I've got a Husqvarna 30-06 with an 11 lb military trigger (yes, I've cleaned it). Anybody put a Timney or Bold Optima trigger in one of these? It's a model 4100 with the Schnabel stock on a 1640 action.

I love the rifle, and would like to make it more shootable. I want a safety, but I don't want to cut/inlet the stock if possible. Any experience or ideas?

Steve

I think Timney makes a Featherweight Deluxe trigger for them.

It does require some inltting, but mostly to the inside of the stock and just a little bit to the 'outside'.

The biggest advantages are that it gives you a nice factory-esque trigger and a great two position like the Remingtons.

-Spencer

Yeah, just cleaned up the trigger on a M1917. Military triggers can be decent. Look at the scores shot in high power matches.

Three things to go after. The sear surfaces, the humps on tht trigger and the return spring.

First the sear surfaces, polish them on a hard stone or super fine automotive paper backed by glass. If you use paper end up at 2000 grit. You will probably want to change the angle slightly so that it does not cam the cocking piece back so much when you pull the trigger. This step will help a lot. Be sure that angle of the sear and cocking piece surfaces match. Use cold blue to visualize where things rub.

Second is the humps on the trigger. The two little projections that cam against the bottom of the receiver. They must be polished to a mirror finish. Use a Dremmil a small round stone and Cratex to do this. Keep everything as flat as possible. Polish the underside of the receiver too. The position and amount of humps control the trigger characteristics. You will probably want to reduce the projection of the hump toward the butplate. This will increase the take up and make the final pull break more cleanly.
Use your Dremmil with a chainsaw stone to reduce the back hump until the back hump only moves the sear the last few thousands. In other words the hump toward the muzzle does 98% of the work, the hump toward the butplate fires the rifle. Polish with cratex when it is right. You will have a smooth take up followed by a stop then a couple additional pounds pressure and it will break, with impreceptable movment. That is, if you do it right.

The distance between the humps will determine the difference in pressure needed to move the trigger in each stage. If you change this you will probably move the first hump toward the butplate. That would decrease the difference in pounds of pull between the front and back hump. You can over do this, you want a definate stop. I would probably leave it alone for now.

Finally the return spring. You need enough to make the trigger reset properly if you stop pulling it. Most military triggers have way too much return spring. Get a selection of compression springs from the hardware store and fiddle around cutting and trying until you get what you want.

The '17 I just worked on feels super smooth. Like two pieces of glass with grease between them. The total pull is #5. The pressure needed to take up the first stage is about 3#. The pressure needed to make it break is an additional 2#. This makes it feel much lighter than it actually is.

This kind of trigger can be quite good. The initial long pull is needed for safety and reliability. Schemes that use a setscrew or shims on the original trigger are a bad plan. The bolt and cocking piece are a sloppy fit in the receiver. If you remove all the take-up you can make an unsafe rifle.

As I said I have no problem with this kind of trigger. If a guy were to take the time to set one up right you could get a trigger that is suitable for very fine shooting. I had to back off on the '17 trigger. At one point I had it with about 3# takeup pressure and an additional pound or so to set it off. That feels almost like a 1# trigger. It was not enough stop for rapids so I changed it around a bit. I would be happy with that on a varmint rifle though.

Or , like others suggested, get an after market trigger! : )

quote:

Originally posted by Scota4570:
Military triggers can be decent. Look at the scores shot in high power matches.

Scota is right on.

A crisp two stage trigger, with a total pull weight (stage 1 + stage 2) is superior to a single stage trigger with a 2 lb pull.

I don't think there is an aftermarket trigger that will enable you to use the existing slide safety. The Timney and Bold with slide safeties will require you to have a visible hole in the stock where the safety comes through the wood, and the bolt lock will not work.

I lucked out at the last gun show, and found one of the Tradewinds Inc. adjustable triggers that came off one of the deluxe versions of that rifle. It uses the existing slide and bolt lock.


Hart

The various Husqvarna rifles such as your 4100 that were imported by Tradewinds in the 60's with the small ring "HVA" action more often then not came with the "military like" trigger. It must have reminded the Swedes of their beloved M-96 action trigger. I believe the "deluxe grade" of the 4000/4100, the Model 7000, came with the adjustable trigger.

As Hart stated, finding an adjustable HVA trigger is tough.

skl1:

Hart is correct in that the Timney amd Bold triggers will requires some inletting in the stock.

The "Tradewinds" trigger that Hart found at the guns show as well as the adjustable triggers from the Husqvarna factory on the higher grade rifles were all actually made by Timney. Some of the triggers are also marked "Esquire" or "HVA" or unmarked as well. According to Mr. Timney himself, there were about 4,000 made. And no, they won't make anymore because all the tooling and blueprints were lost in a fire some years ago. I asked the current management of Timney about a "special order" and they told me they would consider it if they had a firm order for 500 pieces and they guessed a price of $60 each. Too rich for my blood! LOL

Now, there are acutally 3 options for you to improve the trigger without having to inlet the stock.

1. Have a COMPETENT gunsmith stone the trigger and sear and lighten the spring. Because of the trigger design, this is a very risky option. In my collecting of Husqvarnas, I have come across several rifles that have had the trigger worked on and have wound up being unsafe.

2. Several years ago, a fellow shared with me his design for modifying a standard Timney Mauser 98 trigger with safety lever to work with the Husqvarna sliding tab safety. It involves some precision work in drilling holes and cutting off the safety lever in just the right place. He swears that it works just fine and from the drawing looks like it should. The downside is you may ruin a trigger or 2 in getting it just right.

3. I realized years ago that the adjustable triggers were very desirable so I have been collecting them as well as the guns for years. I could be persuaded to part with one for the right $'s.

You can email me at sbhva@aol.com if you are interested in either the mod drawing or buying a trigger.

Steve,

Thanks for your reply, and for your help. You actually helped me identify the model of this rifle a little over a year ago.

Anyway, I've sent you an e-mail.

Thanks again,

Steve

Steve,
Could you help me with some information about these safeties. After close examination of the adjustable trigger I see it has a sloping sear surface. Checking the sear on the trigger assembly on the non adjustable trigger that was on my rifle, it is 90 degrees to the firing pin. Checking the cocking piece sear surface, it is not quite 90 degrees, but sloping back slightly, but not sloping as much as on the adjustable trigger. Can you tell me if the cocking piece on either model is the same, or does the cocking piece on the adjustable trigger model match the slope on the adjustable trigger. I installed the trigger and it seems to work fine except someone replace the spring inside the trigger with a extremely light one and all I could get out of the pull was 8 oz. Put in a spring from one of my Timneys and got it set right at 3 lb. The Timney spring is a little short and will require a longer set screw. The other problem I have is I should have also taken the slide detent spring for the adjustable safety as it mounts on the outside of the slide and not on the inside of the slide like on my old trigger. Didn't realize this when I bought the trigger.

I'll E mail you for the mod drawings for the Timney trigger.

Thanks Hart

I know that thiswill seem like a teaser, but I installed an after market trigger on my Swedish Mauser. I don't remember what model/make, but it does not have a safety. Extremely nice, crisp trigger. Try a Google search for appropriate triggers.

Regarding modifications to the Mauser trigger, I can't elucidate the reasons why, but a knowledgeable gunsmith jump all over me for suggesting modification of the Mauser trigger in the manner you suggested. Maybe one of the kuru's will be able to explain why this isn't a good idea. Kudude

Is there an aftermarket trigger for the Husqvarna 8000/9000? Have never been able to locate one.

quote:

Originally posted by kudude:
I know that thiswill seem like a teaser, but I installed an after market trigger on my Swedish Mauser. I don't remember what model/make, but it does not have a safety. Extremely nice, crisp trigger. Try a Google search for appropriate triggers.

The Husqvarna action we are speaking of is not the Swedish military 96 action that has the safety on the bolt shroud. The Husqvarna commercial small ring 98 action (aka HVA action, or 1640 action, or Husqvarna Improved Mauser Action) has a sliding tab safety on the side of the action.

quote:

Originally posted by vigillinus:
Is there an aftermarket trigger for the Husqvarna 8000/9000? Have never been able to locate one.

This model came standard from the factory with an adjustable trigger. Is there a problem with yours?

never been able to adjust the creep out of it

quote:

Originally posted by vigillinus:
never been able to adjust the creep out of it

Here is a link to a Swedish commercial firearms forum. Contact Larsluthor who posts on this forum as he is an expert on the 1900 action guns like yours.

http://www.gunboards.com/forums/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=41

sbhva, thanks, will do.