Remington Lee 30-40 kraig Hardest trigger in the world.

Hi guys.

I have a Remington Lee 30-40 kraig that was given to me by my grandpa. I have had it for over a year now and it has the hardest trigger pull that I have ever seen. It's actually so hard that if feels you forgot to cock the gun and that's why it isn't going off.

I can't tell you how many pounds the trigger is but it's hard. My dad and uncle have the same gun with a nice crisp trigger and I'm wondering how I can make things smoother/lighter or where I should look. I intend to use the rifle for deer hunting and I bagged this years buck with it but it was hard. Only because of the trigger pull.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I might make it lighter or maybe problem parts that can be replaced.

I see this place has trigger, sears and springs if needed.
Products

Any help would be appreciated.

We might need some pics to show us what things look like. That would mean the small parts...to see if something's out of whack...

How about this picture.
http://s693.photobucket.com/user/Bli...da56e.jpg.html

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...cd9da56e-1.jpg

---------- Post added at 06:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:24 PM ----------

I saw this picture but I can't get the spring in that position. It just wont go.
http://www.forgottenweapons.com/wp-c...leecutaway.jpg

It's fair to say you can start by checking for any burrs, dings, or bumps on the SIDES of the trigger and sear that you can remove/smooth. Same goes for the respective slots they interact with.
If it were me I'd also POLISH the trigger/sear/cocking piece contact points while I had it apart.
If that don't do it, I'd start thinking the safety isn't disengaging completely.

There isn't a safety on this model. Just a half cock that I know of.

Searching for parts I saw Numrich had the sear/magazine spring for $5 and decided to get it along with a $5 magazine spring that I wanted to replace anyway. Total was $17 shipped which was better than the prices listed on the link I posted.

I'll polish everything up when the parts come but they don't look all that bad. Just curious if say someone used a longer than needed spring in the bolt would it create more tension causing a harder trigger pull. I haven't ever removed the spring from the bolt but I have another bolt that I removed from a fire damaged gun in case I need extra parts.

Roger on the safety, throwing out my sop for smoothing trigger pull.

If you have another striker spring swap it, you never know and it gives you the chance to check the striker and clean the bolt.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...tuff0061-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...DSC00070-1.jpg

No cocking piece closeups yet, this is about all that's on file.

But your half cock notch looks huge! Would have to guess somebody's been mucking about at some point.

Yes, the half cock notch is huge, your spring simply has to go into the correct position. Use a set of needle nose pliers to squeeze it and set it into the higher position on the sear. With it down where it is, it will give you a horrendous trigger...to be fair, it doesn't quite look like the correct spring. Looks like someone has made it from something else. In that case, it'll never be quite right.

Jim,
I was actually thinking the spring didn't look right or possibly homemade too. When I put it in the correct position the trigger doesn't move when pulled.

This rifle was built from two sometime in the 80's and then had a hand carved stock. My grandfather was a gunsmith and I could see him building this and putting it on the gun rack waiting for the correct parts and simply forgetting about it. He had many other rifles and I bet this one was shot when completed and then not shot for 30 years till I got it.

Thanks for the help guys.

I wonder if it will be solved when your parts arrive. Maybe you can update us then?

Once everything arrives I'll update you guys. Hopefully this remedies the problem because it's a great shooting rifle.

Took apart both bolts that i have to see the difference. Anyone know how many coils are on a stock spring?

The top one is a bolt I salvaged and the bottom is the one in my rifle. Seems to be 3 coils difference and the front are rear edges are filed on mine.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...yip7uzah-1.jpg

The replacement sear/magazine spring should be here this weekend.
And then here is a picture of the two cocking pieces.
The left one is the one in my rifle and the right one is the salvage. Looks like someone hacked off a bit of the top where you grab it to cock it but the angle where the sear engages looks greater.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...eetjngr9-1.jpg

What we are looking at is Bubba's first ever attempt at a trigger job.
Did you try the spare parts you have to see if that helped?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WarPig1976

Did you try the spare parts

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Agreed...even though the other one doesn't look perfect...but it's sure better...

I didn't try the other parts only because they shouldn't make a difference without the right trigger spring. Once the new trigger spring shows up then I'll be able to give it a real test and compare parts. Wish I had a trigger pull gauge.

I did see how to make one out of weights on a MidwayUsa video.

No, you're right. The old fake spring will be a pig. When the new one comes in, you won't need a gauge. It'll be clearly better.

Ok so I got the spring and installed it. It didn't really work.

Well it's a 2 part thing.

With the magazine removed it worked pretty good and knocked the trigger weight down to 12 pounds from a whopping 21. But installing the magazine and the sear doesn't drop below the action enough to fire the rifle.

Not sure what to do I started by altering the spring and if you didn't guess it I broke it. I'm ordering two more right now. The rounded area of the spring was .45 of an inch od. After breaking the spring I took the old odd spring and shaved down the one side that didn't sit in the notch when it was mounted incorrectly and i'm at an 11 pound trigger pull with the magazine in. I'm semi happy with this but really want things to work correctly and in stock fashion.

If for some reason I didn't get a slightly larger spring than needed from Numrich how would I go about remedying the problem of to much spring tension between the sear and magazine catch?

I don't quite follow, the spring for the magazine catch/ trigger should go right in. If it need altering it's not the right one. The cocking piece above shouldn't give huge trigger weight, the old one will because the safety bent is altered with a dremel or something. It's hooped. Kind of hard to follow exactly what's going on here...

I wish I would have taken a picture of the spring before I broke it. I fitted it several times to make sure it was in the correct position but the U shaped bend in it wouldn't compress enough with the magazine locked into correct position. I never even got to swap out the cocking piece because I could visibly see the sear with the trigger pulled not dropping enough for the cocking piece to move forward. I'm just hoping that for some reason Numrich sent me a hair to big spring.

For my temp fix I shaved the big pig wrong spring down on the right side so it would actually slide against the magazine catch piece. Almost seems like a simple solution if no parts were available is to drill a hole on the sear side and magazine catch side, installing a small peg on each piece and just running a light coil spring across the gap.

But since there are parts and they don't cost a million dollars the stock way is the right way.

Next weekend I'll be 300 miles away for a fishing trip with my dad and he owns the same rifle so maybe I'll take mine along and swap out the spring to see if his works any better or if I have a bigger problem I can't see.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...834233b4-1.jpg

In case I didn't mention it I appreciate all the help.

My grandpa who put this rifle together was a gunsmith and assembled this rifle back in the mid 80's. I don't know what or why he did what he did to the cocking piece but I'll ask him Thursday when I visit him at the Veterans home. He's 79 and has some form of short term memory loss.

For all I know this rifle was put together quickly as in 1983 his house burned down destroying over 300 guns. Nothing like having a huge collection and the next days it's gone. And no insurance.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Blindstitch

swap out the spring to see if his works

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That will be a way to eliminate the problem parts. I wonder if a Lee Enfield spring would work. It's closer than the one they sent you and there's scads available.

Jim,
I don't know anything about the lee enfield but if you help me find the part I'm willing to order it. I was cruising ebay looking for an enfield spring and saw this listing.

Lee Enfield Trigger Sear Spring Mag Catch Bolt Retaining Spring No 1 mkiii SMLE | eBay

The shape sure as hell looks right and has a thinner U shape.

Is this listing that part? Unfortunately I have to make another order to Numrich in the morning because I was out shooting clays with my Savage Fox Model b double barrel and managed to have an old rusty ejector screw snap in half. $3 part.

Is this the numrich spring
Sear Spring Gun Parts | 486480B | Numrich Gun Parts

Or this one.
Sear Spring Gun Parts | 486480A | Numrich Gun Parts

I don't know a #4 MKI from a NO 1 MKIII

Or maybe it's a different model. As always any help is appreciated.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Blindstitch

For my temp fix I shaved the big pig wrong spring down on the right side so it would actually slide against the magazine catch piece.

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The exact wrong direction! The long leg rides almost all the way up to the pivot pin of the sear. Having it lower increases the probability of breakage due to increased deflection during the pull and has way worse leverage, so the trigger pull will be much heavier. Push that back leg up until it disappears into the receiver lug slot and keep going until the "foot" snaps into the notch. Then do the mag catch side. Might be a little easier with the bolt out to make sure the sear can rotate as far up as possible.

It is a little counterintuitive when first done. I used to try to put the short leg to the rear when messing with SMLEs . That's not so good either...

Dunno if a regular Enfield spring would work.

Ok well I called Numrich and ordered my shotgun parts and decided what the hell on the enfield springs and got both since they might be the same or different I don't know.

But I did learn you can save $4.95 on shipping if you call 866-NUMRICH (866-686-7424) during their business hours, M-F 8:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. Eastern. Go through as if you are going to place an order, you will then be instructed to hang up and order online and use coupon code xyz for the discount. The code changes often, I think maybe even daily.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Blindstitch

I don't know a #4 MKI from a NO 1 MKIII

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I don't know if the LE spring will work either but it's worth a try. The original drawing looks close. The ones in the pic don't look like original equipment though. Not Ishy, not EFD, but look to have been made. Both are the same, I think they all interchange between 1, 4 and 5. We'll see.

Well in a week I'll be the guinea pig and we will know if the Lee springs work. If not it's only $12 to answer the question and because I found the shipping trick of saving $5 and had to place an order it's really only $7 to answer the question. If that doesn't work I also have two Remington Lee springs coming. Who knows maybe they sent me the wrong spring or it was made out of specs.

Either way answers should be here in a week.

The parts Numrich and others sell for old guns like this are mostly new made repro's and the quality leaves a lot to be desired, they just don't fit or function like the originals did. Sometimes they can be made to work ok and sometimes not. I tried several Winchester 97 left hand extractors from Numrich and finally gave up. The dimensions were so out of whack that once installed the bolt wouldn't fit back in the receiver without file fitting and then the tail would break off after cycling the action a few times. Found an original on ebay and had no more problems.

Ok guys the verdict is Numrich must have sent me the wrong spring or one made out of specs. The two additional springs I got for the remington lee were the same dimensions and smaller than the first one.

So the pig spring was getting me 21 pounds, after I modified it I was at 12 and with the correct spring now in i'm at 7.6. It was well worth the headache.

On the second note the enfield springs don't work. It's not really a matter of working or not. The reason they don't work is because of the shape of the notch on the magazine catch and the contour of the lip on the spring. If you took a file to the spring or the magazine catch for about 10 seconds I bet it would work all day long. So if parts ever dry up and you need a spring it would be well worth the time with a file.

During my trip I also learned that my uncle was the one who made the spring and it was a matter of not being able to make the spring like the stock one due to limited supplies at the time. It was meant to be a temp fix and corrected but obviously someone lost track. I also talked to my 79 year old grandpa in the VA and he was glad I was trying to fix the rifle.

Since he's not in control of his estate anymore I talked to my aunt and all of his existing rifles are prices to sell. I bought a 6.5 Jap Arisaka type 38 that he sporterized back in the 80's and hunted with till he stopped hunting for a real good price. Shot it once and it's dead on.

But there are a few more there that i'm interesting in and was wondering your guys opinions. If you had the choice of a 1916 7mm Spanish mauser ((there's 3) full military, sporterized with scope, or sporterized with peep site and converted to .308) or Enfield #1 MK 3 military format 303 unmolested? I have the money to buy both but not the room.

Thanks again for your help.

I'd buy the #1 Mk 3 in .303. Mostly just because I like them better. Thanks for the info on the rest.

Most guys here haven't had room 6 rifles ago,,buy both!!...:)

I'm one of those guys except that was 4 rifles or two weeks ago. Good deals are hard to say no to.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Blindstitch

choice of a 1916 7mm Spanish mauser ((there's 3) full military

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If it's in good shape then that's the one I'd get. After that, the No.1 Mk.III. Way after that, the scoped rifle. Probably not the converted rifle at all.

Just a quick range report. I took my friend out to the range with me yesterday and he had only ever shot a rifle once in his life and it was when he was 12. So I started him off small with 22's, then 30-30, 6.5 jap and then the 30-40 Krag.

Between the two of us it was a dream to shoot and trigger pull wasn't anywhere near an issue. Add in the fun of being able to shoot 2 inch groups with open sights. Even better with someone who barely shot before. I think he's hooked. Hopefully we can go pick up some Milsurp for him soon.