Timney trigger

[roughneck12]

I was on the Timney web site and noticed that they made a trigger group for the Enfield. I recently bought one of the AIA .308's and love it but really hate the heavy trigger. Has anyone on here used this trigger and what did you think?

Thanks
Dan
Enfield Sportsman

Information

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[Peter Laidler]

On a similar subject, has anyone ever tried fitting the superb No8 trigger mechanism to a No4?

[Son]

I was on the Timney web site and noticed that they made a trigger group for the Enfield. I recently bought one of the AIA .308's and love it but really hate the heavy trigger. Has anyone on here used this trigger and what did you think?

Thanks
Dan
Enfield Sportsman

I think you will find that trigger fits P14 and M17 rifles, but not the No4. I wouldn't even care to guess if it will fit the Vietnamese rifles.
Contact Timney and ask for a clarification, (I could be wrong)

[No4Mk1(T)]

On a similar subject, has anyone ever tried fitting the superb No8 trigger mechanism to a No4?

I considered it but the rifle would be a single shot when you were finished. Once I realized that I didn’t look into it further. It would be a great idea for a single shot target conversion.

[Edward Horton]

If the trigger and sear arrangement are the same as a standard No.4 you can make the trigger slicker than snot on a door knob, by changing the angle of the cocking piece bent AND save a lot of $$$$$

[Peter Laidler]

But changing the angle of the cocking piece has a downside Ed. And that is that even a slightly less angle on the C-piece decreases the trigger pressure by a disproportionate amount so that when you've got it perfect for the shooter, it fails the 6.5lbs pull-off load.

They wanted to do something like this for the L39 comp rifle so reluctantly decided that while the c-piece angle should remain, the sear spring weight would be decreased by adding another spring seating to the magazine catch.

Us Armourers who had these L39's under our wings didn't like it.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

The Lee Enfield, being a "cock on closing" action, presents an interesting bunch of engineering issues if a "slick" trigger is required.

On cocking, the sear is engaged with a considerably greater amount of violence than, say, a Mauser 98. And that attack increases with increasing bolt manipulation speed, unlike a Mauser.

So, whatever trigger is used, it has to be able to take a pounding.

The Canadian J5550 lightweight experimental carbines used a Mauser type trigger, mainly, I suspect, because, with the butt socket chopped off and the triggerguard floating around on two pillar screws, there wasn't much else they could do.

I looked (very briefly) at building a three-lever trigger module that could be attached to a No4 Mk2 style action. Nice paper exercise.

The standard trigger works well if you:

1. Start with quality components with the correct hardness.
2. Set the front face of the full bent of the cocking piece correctly. It MUST:
a. Be at (or very close to) the factory angle, ( 86deg 10min ref. the bottom surface of the cocking piece.
b. Be a dead flat surface and,
c. Be polished VERTICALLY, not horizontally. (The cocking piece MUST be removed from the bolt to do this properly.)
3. Set the engaging face of the sear for maximum contact with the full bent of the cocking piece. (Bearing blue comes in handy here).
4. Polish the rear face of the lower leg of the sear, again in a vertical direction and dead flat.
5. Remove any fuzzy bits from the two "bumps" on the trigger.

"Eze-Lap" diamond hones, (several grades, decent-sized plastic handle), are ideal tools, just go easy. If too much material is removed from either the sear or the cocking piece, the safety will not function correctly.

A dab or two of Moly grease and away you go.

Fitting of an over-travel screw for the trigger is a nice luxury, but not essential.

The trigger action MUST have two stages. The sear MUST return to its initial position on the cocking piece if the first pressure is relaxed. Anything else is potentially dangerous.

Very labour-intensive and not for the impatient, but much nicer than most "as delivered" triggers for target work. Out in "the weeds" the standard military trigger is safe and reliable. When snap-shooting pigs in the scrub, the last thing you will notice is your trigger. For knocking over deer at 300 yards, see items 1 to 5.

[RJW NZ]

If you really want a good after market trigger for lee enfields I fitted/used and am very happy with the CanWest unit which is designed for lee enfields, not a general purpose one. They make a target type with no follow through that will go down to 1.5 lbs, and a hunting type with a long follow through. I used the target one, and it can be set to work like a switch, very nice on that rifle. They're listed on enfieldresource or an internet search should find them.

[Edward Horton]

But changing the angle of the cocking piece has a downside Ed. And that is that even a slightly less angle on the C-piece decreases the trigger pressure by a disproportionate amount so that when you've got it perfect for the shooter, it fails the 6.5lbs pull-off load.

They wanted to do something like this for the L39 comp rifle so reluctantly decided that while the c-piece angle should remain, the sear spring weight would be decreased by adding another spring seating to the magazine catch.

Us Armourers who had these L39's under our wings didn't like it.

Mr. Laidler

My apologies, but your forgetting one very important point, my ancestors dumped British tea in Boston Harbor due to our disagreement with King George.

And more importantly please remember it only took the the American Mel Gibson 146 minutes to defeat General Cornwallis.



Therefore Ed can put the angle of his cocking piece anywhere he chooses
(British Army regulations don't apply here in the middle of Pennsylvania Dutch Country)



Besides I prefer Air Force regulations, A.P. 3196 (Even if they are British)

[Son]

Bruce_in_Oz,
I spent several hours playing with sears, triggers and cocking pieces yesterday, experimenting with the best way to improve what was a pretty horrible trigger feel.
I saw that when lined up on a pin, there were very slight differences in some individual bits. Several sears were identical, but there were a couple either wider or narrower spread than the norm. Some also had a bow up from the pivot to the point of the sear. Same went for triggers wrt the angle they sat at when against the stop. By changing those two parts I eliminated the free play it had at the start of pull, and reduced the total pull length. Then with a bit of stoning, I got the trigger down to a short but distinct first pull and a crisp "wineglass stem snap" release on the second pull.
A bit of work on the bent reduced the first pull down to 2.2lbs and the second at 4lbs. I did find that it was near impossible to get a "crisp" release with less than 4 lbs pull without the rifle going off with a bump on the butt with the trigger at the first pull. To be on the side of safety, I decided that would be a test.

The biggest problem this rifle had from the start was the striker was loose inside the cocking piece. When you took the trigger to the first pull, it actually pulled the front of the cocking piece down, away from the bolt body. I replaced the cocking piece first.
The entire exercise involved eight or nine sears, seven triggers and four cocking pieces. At the start I tried a few different strikers as well, before scrapping the original cocking piece and retaining the striker.

Summing up, although I have done a bit of EFD trigger work before, there are so many variables that without a lot of time and a decent supply of parts, they can be a nightmare. Often you can achieve the standard trigger weights by adjusting the front trigger guard screw bush correctly (usually in a replacement foreend) and swapping a few bits around. As you said, carefully polishing a few surfaces can sweeten a trigger, but trying for figures below spec pull weights can get expensive.