P-H Lock help sought

**Jerry Ward** · 12-29-2008

Gents,

I recently acquired an older English made P-H Enfield Musketoon. The gun appears to have been fired very little and looks great. The only problem is a hefty trigger pull, about 10lbs.

Upon dis-assembly / tinkering, I notice that the tumbler has a lot of play in the lockplate. The stirrup seems to be dragging the plate, and the sear spring is fairly heavy. The face of the sear is beat up on the edges, like the tumbler was grabbing the sear in the half cock notch occasionally (out of square).

What's the best / easiest way to a 3.5 lb pull from here? Original loaded lock? Is there any repair that can close up the lockplate - tumbler?

Thanks

**shilohzowie** · 12-30-2008

Lots of good information at the Northwest Territory website. Article by David France.

**Jim Strang** · 12-30-2008

Hereza link:

http://www.nwtskirmisher.com/useful.shtml

**Southron Sr.** · 01-03-2009

If your P-H Enfield lock is catching on the "Half-Cock" notch when you try to fire it, then it sounds like that someone has already "botched" a "trigger job" by attempting to stone the full cock notch.

Unlike the M-1855 thru M-1864 Springfield Rifle-Muskets, Enfield tumblers are very sensitive to any change of the angle in the full cock notch, and if such is done, catching on "half-cock" when attempting to shoot the gun is a sign of that.

Since the stirrup is dragging the inside of the lockplate, give Navy Arms a call-they might even replace those parts "under warranty."(IF the problem was not caused by a botched trigger job.) If they won't, you can always purchase a new tumbler from them.

When your new tumbler arrives, carefully disassemble your lock. Using a small piece of flat steel, wrap some 400 Grit Emery Paper around it tightly and start polishing the INSIDE of your lock plate.

Then go to 600 Grit Emery paper and polish the inside of the lock plate to a "Mirror" finish. You might also consider "cutting down" your sear spring somewhat as detailed on the nwskirmisher website.

Re-assemble your lock, lubricating all of the inside moving parts with a quality grade of grease (not too much grease!) and then try the trigger pull. It should be somewhat lighter.

You want to end up with a trigger pull somewhere between 3 & 4 pounds.

My point is, stay away from stoning the "full cock" notch of your P-H- Enfield unless you have a lot of experience. There are other ways to "lighten" your Enfield's trigger pull that don't involve messing with that critical angle on the full cock notch. By the way, by polishing the inside of your lockplate and applying grease, you will cut down your musketoon's "lock time" which is always a good thing when it comes to improving the arms accuracy.