Smoothing a Ruger single action

[nighthunter]

Smoothing a Ruger single action

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Does anyone have any knowledge of or can point me in the right direction for information on smoothing up the trigger pull on a Ruger single action. Its chambered in .30 Carbine and will shoot 2 inch groups at 50 yards but it takes a lot of concentration to do because of the trigger. The trigger has a lot of takeup and a catch spot just before fireing. It sorta reminds me of a two stage military trigger but not quite to that extreme. But there is a definate catch spot. Any info will be appreciated.
Nighthunter
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[hpdrifter]

might try the poor man's trigger job. Put pressure on hammer and pull trigger quite a few times. Mine smoothed up real nice,,,,,,but it don't do much for the excess travel. That will require some stone work.

[lar45]

Yes do the pressure on the hammer, then pull the trigger. You can load empties in the cylinder to save on the fireing pin wear if you want to. I would do it many many times.

To lighten the pull up, take the grips off, then pull one leg of the trigger spring off of it's pin and just let it float. Go ahead and work the action several times with the grips off to see that it doesn't interfere with anything.
I've done it to all my ruger single actions and never had any type of problem with it.

Shoot it abit after all this and see how the trigger behaves.
If it needs more work after that, then break out the stone and go slow, checking your work often. Be prepaired to take the gun apart and back together 20x or so.
I have an assortment of stones in square, triangle... to fit the part I'm working on. Most of it can be done with a small Arkansas stone. Don't use one of those Diamond stones. They take off lots of material and don't leave a smooth surface.

As long as you have the hammer out, you might as well jewel it.

[mparks]

http://www.cylindersmith.com/triggerspring.html

[McLintock]

There's several ways to go, from expensive ($125-150 range) to relatively cheap but you need a few tools like Lars mentioned, and if you have to buy them first, then the expense goes up. In the first range you can get a Ron Power hammer/trigger set up with a half cock notch that gives an instant trigger job, or have a pistolsmith do an action job for about the same price.
For the do it yourselfer there's spring kits from a lot of different makers and Brownells carries some of them. Also needed are several stones for honing the hammer/sear surfaces, but you have to be sure of maintaining the proper angles. If you anticipate doing several Rugers, Ron Power also makes a sear honing jig that holds the sear in the correct position to maintain the right angles. I have one and can use it with either New Model or Old Model sears and it works great, but again it's expensive. I have two New Models, Buckeye Specials in 32-20 and 32 H&R, and put a Ron Power set in one and did the other myself and can't tell much difference between the two, except one doesn't have the half cock notch.
I've got 6-7 other Old Models including an Old Model .30 Carbine that I also worked on, so buying the Ron Power jig was worth it for me.
McLintock

[44man]

After doing so many, I just grind the hammer on my tool grinder. I can tell how much to remove. I then polish all surfaces with a ceramic stone, lube with Action Lube and go shoot. I never have to take the gun back apart.
One thing about the Ruger is you don't want the trigger so light that the trigger kicks foreward at the break. The transfer bar will drop below the firing pin or nick it giving a hang fire and bad accuracy. I solve this by making my own transfer bars that cover more of the pin.
There is only one way to get rid of the creep and that is to remove metal.
There are a lot of good suggestions on wearing the rough spot off and unhooking one end of the trigger spring will really help.
If you fool with a stone it will take forever and after taking the gun back apart so many times, you will quit.

[Bucks Owin]

The poor boy trick of "marrying" the sear and unhooking one leg of the spring work well enough for most folks, the improvement of NM Blackhawks is noticeable! Some guns will still creep slightly, but it's "shootable" ....

Go to gunblast.com and search for "Poorboy Trigger Job" for all the dope...

Dennis

44man, I've done your grinder method with my OMs with good success, as well as shortening the trigger spring....

[lar45]

I have a JP Saur 357 single action that I picked up cheap $125, it wouldn't go bang all the time. After fooling with it some(UNLOADED), I noticed that if I held the trigger back all the way, then the fireing pin would poke it's little head out. I took it out and shot it with the same results. Not fireing all the time. Ammo that didn't fire still had a small dimple on the primer. Then I tried jerking the trigger back and it went bang everytime.

I tore it down and found that someone had stoned down the hammer part of the sear surface. The problem was that the gun has a half cock and the half-cock notch was hitting the trigger on the way down, bouncing off and not haveing enough energy to pop the primer.
What should have been done is to build up the hammer so it didn't have as much shelf for the trigger to set on.
My welding skills on really small parts is terrible. So I had to grind down the half-cock notch as well until the hammer would fall freely. It didn't leave much metal for the half-cock though.
Ideally I should get a new hammer for it. It has a really light and crisp trigger now. I even used it to hammer a little fork horn Mulie a couple of years ago at about 80yds.

I guess my point is to look at all the parts inside the gun to see how they all function together. Like 44man said about the longer transfer bar. If you have a short pull on the trigger, then it might not push the transfer bar up far enough to cover the fireing pin. Some one should make them for sale. I wonder what it would take to investment cast 1000 or so?

[44man]

Lar, you are right about the Colt style setups in that metal should never be removed. The Rugers are safe to grind and stone. (Except the old three pin Rugers.)
For the hammers with safety notches I soft solder a piece of brass on the hammer and file it for no creep. I use the high strength, low temp solder and a copper iron so as not to remove the hardness of the sear surfaces.
You can also do this to the new Rugers as well if afraid to grind. It is a little tricky on the stainless guns but I have made it work.
The ideal would be to drill and tap for a tiny setscrew but that metal is very hard.

[ebner glocken]

The sears and hammers drill fine if you regrind the bit down flatter ....just a tad. The ruger jobs I have done I start out with stones go to the finer lapping compounds on the end of a pencil eraser then the lapping compounds marring the two surfaces together. If the pull isn't what I want at this point I go down to jewlers rouge starting out with the red....never had to go to the white yet. My bisley .45 breaks at around 18-20 oz and still doesn't fall w/o pulling the trigger. Job can be done in well under 3 hours.

[lar45]

I start out with stones go to the finer lapping compounds on the end of a pencil eraser .

That is how I jeweled my hammer. A pencil chucked in the drill and small squares of 600 grit wet and dry. You can see yourself in the metal afterwards.

[ebner glocken]

For flat surfaces (not jewling) there is an eraser that is called a "red ruby" that you may have to get at an office supply, this one is really soft and holds the lapping compound the best. The other one that isn't quite as good but does work well is called a "pink pearl" and can usually be found in walmart or just about any discount store that sells school supplys.

btw ......the red ruby is great on electronic contacts to shine them up ....no lapping compound for this application LOL