A simple trigger weight check for the Martini (and others)

[Von Gruff]

On the British Militaria forum a friend was trying to work on his Martini and had a very heavy trigger pull so I showed him a trick to lighten the pull without changing the originality of the rifle. I have done mine and have a lovely 2 lb trigger so I did a short video to show them how to check the trigger weight without the fancy shop bought scales.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNSNlvF5APY&feature=youtu.be
For those with a martini who want to lighten the trigger this is a simple fix
I got round to stripping the action down and getting a couple of pics today.
The trigger group out of the rifle
http://i1070.photobucket.com/albums/u488/vongruff1/All%20gunsmithing/DSCN0538_zpsg6foaza2.jpg (http://s1070.photobucket.com/user/vongruff1/media/All%20gunsmithing/DSCN0538_zpsg6foaza2.jpg.html)
Remove the trigger spring and make a shim washer but cut the bottom 2/3's off it so that it looks a bit like this.
http://i1070.photobucket.com/albums/u488/vongruff1/All%20gunsmithing/DSCN0540_zpshlacjsh4.jpg (http://s1070.photobucket.com/user/vongruff1/media/All%20gunsmithing/DSCN0540_zpshlacjsh4.jpg.html)

place the part shim washer to the rear of the spring location. This will lower the tension which acts against the seer and the good thing is that nothing is altered in the way of originality. Some have advocated grinding the sides of the spring to weaken it but this is much better in my opinion. The spring is kept as it always was and depending on the amount of shim thickness you use, you can taylor the release to suit your hunting or target needs.
http://i1070.photobucket.com/albums/u488/vongruff1/All%20gunsmithing/DSCN0541_zpsmxxotem9.jpg (http://s1070.photobucket.com/user/vongruff1/media/All%20gunsmithing/DSCN0541_zpsmxxotem9.jpg.html)

Replace the spring and reasemble the rifle to check for the trigger release weight and adjust the shim thickness as required. It dosent take a great deal of shim thickness to alter the release weight significanty.
http://i1070.photobucket.com/albums/u488/vongruff1/All%20gunsmithing/DSCN0542_zpsrmrbp9qz.jpg (http://s1070.photobucket.com/user/vongruff1/media/All%20gunsmithing/DSCN0542_zpsrmrbp9qz.jpg.html)

[blackbahart]

good information ,also beats the heck out of grinding and like you said fully reversable with no errors !!

[Mustangpalmer1911]

Very nice! Thanks for the how to.

[eljefeoz]

Thanks VG.

[marlinman93]

I buy various diameter piano wire from a local hardware store for about $5 a pound roll. I use either .045" or .052" wire to bend up a copy of trigger return springs. I bend a 90 on the end to get the same bearing surface at the contact point, and an eye on the other end to mount it.
On most old guns I've used it on the trigger pull goes from 8-12 lbs. to around 2-3 lbs. And I simply put a string tag on the original spring and store them away for safe keeping.

[enfield]

I have an old spring from a lawn mower recoil, about 1/4' wide and drillable, works great on rolling blocks and little martini's