt moves upward as you pull the trigger. I'm thinking this is negative engagement.
Is this correct or is my thinking backwards?

 

[Jim K]

Positive/negative engagement refers to the angle of the engagement of a hammer notch or cocking piece with the sear. At a positive angle, the trigger pull has to push the cocking piece (or hammer) back slightly before releasing it. That is a safety measure; if the trigger is released part way through the pull, the force of the mainspring will cause the sear to re-engage rather than sitting partly dis-engaged where a light touch could fire the gun. A negative angle means the mainspring is trying to force the sear out of engagement and would be dangerous in that type of trigger mechanism.

Often, people trying to lighten a trigger pull don't understand that and the result is a dangerous gun.

To answer the direct question, the M-N has a positive angle of sear and cocking piece engagement and what you experience is normal. The sloppier the bolt is in the receiver, the more it can move; and in a combat rifle like the M-N, bolt fit is usually very sloppy indeed.

Jim

 

[rcmodel]

There is a duplicate post running in the rifle forum by the OP about this.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=737221

rc