Increasing trigger pull

[ssgross]

So I've been playing with my competition builds I did over the winter - an a4 and an a2, Douglas heavy barrels and compass lake free float tubes. I had some older geiselle gen2 2-stage triggers in my parts bin. I really like them. Nice and crisp, smooth first stage - they feel very similar to a good trigger job on a garand. They are supposed to be 4.5 +- .25 lbs, according to the manufacturer. I never cared much - until I got invited to a match coming up and decided to check my triggers just to make sure. I don't get out often for a real match and it sure would be embarrassing if I did well and had to be disqualified. The a4 trigger was 3.5 and the a2 was averaging 3. This was unacceptable.

So, should I drop $385 plus overnight shipping on an adjustable match trigger? no thank you. Many here probably already know how to play with these, but I didn't find anyone writing about tricks to increase pull, other than ordering a bunch of different manufacturers spring kits and hope you get a combination that you want. Anyway, it's very simple in principle. You can play with the stiffness of the disconnector spring to safely get about +- a pound, depending on where you are starting from.

While I would not advise weakening the disconnector spring as this could be catastrophic (causing the hammer to mis it's reset lock under recoil), stiffening the spring adds some pressure on the sear, and a little weight to the trigger pull. After playing with a bunch of springs in my parts bin - which was not working as all of em were from military triggers and those disconnect springs are actually lighter than the geiselle ones - it dawned on me that all I needed was a shim under the spring to make it compress a tad more.

So I cut some pieces of 20 thou thick steel sheet, pounded flat and filed the edges until it just slid in the groove of the trigger under the disconnector spring. I started with x2 (.040 shim), which gave a 6 lb pull - 3 in the first stage, 3 in the second. .020 gave just under 5lb (2.5 . x 2.5 first and second stage). I rubbed my shim on a stone until it was roughly .015 and had just a tad over 4.5, with even first and second stages. Perfect. Repeat for the other rifle, which .020 gave the same pull, just safely enough over 4.5 to guarantee I will always pass. Lastly, I put a drop of super glue under the shim - easily removed and cleaned off with acetone if ever needed. At some point, I may drill and tap a set screw under the disconnector springs. I dunno why geiselle didn't do that in the first place - likely to get you to buy the more expensive ones.