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Savage Trigger Shim

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206K views 246 replies 179 participants last post by  PDQ  
#1 ·
After a few requests, here are the Savage trigger shim details.

Remember when dealing with triggers.....

Make sure the weapon is unloaded
Always check for safety
Be Very Careful
Check for safety again! :)

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#2 ·
I just picked up my 93-GLV Monday and of course I got sent out of town Wednesday for work and haven't got to play with it yet. I do have some questions on this fix though.
1.) When I loosen the back lockscrew, do I just let the trigger assembly loosen up and slide a piece of shim stock between it and the receiver?
2.) Should the shim stock go all the way across the trigger assembly and stick out on both sides to make sure the trigger stays level?
3.) Is one piece of .025 steel shim stock acceptable instead of two .0125 pieces.
4.) What should I torque the rear lock screw too? (I know that it takes two boys and a small pony to get it loose initially.)
5.) Should I used a drop of locktite on the screw? (Savage seem really concerned with it loosening)
 
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#3 ·
Just did my own trigger job on a 93r17 FV. Found the information in this thread helpfull. Did a couple of things differently that I thought might be of some use. I didn't shim the trigger for side to side movement. I just took a pliers and bent the housing in a little so there was no play. I used about a .025- .030 shim above the trigger housing right in front of the large bolt at the rear of the housing. Retitened the bolt and this took care of sear engagement. I then used about 3/4 of a pen spring to replace the factory trigger pull adjustment spring. I titened the allen head screw on this way down. I went quite a way past the top of the surface adjusting it down until there was virtually no overtravel so that the trigger barely moved when firing. This still left me with less than 3 pound (probably less than 2.5) pounds of pull, no creep and no overtravel. I also polished the engagement surfaces. I can honestly say that this trigger is now equally as good as any of the Timney triggers I have for my hunting rifles.
 
#4 ·
I inserted the shim where the picture shows it and found when I cranked the rear screw down it actually bent the tab (that the screw passes through) on the back of the trigger assembly toward the action. This caused the screw to be loose later on and I had to retighten it, which caused the tab to bend, etc.

I finally straightened out the tab, cut my shims with a radius in them that wrapped around the screw and supported the tab and then torqued the screw tight. I went from a .034" shim (which wouldn't allow my safety to release) to a .022 shim which let everything work correctly.

I will probably order the Rifle Basix trigger for mine because it will not adjust below 3 Lbs. without letting the sear slip if you pull the trigger with the safety on and then release the safety.
 
C
#6 ·
I did the same mod too with a one piece .025" shim. But a solid piece or several pieces doesn't make a difference. I went on and wrapped the shim with 4 layers of aluminum foil. It was too much for my taste and I took 2 layers out and it's just right for me now. Loctite never hurts, just don't use the "permanent" grade. Seeing how Savage tightens the screw down I tightened it back the best I could.
 
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#7 ·
When I shimed my trigger I found if you also put a small piece of the same thicknes at the back of the housing and screw it will not bend. .0276 shim stock was used on mine. I found that a spring out of a ball point pen was just a little to large of a diameter. Be carefull if you use one. If the spring binds inside the sear assembly it would be possible for the sear/trigger to get stuck due to the loss of spring preasure pushing the sear back up. I found that the trigger spring out of a ruger single action revolver was the correct diameter and when trimed to the proper lenght worked great. Also I found that the breaking edge on the sear where it contacts the bolt plug a little rough. I honed surfaces until I had a nice edge. Use caution when polishing these case hardened components as it is possible to polish/grind through the case hardened surface, just don't remove to much metal and you will be allright. Also I found if you crimp the trigger housing it tends to bind as the surfaces are no longer parallel to each other. I found a piece of .0236 shim stock on each side of the trigger worked great. For those of you that do not know what shim stock is or where to get it, go to your local sears store and buy a cheap feeler gauge set. Wala! You now have enough shim stock to do more triggers than you will ever own. For those of you that have acess to a milling machine I also found the trigger pivot/retaining pin to be a little loose. I drilled out the trigger and inserted a piece of oilite bushing materiel and reamed to a nice smooth fit. Trigger now has a nice clean and crisp break at 14oz. It's like shooting a different rifle now.

By the way, my cousin also bought a savage 93r17. He purchased the Rifle Basix sear Part# sav-r for $79.95 and said it worked great. He will be bringing it over this weekend for me to try out.

Mike
 
#9 · (Edited)
How are people getting to the trigger spring. I've done the shim, and I get a much crisper trigger pull, but it's still way to firm. I would guess it's just over 4 lbs. I'd love to try a pen spring to bring it closer to 2.5.

Edit: I took the chance, and figured it out. For those who wish to try at their own risk (I'm not sure this is the most efficient but it works), remove both the rear screw for the shim and the one in fron tof the trigger. Then you can slide out the whole assembly. You can see how the rest is put together once you get there.
 
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#10 ·
This trigger job is AWESOME

I bought a Rifle Basix sear and played with it, fought with it and cussed it! I could get the pull nice and the creep gone, or almost gone. As soon as I did, the gun would fire when I slammed the bolt shut.

Most of the time it was OK but even if it's one time in a hundred, that too much for me - it's unsafe. I even completely removed the creep adjustment spring/screw and increased the pull weight and the gun still fired.

Based on the comments here, I went to AutoZone and bought a set of feeler gauges for $2.99, took the spring out of a pen and cut off aprox. 20% and I now have a match grade trigger. I used the .025 size and cut a shim for the front and rear of the large screw.

When I say "match grade" I really mean it. There is ZERO creep and it's got a 2lb. pull by my RCBS spring scale. I am totally satisfied with it now. I just went to the range and shot a 50 yard five shot group that could be covered with a dime. My hundered yard group was opened up a little more but would still kill any squirrel in the county on a head shot.

Thank you to all who posted and for those of you thinking twice about doing this - JUST DO IT!
 
#11 ·
Now that I have the spring and the shim in, the trigger works good. I say good 'cause there are a couple of other things to work on. First, the creep is gone 100%, but not 100% of the time. Also, I still have some general "looseness" to the trigger. Is this called overtravel? I know the side to side play is normal for most. Mine is very slight so I dont' care so much about that.

I do have a slight amount of play front to back. There is an adjustable screw inside on top of the spring. Is this the adjustment for this? How should I move it to improve the front to back "looseness"?
 
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#12 ·
Yes. I too am a user...lol I did the shim with .29 under the trigger. I shimmed the side play by going against the trigger inside the housing with a piece of .19. I dont have a scale to measure trigger pull, but it feels around 4lbs. Either way it is a huge improvement over stock and the zero side play makes as much an improvement as lowering the pull pressure.
 
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#13 ·
Ok,I give.Last night I tried the trigger fix.The shim part is no biggie at all,but I'm sort of flummoxed about the spring part of it.Mostly I'm afraid that I'll bend or break something that shouldn't be.
When you back the screw off of the spring,should the spring push back out of the hole on its own?The way the spring responds to the set screw,you don't even need the screw,because the spring won't budge.(I didn't try very hard,because,as I said,I didn't want to bend anything that doesn't need to bend.)
Are you guys driving the pins out of the assembly to get to the spring?I don't mind doing that,as I go through my old M-1 carbine pretty often,but I just wanted to make sure that's what I'm supposed to do.It looks to me like you should be able to get the spring out by backing off the locked down set screw behind it....hepme! hepme!
 
#16 · (Edited)
I pull the whole trigger assembly off and removed the bottom pin. The spring didn't come through where that adjustable screw is. It came out from the other side.

EDIT: I just redid my shimming with some .025 feeler gauge material. I was using something I would guess was closer to .02 and as said before I still had creep but only rarely. I have done away with that entirely it seems now. Trigger pull seems even a bit crisper than before even when I didn't feel any creeping.
 
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#17 ·
aahh..now it's got a sweet pull..sort of strange how much difference that little piece of shim and spring can make.Now to the range tommorrow.

...the savage 93 ss heavy barrel that I wound up with,was already more accurate than I am,as someone in here said.
..thanks to all in here with the info
 
H
#20 ·
I had a bunch of 12" metal rulers laying around (like the one's you get on a square), I then ground it down about .75 in from the end so it fits in the slot. It works like a cheater bar and took no effort what-so-ever to crack the bolt loose.

I'm still trying a bunch of shim sizes and springs but havent been able to achieved what I'm looking for yet. The trigger seems crisp but has an initial jump when I begin to squeeze (seems like thats where the play used to be not the creep). Once it does that initial jump, its ready and crisp.

I tried both cutting a coil out of the original spring and a pen spring but still feels pretty heavy in the pull. I dont have any tools to measure the pull but its alot harder than a trigger job I did on a stock older 30-06 by just adjusting a few screws.

I guess I'll just keep plugging away at it.
HD
 
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#21 ·
Sear Question

I shimmed the trigger like folks on here are talking about with good results. I went a bit further though and shiimed the front of the trigger assembly as well. Also, I drilled holes in my shims for the bolts to go through so, no bending of the mounting plate as a few experienced.

I also tried clipping the spring instead of replacing it. For now, it seems good although I may try to find a lighter replacement later. I shot today and had a beautiful 2.5 to 3 lb crisp trigger. Oh yeah, I spent a couple of hours polishing the sear engagement surface.

So, I really did have a question. Instead of shimming, I was thinking of taking .02 off of the top of the sear. This would obviously cut through the hardening. Can any gunsmith re-harden it? Also, I haven't looked into it enough yet but, if there is room, can this sintered metal be drilled and tapped say for an over travel adjustment?
 
P
#22 ·
Just got done

Here is how it went I purchased some shim stock at a local hardware store. I got .005 folded it in half and drilled a hole in it for trigger side to side movement. I used two pieces for this. Next I used the fine stone on my tri stone knife sharpen to dress the trigger parts. I used a bic mechanical pencil (the cheep plastice ones)0.5 mm pencil Looks like the spring was made for the 93. I used the drill bit as an aligment pin for reassembley. The side shimms weren't perfectlly flat so after reassembley. I squeezed the housing with pilers a little to flatten the shimms out a little more. I placed a shim at the back screw as shown in the picture. Tightened it with a little blue loctite. I don't have a scale but wow it feels great now. I guess my warrenty is void now. Darn

Mike :cool:
 
H
#24 ·
Well I finally got the trigger feeling good, although it took some trial and error with diiferent size shims and such but I couldnt of done it with-out all of your help and ideas, Thank you!

I would like to see one more additon to the trigger modifications and that would be limiting the over-travel of the trigger. I dont like how the trigger continues to move all the way to the back once the bolt snaps.

I have a Savage 30-06 that hardley has any additonal trigger movement once the pin fires which I feel improves my consistancy.

Anyway to limit the over-travel?

HD
 
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#25 ·
Overtravel idea

Hoosier:

I haven't done it yet but plan to this weekend ... here's the plan. Drill and tap the upper "tang, tab, whatever" of the trigger. thread in a set screw, from the bottom, with a lock nut, and adjust it so that the tip of the set screw will contact the bottom of the sear just after ignition.

Like I said, I haven't done it yet so, it is just a theory until I try it. I did however confer with a former gunsmith friend of mine and he says it will do the trick. The only thing I am unsure of is what material the trigger is made of. If it is sintered, which, I think it is, I am told I will have to use a carbide bit and tap. Fortunately for me, my brother-in-law is a machinist and is going to fix me up.

I'll let you know if it works and post pic's.

plcfcng - thanks for the info, I will check it out. I may not need it though, the same gunsmith buddy from above has a friend that does all of his hardening. I'm telling you, it's not what you know, it is who!
 
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