The trigger on this rifle is 61oz. The big trigger return spring alone takes up 42oz.
What is a good way to lighten this trigger to 35oz.

Fred M.

Rifle basix makes the replacement trigger you ask for.

ZERMEL: I suggest you do a search on the Marlin forum at Rimfire Central. Link below.

http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=20

There is quite a lot of good info there about tweaking 917 triggers. The one thread I have bookmarked is:

http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33044&page=2&pp=15

I know that there are other threads there on the same subject. I went looking for this info earlier in the year, when a friend acquired a 917 with a lousy trigger. We were able to get the let-off weight down to an acceptable level (about 2.5 – 3.0lbs) by substituting a softer trigger weight spring, as per that RFC thread. The trigger still re-set reliably, and the system passed all the basic safety tests. It may have been possible to get it even lighter, but we did not want to push our luck.

The trigger still had a small amount of pre-release movement (creep) but my friend said he could live with it – which was just as well, because eliminating it could get a bit tricky. Grinding or stoning off metal at the disengagement point is fraught with risk. I don’t know if the parts are hardened right through, or just surface (case) hardened. If it is the latter, the hardened skin might well be only ten thou or so thick, and it would be all too easy to cut right through it and into the softer sub-strata. In which case the trigger might work OK for a while, and then, as wear rapidly took place, fail catastrophically.

A gunsmith might be able to add an adjustment screw, but drilling and tapping a hole through hardened parts is not a trivial undertaking. Nor an inexpensive one. If your trigger has an unacceptable amount of creep, and you are going to have to pay to get this sort of work done, you would probably be better advised to simply buy the Rifle Basix unit, which is fully adjustable.