Ruger MK II Trigger

[eagle24]

I need to improve the trigger on my MK II. It is too heavy and also has quite a bit of creep. I took the sear and hammer out last night and smoothed up the sear. It helped the creep a little but not much. I'm a little leary of trying to do much to the hammer notch and it looks good. I know I could replace the parts with the volquartsen kit, but at $89 I was hoping to get a decent trigger with the stock sear and hammer. Any tips on imroving the trigger myself would be appreciated. Also, is there an overtravel adjustment on the trigger?

 

[ball3006]

My Ruger pistols always had pretty..

good triggers. All I did was polish them up a bit. Try Brownell's for trigger parts. Might be more reasonable than the V place. If you had a C&R license, you would get dealer prices.......chris3

 

[jaybar]

Don't buy the whole kit.

The only way to get rid of the creep is have a professional trigger job done by someone who knows what their doing like clarkcustomguns.com. Pricey but perfect. If you want to improve your trigger pull by swapping out parts then buy a Volquartsen sear and drop it in. The rest of the Volq kit isn't very price effective. There is a pretty good discussion on this matter at the MK II forum. Follow this link http://www.markii.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=4341 and browse around once you are there. Lots of opinions on that site also.

 

[hoghunting]

Eagle,
I stoned and polished my hammer and sear and trigger. While the trigger was out, I drilled and tapped it for a set screw for overtravel adjustment. You can get a drill, tap, and set screws at a hardware store as they don't have to be gun threads. I replaced the springs with a Trapper spring kit. Assembled it and enjoy the new trigger very much. It's amazing how much an overtravel screw makes. I spent about $12 in parts.

 

[JackOfAllTradesMasterAtNone]

This what I've done.

Buy this trigger. (the blemished model is a great deal. I've done it.)https://www.volquartsen.com/vc//pages/public/ListItems.jsp?id=21 I wonder why people buy from Volquartsen resellers when VQ sells online.???

Then drill the plunger hole just one size larger to use the factory plunger. This is not centered, so make sure you don't get too thin on one side. Best to be done in a drill press. You've already done what you can to the factory sear and hammer notch. Taking too much off the hammer notch will lead to double fires. The Volquartsen trigger has an ever so slightly changed movement/ratio that you'll notice a difference in creap just insalling it.

You could get ahold of a factory Target model trigger that has a set screw. But it's not adjustable without disassembling the top of the pistol.

To lighten things up, You can take 1 1/2 coils off of the trigger spring, but it's best to replace all the springs with the Trapper version... RU-12 http://www.apwcogan.com/trapper_spring_kits.htm

There's three springs in the kit. Main, Sear and Trigger. Keep using the factory sear spring at first. If you do the rest here, then you probably won't want to change that spring out.

The main spring is a Bear to remove. Don't let it fly!!! Actually it's easy to remove, just difficult to put the factory one back in. There's a jig available, but I've been able to do it with patience.

Polish the Disconnector on the right side. (don't bend it. It's fragile and only available from Ruger) Polish it to a mirror. Both that and the inside face of the pistol frame that it slides on. Polish both sides of the hammer. Don't take metal off, just polish. I've polished my bolt too. Don't touch the extractor. The firing pin is such a loose fit, most of the time you don't need to polish them, but with the lighter main spring you might want to. There's always a titanium pin replacement too.

Changing all springs, installing the Volquartsen trigger with over-travel set screw will provide you with a trigger that has minimal creep felt and will let off at just over 2 pounds. There's another mod for a pre-travel/creep set screw set in the forward high section of the trigger guard. I've done it to three pistols with success. It's best to drill the frame/trigger guard with a cobalt drill bit. The Clark trigger doesn't have a flat face so this mod is not recommended for use with that trigger.

If you don't want the thin wide trigger shoe of the Volquartsen, there's also a trigger from Clark. Unfortunately, the two that I've installed definately needed custom fitting. The difference in the Clark or the Vol is that the Clark will be more like a 1911 long, the Vol being a 1911 short trigger.

I'm no gun smith. So approach these steps with caution just as you would reading over someone's reloading data. Not finding anyone locally that would work on my MK II's, I succomed to figuring this out on my own through trial and error. (not many errors) Yes, the easiest thing to do is install the complete Volquartsen kit. But the Trapper springs and other mods are quite a bit more cost effective for the results in the end.

The aformentioned mods to my Government Target Model Mark II allowed me to fire two 98's and a 99 in Bullseye slow fire this winter. (Hey, that was a good day. Don't ask about my normal scores. I fault myself. Not the pistol) These modifications are worth it though. And you can retain the factory parts if you ever want to sell it unmodified.

I suggest the factory target grips or the Hogue finger groove grips. The Volquartsen Volthane is also very nice.

-Steve

 

[Plink]

To remove creep, stone a bevel of about 45 degrees on the sear. This reduces engagement, so be careful. AGI says remove about 1/3 of total engagement and the Clark people just eyeball it, but I'm a fanatic about precision and repeatability, so I dye the sear and scribe a mark where the edge of the hammer hook meets it. Then I measure the engagement and take it down to .020 engagement. Reducing engagement on the hammer side can lead to doubles or hammer follows, so it's recommended to take it off the sear side instead.

You can lighten pull weight by LIGHTLY stoning the hammer hook to a slightly less angle of engagement. Please go slowly and check regularly to make sure the hammer goes back slightly when you pull the trigger. This is positive engagement, and is absolutely necessary for safety. It usually only takes a few passes to decrease weight enough.

You can also take a few ounces off by slightly bending the sear spring to weaken it a bit. Again, go slow, and check often to make sure there's still enough tension to seat the sear against the hammer positively.

You can remove a lot of the grittiness in the pull by lightly stoning the sides of the hammer and it's bushing, the sides of the trigger and sear, and polishing the pins and their holes.

The Clark trigger and oversized pins are real handy for reducing slop. The Volquartsen sear reduces pull weight, but it still has a lot of creep. You can reduce the creep on it the same way as the factory sear though.

When I do a trigger job on them, I use the Clark trigger and oversized pins, but I work the stock sear. For customers, I set them at 2-2 1/4 lbs, but I've tested my own guns down to 12 ounces, though that's pushing the limits.

I know this post is a bit vague, and I don't know your skill level, so if you need any details, please feel free to email me.

 

[1911-Mark]

The new Volquartsen Trigger has a Pre-travel adjustment!

My Ruger Mk II had the same creepy trigger that everyone complains about until I installed the Volquartsen Ruger Mark II and 22/45 Accurizing Kit (available from Rimfire Sports at: http://www.rimfiresports.com/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=RSC&Product_Code=VC2AK for 83.00) I was delighted to discover that the trigger has an overtravel screw and a pretravel screw! There is no longer any need for custom gunsmithing to install the pretravel screw.

I did gently stone the 45 degree relief on the sear ,as described in an earlier post, and that resulted in a clean breaking, 2.75 lb trigger with no perceived creep. Some folks may want to go to a lighter mainspring to further fine tune the trigger, but this is perfect for my needs.

I plan to try the titanium firing pin to shorten the lock time, but that is about all I plan on doing.

Try the Volquartsen Accurizing Kit. The resulting improvement in accuracy is impressive.

1911 Mark

 

[wrevis]

Just the sear

I would just put in the VQ sear and install the pre-travel allen screw in the trigger yourself. All for $50 or so and a little work. You can have a fairly decent 2-2 1/2 lb. trigger pull that way. Or you can certainly do the sear work yourself as described earlier and not buy anything after market. You do have to carefully evaluate the safety lever function though. THAT CHANGES BIG TIME with sear modifications.

 

[WolfmanGK]

I know this is an old topic but I have recently had some gunsmithing work done on my MKII government target model.

I had to have 1 and 1/8" removed from the barrel due to corrosion. It came this way new, but I always thought I was losing my edge. I thought it was dirt in the barrel. But I waited too long and don't even remember what shop I bought it from.

Anyway, I used a Dremel with a polishing wheel and rouge compound on the hammer and sear both, bringing both to a shine. This dramatically reduced the weight required to shoot it.

I don't know about you guys' guns, but my gun has a set screw in the trigger, not for creep, but above where there would be an adjustment for creep.

I adjusted it outwardly and much to my surprise, the trigger pull is around 2 pounds now!

I noticed a hole for creep, which previously I had a paperclip (I kid you not) piece in to reduce creep. So, I broke out my tap and die set and threaded it for 4-40 size.

I went to nutty bolts in Hesperia and picked up a handful of 4-40 set screws and hex head adjustable screws.

I cut off most of the heads of the hex head screws, and cut notches into the remaining metal.

I then drilled and tapped the travel adjustment spot. I screwed in the screw all the way and put the gun back together.

I can get a small flathead screwdriver in there to adjust play. This is what I found out:

If you adjust it for zero play, you will have one good trigger pull. When you cock the gun again, the disconnector will not totally make contact with the sear and you will not be able to fire the gun.

So, a little less than 1/8" of travel is actually necessary to cycle the gun again. It is disheartening, but only cost me $1 in parts. Still, I was able to cut the trigger weight in a little more than half by experimenting with the upper set screw on the trigger.

 

[WolfmanGK]

Is anyone aware of a method, or chemical I can use to keep the set screw from turning, but still able to allow it to be adjusted with little effort? Like a weak form of loctite? Thanks!