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Traditions Kentucky trigger sloppy

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Howie1968

Howie1968

40 Cal.
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I recently purchased a traditions kentucky rifle percussion. The gun is in great shape and came with powder horn and alot of acroutments. However the trigger is sloppy. Moves left and right forward and back. Is there a fix for this? I've googled it and some people talk of making a trigger return spring on this. Does anyone have any info on it pictures or links?
 
It’s nature of the beast, the trigger is independent of the lock and to allow the lock to operate there must be some slack. On the other hand it’s a very inexpensive rifle so minimum effort was put into closing up tolerances. You’ll notice that at quarter cock there’s less slop because the sear is closer to the trigger. A spring to hold the trigger lightly against the sear will reduce the rattling but won’t make it work better.
 
I have replaced older CVA single triggers with the newer CVA or Traditions triggers. They are not as loose laterally. They will still have the travel front to back. You can get used to that, the more you shoot it.
 
Side to side play is caused by the pin hole in the trigger being quite a bit larger than the hole in the trigger plate and the trigger pin, along with the slot in the trigger plate being quite a bit wider than the trigger is thick. You can slightly open up the trigger plate pin hole and make an oversize pin to improve this, and/or perhaps make a shim washer to really dress things up. If you get a cheap set of feeler gages (one of the sets about three inches long that open like a pocketknife) you can find the one that just slips into the trigger plate without resistance alongside the trigger and make your shim from that. It can be a fiddly process, but cutting/grinding/filing a small washer from the end of the feeler gage that already has a hole in it will help greatly with the slop. Don't forget to debur the finished shim before installing it!

I wouldn't worry too much about the front to back play. These guns generally have "solid" trigger pulls and a little familiarity will have you soon automatically sweeping the take up out of the trigger as you prepare to shoot. To remove that play, a spring would need to push up on the rear of the trigger to hold it in contact with the sear bar. I'm not too keen on that idea since it applies force in the direction normally applied to fire the rifle. It could be quite the balancing act to get a spring installed that wouldn't create an unsafe condition or otherwise keep your sear from properly engaging. I'm sure it could be done, but I've got enough trouble in my life as it is. No need looking for more. A spring that pushed down on the trigger blade would prevent any kind of sear engagement issues, but then your trigger's take up will be spring loaded and may muddy up your trigger pull to the point that it creates a whole new issue.
 
ghostdncr said:
Side to side play is caused by the pin hole in the trigger being quite a bit larger than the hole in the trigger plate and the trigger pin, along with the slot in the trigger plate being quite a bit wider than the trigger is thick. You can slightly open up the trigger plate pin hole and make an oversize pin to improve this, and/or perhaps make a shim washer to really dress things up. If you get a cheap set of feeler gages (one of the sets about three inches long that open like a pocketknife) you can find the one that just slips into the trigger plate without resistance alongside the trigger and make your shim from that. It can be a fiddly process, but cutting/grinding/filing a small washer from the end of the feeler gage that already has a hole in it will help greatly with the slop. Don't forget to debur the finished shim before installing it!

I wouldn't worry too much about the front to back play. These guns generally have "solid" trigger pulls and a little familiarity will have you soon automatically sweeping the take up out of the trigger as you prepare to shoot. To remove that play, a spring would need to push up on the rear of the trigger to hold it in contact with the sear bar. I'm not too keen on that idea since it applies force in the direction normally applied to fire the rifle. It could be quite the balancing act to get a spring installed that wouldn't create an unsafe condition or otherwise keep your sear from properly engaging. I'm sure it could be done, but I've got enough trouble in my life as it is. No need looking for more. A spring that pushed down on the trigger blade would prevent any kind of sear engagement issues, but then your trigger's take up will be spring loaded and may muddy up your trigger pull to the point that it creates a whole new issue.
Click to expand...


I agree almost 100 %. I have taken a cheap ball point pen's spring to do the holding act onto the sear bar.

What I do is uncoil a bit of spring wire on both ends of a bit of the spring. One "leg" is bent into a hook that will grasp the underside of the trigger blade and the other "leg" plants on the trigger housing. This little spring only needs to be a coil or two wide, hence it will also take up the side slop as well.

This very lite trigger helper spring will hold (very litely) the trigger against the hammer sear bar and takes up the rearward slack so the rattle is gone and there is no longer any creepy take-up in your trigger.

Like above, drill a larger hole in the plate and trigger and using a cheap drill bit of the same size, make a new pin to take all the annoying play out. Do not forget to debur everything and polish the contact area's to make it as friction free as you can.

Fun project. Take the time to think it all out and go slow. These little things help make the rifle "YOURS".

Good luck in your endeavor.
 
On my Traditions KY, I cut a slot vertically at the rear of the trigger blade so that it formed a post about 1/8" wide and 1/4" deep, filed off the square edges, and put a length (cut to be long enough to be under some tension, but still have enough room to compress) of pen spring on it. When reassembled, the loose end of the spring bore on the wood. Stopped all slop. Trigger blade doesn't touch the sear bar at all until, as on military 2-stage triggers, you "take up the slack". It's somebody else's idea, but it worked very well for me.
 

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