How Do I Modify A Savage Rimfire Accurtigger

H

hifly78

Private
Minuteman
Jun 11, 2009
46
0
54
Ontario, Canada
#1
I have a Left hand Savage Mark II BTVS .22LR. This is my first savage rifle and so far I like the trigger. Best rimfire trigger I have ever shot but the others are Cooeys and mossbergs.

I was shooting today and worked really hard on trigger control. I think this rimfire thing really magnifies any errors. Is it normal for these triggers to have just a little creep prior to break on these savages? A very slight grind on the creep.

I saw on a fourm somewhere someone talking about "shaving the spring" on accutriggers but that was a centrefire version. Is there an easy way to lighten the trigger pull below the min 2.5 pound setting. I really noticed the 5 shot groups shrink at 50 yards to about the 1" range. If only 3 shot groups a lot would have been 2 through the same hole and one touching shooting American Eagle 40 gr solids but with 5 not so. I suspect if the trigger was just a little lighter it would be helpful

I also shot Eley club and the American Eagle was doing better and more consistent. I shot all of them over a chronograph and need to look at the data.

Good excuse to do some more shooting.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
#2
Re: How Do I Modify A Savage Rimfire Accurtigger

Before you start mod's, remember that the time in the barrel of a .22rf is 3x that of a .308. So follow through is critical with rimfire.

Wait 6 months before you start cuting and grinding, I think..
 
#3
Re: How Do I Modify A Savage Rimfire Accurtigger

I have a Savage .223 wit the accutrigger and I could not get the trigger pull weight down to where I wanted it by adjusting the screw, using the tool supplied by Savage. I looked over the workings of the trigger and cut the spring a half coil at a time to get the desired trigger pull weight.
 
#4
Re: How Do I Modify A Savage Rimfire Accurtigger

On the rimfire accutrigger there are several things you can do to improve it. First is shimming the trigger and the sear in the housing. I used .010 brass shim stock to make the little washers. That gets the side play out and allows the sear engagement to stay straight. I ran my sear and trigger across a buffing wheel to lightly polish it. No stoning or anything radical. Last mod is cutting the trigger spring. I cut the small diameter portion of the spring off, and about 1/2 coil of the large portion. You need to go slow with the spring nipping because a little goes a long way. You can retain the cut spring with a short #10-24 screw threaded into the part where the snall diameter spring screwed in. It's a perfect fit.

Two things to know:

1. If you get the spring retaining screw too long it will limit trigger travel. In fact, you can use it as a trigger stop. The only side affect is that you can't pull the trigger far enough to remove the bolt unless you back the screw out. I drilled a small hole through my stock so I can access the screw with an allen wrench without removing the action.

2. The accutrigger needs a certain amount of spring pressure to reset the sear. If you go too low you can get a situation where the safety and the trigger lock up. You can free them by lifting and lowering the bolt, but that is a sign you are too low. If you go lower yet, you can get slam fires, so be careful till the trigger is proven reliable.

I started encountering trouble at around 1.1 pounds and it became 100% reliable at 1.3. I went ahead and set it at 1.5 just to be extra safe. Each gun will be a little different. The result though is a crisp clean break that was a huge improvement over stock.

Teryx
 
#5
Re: How Do I Modify A Savage Rimfire Accurtigger

Thanks Teryx,

Very detailed post. I think I will just start out with a disassembly and polish for now and I'll have a look at the shim thing also. (With the trigger in front of me I'll follow along better)

I'll see how that goes before getting into the trigger spring cutting.

Mark


 
#6
Re: How Do I Modify A Savage Rimfire Accurtigger

Good plan Mark. The shimming does a lot to improve the feel. Those shims can be a pain to get in. I used sticky grease to hold them in the housing while I slid in the parts. If one of them moved, I could nudge it back with a scrap of shim stock. There is nothing you can hurt by doing these things, as long as you go easy on the sear. I spent maybe 5 seconds against the buffing wheel on each part.

good luck

Teryx
 
#7
Re: How Do I Modify A Savage Rimfire Accurtigger

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Teryx</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Good plan Mark. The shimming does a lot to improve the feel. Those shims can be a pain to get in. I used sticky grease to hold them in the housing while I slid in the parts. If one of them moved, I could nudge it back with a scrap of shim stock. There is nothing you can hurt by doing these things, as long as you go easy on the sear. I spent maybe 5 seconds against the buffing wheel on each part.

good luck

Teryx </div></div>

+1 on the grease also slave pins to help hold things in place will save many profanities!

Teryx how about a picture of the 10-24 in place
 
#8
Re: How Do I Modify A Savage Rimfire Accurtigger

I'd be glad to stillbuster, but I haven't figured out how to post pictures here. Is there a tutorial somewhere?

Teryx
 
#9
Re: How Do I Modify A Savage Rimfire Accurtigger

How many rounds do you have down it? My .17 Savage had some creep when new, but has largely worked it self out after 500 odd rounds. Doesn't do anything for lowering pull weight, but I've not found that to be an issue for me.
 
#11
Re: How Do I Modify A Savage Rimfire Accurtigger

At last count about 2500 rounds through the gun. I think that would be enough to break the sear in. I'll give it a polish and post next week the results. I'm going to be unable to get out until after the weekend.
 
#13
#14
Re: How Do I Modify A Savage Rimfire Accurtigger

Well I did that trigger job and I'm happy.

Pull now is about 1.5 pound. I haven't had a chance to shoot it yet but now it breaks clean with no grindy creep. (I don't even perceive any creep). I didn't change the spring on the accutrigger blade and that alone is 1 pound to overcome.

I had used 600 grit wet sandpaper sitting a thin steel plate (as a backer) to smooth out the rough spots. This allowed me to use it like a thin file. I tried very hard to keep the same angles and also square. I used very little pressure, and kept re wetting the sandpaper and part.

I then used the buffer with red rouge on it (finest) to polish those spots and any points of contact.

The spring was cut and the tip re-bent to a similar shape to fit in the original hole but I found that when at the range I could feel spring bind and screw up a smooth pull, it was not good. I then drilled out the spring hole(the part on the housing right by the receiver, not the trigger part) with a #29 drill and tapped it 8-32 and cut off the end of a screw (about 3/8" long and screwed that in with gun-tight (locking agent)) I re-cut the spring to remove the bend part and just leave the coils open. The spring fits nicely over it and rides nicely.

The trigger parts were then cleaned and sprayed all over with graphite dry lube, a couple of times.

All reassembled not and its awesome. Going to try and shoot tomorrow afternoon.

I'll post some photos later if I figure it out. I have a myspace page just for this but can't embed it with that.
 
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