Maven
08-30-2012, 11:42 AM
The trigger on my GRF (Green River Forge) trade gun has always been too heavy for my tastes. While I was able to eliminate some of the grittiness by polishing the innards of the lock, the sear, and the trigger itself, it still wasn't as light as I'd like. The other night I got the idea of adding a piece of metal to the trigger where it bears on the sear, to increase leverage. The only suitable metal I had was nickel silver Ho gauge rail, i.e., the heavy and not to scale stuff that comes with HO train sets (another hobby of mine). I cut an ~1/4" pc., and sweat soldered it to the top of the trigger. Although it was too tall, a minute's work with an abrasive stone in my Dremel tool reduced it enough to make a good fit. I stoned and polished the addition, reinstalled the trigger and lock, and got a very nice reduction in pull for my efforts. Yesterday's range session convinced me that a lighter trigger is much better.
There was one "dark cloud" however. To wit, I think I need a slightly thicker patch, not to prevent blown patches (never had one with this gun), but to improve accuracy. My .014" red striped pillow ticking patches + .597" weighed Tanner RB + 70gr. Diamondback FFFg was a pleasure to load, but 25yd. offhand accuracy was no better than 5" - 6". (Btw, before the "trigger job," offhand shooting was difficult. Now it's fun.) I also happened to have 6 slightly thicker, i.e., .016" patches with me and got a pretty nice 5--shot group (until I blew one!) using the same components at the same distance. In a little while I'm going to see whether the local Joann Fabric has that fabric or something similar. Problem is, I bought it almost 20 yrs. ago and don't know whether it's still available.
One last point, it took just 2 5 min. soakings with Friendship Speed Juice and maybe 5 patches to clean the bore (2 just to absorb the moisture). 70gr. FFFG, Diamondback specifically, is a clean burning load in the trade gun.
There was one "dark cloud" however. To wit, I think I need a slightly thicker patch, not to prevent blown patches (never had one with this gun), but to improve accuracy. My .014" red striped pillow ticking patches + .597" weighed Tanner RB + 70gr. Diamondback FFFg was a pleasure to load, but 25yd. offhand accuracy was no better than 5" - 6". (Btw, before the "trigger job," offhand shooting was difficult. Now it's fun.) I also happened to have 6 slightly thicker, i.e., .016" patches with me and got a pretty nice 5--shot group (until I blew one!) using the same components at the same distance. In a little while I'm going to see whether the local Joann Fabric has that fabric or something similar. Problem is, I bought it almost 20 yrs. ago and don't know whether it's still available.
One last point, it took just 2 5 min. soakings with Friendship Speed Juice and maybe 5 patches to clean the bore (2 just to absorb the moisture). 70gr. FFFG, Diamondback specifically, is a clean burning load in the trade gun.