Mosin Nagant 91/30 trigger fettling :-)
Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2015 10:06 pm
My 1939 Izhevsk 91/30 shoots pretty well but the trigger was horrendous with a pull of about 12lb and about two mile of creep, to the point where the cocking piece was being pulled down by the sear so following some research on the net I decided to see if I could improve it.
I stripped the trigger apart and removed all the machining marks and burrs from the trigger spring/sear with a diamond file,then polished it with 1000 grade wet and dry and finally some Autosol metal polish.I then did the same with the trigger itself, smoothing out the contact points with the trigger spring and removed the marks and burrs off the pivot pin.Next I turned my attention to the bolt assembly and removed any burrs and gave it a light polish.Even on an empty chamber the bolt was a bit of a pig to open and close so I removed two coils from the firing pin spring while I had the bolt assembly apart.
After reassembling the bolt and trigger mechanism I refitted the bolt assembly and whilst cocked I manipulated the cocking piece to ensure the sear was properly engaged and was not going to release without actually pulling the trigger and everything was ok so I refitted the action into the stock.Once it was all back together I cocked it again and gave the butt a few bangs on the floor and again everything was as it should be and it didn't release.The end result is the trigger pull is down to about 4lb and the bolt cycles with much less effort than before and is almost, not quite, as good as an Enfield.In all it took about two hours and the difference it has made is like night and day, I suppose they were originally made as quickly as possible with the minimum of refining in order to arm the Red Army so there is room for vast improvement with relatively little effort.Hopefully the improved trigger will help the accuracy some as it will now be nicer to shoot with a lighter more predictable trigger.
I stripped the trigger apart and removed all the machining marks and burrs from the trigger spring/sear with a diamond file,then polished it with 1000 grade wet and dry and finally some Autosol metal polish.I then did the same with the trigger itself, smoothing out the contact points with the trigger spring and removed the marks and burrs off the pivot pin.Next I turned my attention to the bolt assembly and removed any burrs and gave it a light polish.Even on an empty chamber the bolt was a bit of a pig to open and close so I removed two coils from the firing pin spring while I had the bolt assembly apart.
After reassembling the bolt and trigger mechanism I refitted the bolt assembly and whilst cocked I manipulated the cocking piece to ensure the sear was properly engaged and was not going to release without actually pulling the trigger and everything was ok so I refitted the action into the stock.Once it was all back together I cocked it again and gave the butt a few bangs on the floor and again everything was as it should be and it didn't release.The end result is the trigger pull is down to about 4lb and the bolt cycles with much less effort than before and is almost, not quite, as good as an Enfield.In all it took about two hours and the difference it has made is like night and day, I suppose they were originally made as quickly as possible with the minimum of refining in order to arm the Red Army so there is room for vast improvement with relatively little effort.Hopefully the improved trigger will help the accuracy some as it will now be nicer to shoot with a lighter more predictable trigger.
