This is sort of a Hail Mary question. I had a new to me target rifle built on a pre-64 Winchester M-70. It has a Jewell trigger installed and the safety isn't properly functional.

It will fire every time if you press the trigger with the safety engaged and then disengage it. There is a barely noticeable tactile sensation when you press on the trigger.

As I understand it I am few owners away from when it was built so I don't know if it was always like this or someone made it that way. Being a Palma rifle it's possible that was deliberate but I can't imagine Jewell would design a trigger that disables a safety on purpose (but I know zip about Jewell triggers).

Is this the way the trigger is designed? Thanks in advance!

Some of the older target shooters would alter the sear on the firing pin to give what they thought was a shorter lock time. It sounds to me that your sear is too far forward and needs a correction.

Jim

Thanks Jim. I have the M70 338 Win I bought from you several years ago; would installing the affected parts from that rifle tell me what is what, or are they too rifle-specific to interchange? This would be a test only.

I believe you would have to change the cocking piece. It could be a simple fix, only need to grind the sear surface on the cocking piece back a bit

Thanks. The shortened sear sounds logical. Considering this rifle may have been built before Jewell triggers were available and that a competitor wouldn't be needing full safety function on that particular course of fire it makes sense.

Jim is correct. It normally only takes a couple thousandths of an inch removed from the tongue on the cocking piece. The safety should actually cam the cocking piece back 1/64th of an inch when you engage it. The best tool is a fine diamond EZ-Lap. Cut and try a lot.

If I understand it, I think that has been done; I'm looking to correct it so the safety works. I can see that with a shorter tongue when the trigger is pulled there is no contact to prevent the Jewell sear from dropping and freeing the firing pin to fall after the safety is released.

quote:

Originally posted by tiggertate:
If I understand it, I think that has been done; I'm looking to correct it so the safety works. I can see that with a shorter tongue when the trigger is pulled there is no contact to prevent the Jewell sear from dropping and freeing the firing pin to fall after the safety is released.

Yes, what's happening is that when you engage the safety, it's not camming the cocking piece far enough and the cocking piece still has pressure on the trigger sear. When you pull the trigger, the trigger releases the cocking piece and it comes forward and is caught by the safety which is in the safe position. When that happens the trigger sear can no longer re-engage the sear on the cocking piece. The cocking piece and trigger sear are essentially being held in the fired position by the safety. Then when you release the safety the gun fires.

If you cut the sear back on the cocking piece the safety will be able to pull it away from the sear on the trigger so if you pull the trigger with the safety on, the trigger will be able to re-engage the cocking piece before you take the safety off.

The proper repair of course is to get it to a gunsmith that understands the system and has refit them before. But that is how the repair is accomplished. It should go to a gunsmith.

Since I'm a genuine bubba it will go to a professional for correction. All I do is stocking and finishing. I like to have some understanding when possible so I can describe an issue with some sense of what's going on.

If the smith you take it to is familiar with the M70 trigger system, you wont need to explain it. Jim Wisner has an excellent article on the proper fitting and re-fitting of the M70 trigger and safety in one of the Brownells Kink books.