Dixie mountain rifle trigger problem

So I ordered a l&r rpl lock for my Dixie mountain rifle. It didn’t take much to get it to drop in and it works good. Now the trouble is with the triggers. It is pretty hard to pull the trigger and there’s a lot of take up before it makes contact. Also the set trigger doesn’t do anything. It makes a “click” but doesn’t set the front. Any ideas? Thanks

It sounds like the geometry between the trigger and the new lock is off. The sear lever on the new lock may not be in the same location as on the previous lock. It may be closer to the front trigger pivot point and completely miss the set lever or be too high to release when set.

Thank you for the reply. So it is possible the lock is not set deep enough in the mortise?

The lock should bottom against the barrel. Can't go any farther. Jake means the trigger bars don't match the sear bar on the new lock. You should be able to see where the trigger bar is relative to the sear bar in the hole. Can you see the front and rear bars in the hole? I can't remember if those Dixies have a double or single acting set trigger.
The triggers may need to go deeper or have a piece soldered to raise the rear bar. I use Solder Paste that comes in the syringe.

I can see one trigger bar in the hole

Try putting the lock in and pushing forward on the back trigger. You should feel the sear bar moving with the trigger.
Because you only see one bar, sounds like you have the single acting set triggers. Did you pull on the front to see if it had a bar? If not, the front one only releases the back one. It doesn't have a bar to hit the sear bar.

I've just done this with a Mt. Rifle and an L&R flintlock this week. In my case, first the sear bar was hitting the wood on the opposite side of mortice. I took about .020 off the bar and it does not touch anything now. Then, I found I had to set the back trigger before installing the lock plate. Now everything went where it belonged but the triggers weren't working right. Removed the trigger guard and the lock. I could see were the rear trigger shoe was higher than the front one. Removed the triggers and adjusted the spring tension screw until the bars were even. Re-installed triggers and lock. Did not work properly. Loosened the trigger retention screws that hold it in place and tried it loose. Better. Removed all again and shimmed the trigger plate with brass until it was even with the wood mortice for the triggers. Put lock back. Now the full cock is not there. Removed triggers again. Adjusted the spring screw again. Re-installed with set screw backed off. Now it goes to half and full cock. Began working with the set screw a half turn at a time until I began to get a "set" with the rear and a "release with the front" Adjusted until I got the amount of "release" I wanted and the half cock notch held when giving the butt a decent whack with a soft mallet. This was a tedious process that took me about 2-hours total. In order to limit frustration and tunnel-vision I would do a little and take a break for 5-10 minutes. I have done several but this one was the most complex to date. Once you understand what everything is doing and how they inter-act I think you will be able to sort it out slowly but surely.

I removed the trigger assembly and took a look at it out of the rifle. Pulling the set trigger makes the front trigger so light that breathing on it sets it off. Doesn’t matter how I adjust the set screw it doesn’t change anything.

I chased my tail for a day and a half once with that problem. Spring tension screw was in way too tight. Ugggg.

Dixie Southern Mountain Rifle does have the double set/double lever triggers.

Respectfully, Cowboy

Rich427sw said:

I removed the trigger assembly and took a look at it out of the rifle. Pulling the set trigger makes the front trigger so light that breathing on it sets it off. Doesn’t matter how I adjust the set screw it doesn’t change anything.

Click to expand...

So the sear lever on the lock needs to be near where you see the green circle in relation to the set trigger assembly. You want the set trigger to be pressing mostly upwards ↑ when it strikes the sear lever. The closer it is to the red circle the worse the impact angle against the sear lever..., so it's like ↗..., which makes it harder for it to move the sear OR it might not hit the sear at all.

IF moving the screw in or out makes no change to the amount of movement used on the front trigger to release the set-trigger..., and you're testing it while removed from the stock.... there's something wrong with the set trigger assembly itself. The farther "in" you move the adjustment screw the less movement needed to release the rear, set portion of the trigger in a properly functioning trigger assembly.



LD