I'm helping a friend install a Dakota safety and Timney Featherweight trigger on an older FN Mauser and I've run into a problem I haven't seen before. After multiple part swapping and process of elimination I have troubleshot it down to the trigger. What happens is that when the trigger is pulled there is an audible click and the cocking piece moves forward about .020", then stops.

It has nothing to do with the bolt or safety, I can hold a cocking piece by itself in my fingers, push it forward against the trigger sear, and it will do the same thing. I can watch the little internal sear in the small round window of the trigger housing trip, but the larger external sear that actually engages the cocking piece apparently isn't retracting all the way.

These are not flat bottomed commercial cocking pieces, they are the military type that are concave at the bottom, but the trigger sear is not rebounding into the recessed area. I have had this happen before, but it is not that. They are not slipping forward far enough to this to even occur.

I am out of ideas, and wondering if maybe the trigger is defective?

Does It work with a standard (military) safety/bolt sleeve?

Have the trigger adjustments been dinked with?

Without the flat bottom cocking piece you won't be able to cock it assuming you get it to fire.

I've run across this issue before but can;t for the life of me remember the cause. I do know that the Dakota safeties can cause the CP to hang up IF the lever protrudes too far into the cocking piece tunnel. Assemble the FP and the CP in the shroud and see if the will move back and forth like they should. If so, the assemble the striker assembly without the spring and screw it into the bolt and try it in the receiver.

You do enough of these and you will run into all sorts of unexpected hiccups. Trouble shooting skills are definitely god to have.

I did earlier have some issues with the Dakota safety, but I have ruled it out. (it was binding a little in "fire", I used some inletting black on the CP and relieved some material from the half moon cut in the camming lever to clear that up)

No, the Dakota isn't even on the bolt anymore. I have restored the FN bolt to its original configuration with military style shroud and left side wing safety and it still doesn't work. This same bolt will work in my other rifles.

The only variable now is the trigger. All told I have tried three different bolts with the Timney and none work, yet they will all work in their original rifles, as well as other receivers.

It is not a problem with cocking either. That is the problem I had earlier with a notched military CP and a commercial Timney or Bold trigger. I solved it with a flat bottomed commercial CP.

No, this is different... It won't fire. I haven't touched the trigger, it is new out of the box. Like I said the trigger will trip, but it will only let the CP travel .020" forward before it stops. Just a hair, well short of the sear popping up into the notch in the CP and hanging up on the second ramp at the back. It won't even let the first part slide by...

Loosen your set screw a hair. You can actually bend the housing making the sear not free to move.

Thanks dpcd, I may try that, but it wasn't that tight...

UPDATE: I swapped the trigger out with a Timney sportsman I had in a drawer and it works just fine. Comparing it side by side with the Featherweight they have distinctly different shaped sears.

Check out the Sportsman: Sportsman photo

Here's the Featherweight: Featherweight photo

Not sure how or why this is, but apparently my bolts don't like the Featherweight model... Hope my friend kept the receipt.

Simple test, try putting a small shim (.010 to .020 inch) under the back of the trigger housing to separate it from the receiver a bit and then tighten up the set screw and try it.

Sounds like too tall sear, shim down as Rod suggests to check. Also check the sear hole in the action for bind. That is common with Blackburns.

OK, I reinstalled the Featherweight. I noticed as I tightened the set screw that it wanted to twist a bit, so I made sure to hold it centered until snug. The sear was midpoint laterally in the receiver slot, so no chance of binding, with plenty of space on either side. I tested it by pulling the trigger and pushing the sear down to make sure it was free.

I also made sure I didn't overtighten. Same results.

I then shimmed .020" at the rear. Same results.

Some of the Timney triggers have a odd sear shape requiring you to remove some metal in the front of the sear slot in the receiver. If the receiver sear slot is too short, then the front of the Timney sear will drop part way like you have but then bind and stop in the receiver sear slot.

Normally there is a note about this in the Timney instructions.

JW

That's right; I should have thought of that; you can see that phenomenon by looking down into the slot and pushing the sear down with a punch, whilst pulling the trigger. If it hits the receiver slot, then that is it, which it probably is, as Mr Wisner says.

By golly, that's it! I misinterpreted Don's earlier remark about this because i noticed that it was a little bit to one side in the slot. I thought it might be binding on one side. But no, the square shoulders of the sear are just barely hitting the curve of the oval at the front of the slot. So close i hadnt noticed before. A little filing and i ought to be in business. Thanks!

Yes that was what I meant. With Teds triggers you sometimes had to move the spot forward or kind of square it off to clear his sear depending on the action. Figured might be the same with timneys.
Don

Some days the run of the mill old peckerheads just won't do and you have to dig up a REALLY OLD, peckerhead to step up and turn the thingy! LOL

Does somebody have a photo of exactly what this is all about. I have a few Blackburn triggers and I want to make sure I am not having the same problem!!!

Crude artwork aside (I don't have a Timney 98 Featherweight in stock). When the trigger is pulled the sear moves down and forward slightly at the same time as it toggles on the sear pin. In some cases the sear can impact on the front of the cut in the tang for the trigger. The arrow indicates where it contacts. I believe this is the condition the guys are talking about. Well, as I understand it and I have seen that problem before. I extend the cut with a carbide slot or end mill.

You can check for this by removing the bolt, pulling the trigger and pushing down on the sear with a (POKY-THINGY). If the sear impacts that front area and or binds, sticks or does not go down all of the way, you need to relieve it with a mill cut or a chainsaw file.

Timney Sear by Rod Henrickson, on Flickr

Excellent. thank you.

quote:

Originally posted by lindy2:
Does somebody have a photo of exactly what this is all about. I have a few Blackburn triggers and I want to make sure I am not having the same problem!!!

If you pull the trigger and it goes bang you are not having this problem!

Sarcasm aside, Speerchucker's artwork is actually quite good. PM me if you want actual photos. I know how to post them here, I just don't have a current account for a photo host.

quote:

Originally posted by montea6b:
PM me if you want actual photos. I know how to post them here, I just don't have a current account for a photo host.

montea6b I started using Flickr photo sharing after Photobucket dropped their free photo sharing. Since then Flickr has been bought buy SmugMug so I don't know how long their free sharing will last. I already downloaded all of my stuff in the event that they close. People on other forums have told me that they have been using or have jumped ship to PostImage. I have never used them but you might give them a try. It's free and unlimited images but there is a 12Mb and 10k x 10k pixels limit per photos which is fine for everything but RAW image format and the biggest JPGs. The average size used in these forums is much less than 12Mb.

https://postimages.org/

Thanks Speerchucker, I may check them out.

I did have an account with Photobucket, but never used them enough to get the hang of it, and I seem to recall their interface wasn't intuitive, or looked like it was, but just didn't work quite right.

I used to just upload them via FTP to my old provider Earthlink's customer storage, but switched years ago. I don't too often have a need to post so mainly haven't bothered...