Trigger group status while storing the rifle?

[mh53gunner]

Hammer down and locked.

[AlReiter]

Hammer down and locked.

[Bob Seijas]

The feeling was that with glass bedded match guns, storing with the trigger group unlocked helped save the glass and prevented loss of downward pressure exerted by the stock in most accurization schemes.

I always stored my NM's with the guard unlatched, slipped a toothpick between the guard and the safety. Sometimes that made the guard VERY hard to latch after a few years. I'm leaning toward leaving them latched.

[Jocko]

I keep the TG unlocked & hammer decocked thoughout winter season storage after my yearly breakdown full cleaning. Always after the shooting season is over. During the season everything remains locked up. For me unlocking
a TG during the season makes for a rifle needing to be re-zeroed and a
waste of ammo at these days awful prices.

Would love to hear Gus Fisher and Roland Beavers thoughts on this topic.

[campperrykid]

Same as the last 2 gents.
And BLO will cause wood swell. I have tightened a number of Garand stocks over the years. The process of BLO & unlocked storage takes a while but it works. A little steam , carefully applied can make a difference as well.
FWIW & YMMV.

[Bob Womack]

Statistically, this survey has become interesting. After a few days we had a pretty stable result favoring the first option by a wide margin. However, over time, more and more votes have come in and the second option alone has crept up. Activism? Just an interesting result.

Bob

[jmoore]

We can only vote once, yes?, so there would have to be influence peddling to skew the results.

I may have stated previously that I only bother unlocking the trigger group if it exerted a fair amount of clamping force on the stock. Most of the WWII stocks I have really are beyond worrying about any more, but there are a few that are in good enough shape to "take the pressure off". Tight wood means small groups much more than barrel throat condition (w/in reason). There's even a couple of worn muzzle rifles that shoot very well when installed in good wood. Go figure...

[gizz46]

You got to remember that the U.S. Gov owned the M1"s and they did not pay for them like we did and they had 600000 other replacement, So why take the time to pop the trigger group out.
It was a tool for the working man when in service not the pride and joy we have
today.

[Plain Old Dave]

Former GMG, currently AO. Never seen an MRC card for ANY small arm that requires detail stripping for storage. And I have worked on M14s.

Rack op handle, safety on, try trigger. Safety off, try trigger again. If it trips, lightly oil then in the rack.

V/R,

AO2

[jmoore]

Not required, just precautionary. Those who remove the trigger group (not exactly detail stripping, I shouldn't think...) may do so for safety/security reasons. As civilian oweners, they may want to reduce ANY possible danger of the weapon being easily made ready to fire. Additionally, they may retain the weapon FAR longer w/o replacing or servicing parts than would ever happen in military service!
I've had an M1 in my possesion longer than they served in the US forces (pre-WWII to Vietnam), and don't WANT to replace the WWII stock because its all "rattle-ly" fit, nor do I particularly want the "bad guys" to have operable weapons if they do first find and then remove/crack the safe.

T'ain't the same circumstances at all!