Quote Originally Posted by Parashooter View Post
According to De Haas, there were early and late versions of the M54 sear mechanism ("slow-" and "speed-lock"). Nevertheless, all of them were the same basic Mauser design. Stoning some height off the front hump of yours might restore some degree of normalcy. If someone has cut down the height of the cocking-piece "bent", however, working on the trigger may not help.
Exactly. The early type and the later "improved" design. Mine's obviously the former. That's why I need a pro. This shouldn't be rocket science, but it's beyond my capabilities. I think an experienced and gifted gunsmith could get this working fine again even if he's never seen a Win 54 in his life. It'll probably require adding metal to one part or another. Via TIG welding, and then reshaping. I sure wish I could get my hands on a copy of the original blueprints.

Ugh. I don't know who else would care about this but anyway.... what it's actually doing is this: with bolt removed from the rifle, 1st and 2nd stages feel normal. No friction or binding. But when the bolt is installed, things get weird. 1st stage has a LOT of friction, to the point that the sear actually sticks in place. The trigger won't reset when finger pressure is released! This has to be due to some unwanted interaction/contact between the sear and the bolt's C-notch. They're not coming together right anymore.

FYI, when I was in San Antonio TX last December I examined my cousin's two M54s, which apparently also belonged to our grandfather. I took pictures of the exposed sear and also the underside of the bolt on his .30-'06 version (his other is in .250-3000 Savage), which apparently is also the earlier type. I have to admit, in looking at the pics now I cannot tell much difference between his and mine. The large 'chamfer' on the back of mine might be a little more pronounced I suppose. But I wasn't able to take any measurements of any kind. Left my dial caliper at home. LOL. I can say that his certainly behaves better. Works exactly as you'd expect.