Trigger pull improvement for a Tower Enfield Musketoon

[papabang]

Have acquired a really nice Italian reproduction.58 musketoon...it shoots beautifully except that I have to yank the trigger to prevent it from hanging up in half-cock. I've cleaned and polished the lock mechanism (did NOT tamper with the sear) but that does not seem to help. Suggestions would be appreciated.

LATER: Smoothing a burr on the sear solved the problem. By the way, Lodgewood does have replacement sears for Euroarms Enfields...had to have them machined locally as there aren't any available now. Armisport sears won't work...hole is too small and not enough metal around it to bore it larger.

Thanks for all the help.

[Ron/The Old Reb]

Is it new or used? Sounds like someone played with the sear and now it's to short. Or ground down the sear notch on the tumbler.

[Maillemaker]

I'm not a gunsmith, so take my advice with a grain of salt. I also don't have much experience other than playing with my own guns, so add some more salt.

My Euroarms Enfield, which I bought used, didn't last through a year of skirmishing before the hammer started dropping to half cock on me during a skirmish. When I got it home and got it apart to look at it, the tip of the sear had mushroomed and a small piece had even broken off.

I re-ground the sear to a "good shape", removing as little material as possible, and I dressed the tumbler full-cock notch and the end of my sear to fit with a very slight back angle. Too close to vertical will give you too light a trigger which is unsafe, against the rules, and may result in you hitting the half-cock notch on the tumbler when the full-cock breaks. The way I see it, you need enough trigger pull at full cock so that when it breaks free it jumps the half-cock notch in the tumbler.

I then took my sear and put it in a cap tin full of pieces of leather, and I set it on my BBQ grill burner for an hour, glowing a dull red. This is an ancient way of impregnating the outer layer of the iron with carbon to make it steel and thus hardenable. Then I took it out and quenched it in transmission fluid, and then I polished it up and heated it until it started to blue and quenched it again. I was then reminded, when I described this process to my online friends, that rather than trying to temper it "by eye of color" I should have just used my lead pot with a thermometer to temper it precisely. I will do that next time.

I then bought a replacement "drop in" sear and tumbler from Lodegewood. It broke on the 5th hammer drop, and while I was waiting on the replacement (they replaced it for free) I put my self-fixed tumbler and sear back it. It has worked so well for me that I have not put the replacement Lodgewood parts back in.

So in my uneducated way of looking at the tumbler/sear mechanism, you want a shallow enough (but not too shallow) full-cock notch that you do not have a loooong trigger pull. And you want a severe enough back-angle on it so that you get a safe, legal, and reliable trigger pull that jumps the half-cock notch when it breaks and jumps off of full cock.

Steve

[Mike Stein]

You are past the hardened surface on the sear, tumbler or both. Continued use will make it worse to the point it will hang up on the kalf-cock notch. Italian repros have a reputation of being a little stingy with the hardening. Euroarms is no longer and spares have been disappearing from all source for the last year.
At this stage, the reshaping needed will be very minor and then both will need to be rehardened. Steve tells you of the old method. Kasonite was a stand-by for many a gun smith but is now discontinued. Brownells offers a Surface Hardening Compound but is presently out of stock. Rob Lewis at Tri-L will apply carbonite but will want to see stock and lock. There are a few other N/SSA gunsmith members that will be happy to make it right for you.

Mike

[papabang]

I suppose I'm in the good news/bad news situation. I do have a NSSA certified gunsmith in the area and I will get his two-bits on the problem.
Appreciate all the good advice and suggestions.

[Maillemaker]

I see you are in the Deep South Region. Richard Hill is a fine gunsmith and has worked on my guns before.

Steve