Mauser 1891 Trigger Modification

[Doble Troble]

 

The 1891 trigger isn't as straight forward as the 98s are. There's less room in front of the trigger to weld on a shelf for take-up adjustment, and you can't go through the sear channel of the receiver. You also can't limit after pull through the spring chamber - the 1891 is parelell to the receiver.

 

Anyway this was my solution for the 1891 I'm working on. As it was, the first Bubba to work on this rifle (who did a decent job, BTW, and I use the term Bubba in the highest regard of someone who made good use of what they had) ground off the first stage trigger hump, resulting in a looooong and VERY heavy trigger. It was damn safe, because it was almost impossible to pull.

 

My solution was to drill the two holes shown in the picture and thread them for #6 set screws.

 

The first step was annealing this VERY hard trigger. I heated to non-magnetic with OA and let cool between two fire bricks - it took about an hour to cool, but came-out butter soft and easy to drill.

 

The tricky part was getting the drilling started. For the take-up hole I ground a tiny flat at the front overhang of the trigger, facing the sear spring holder, with the evil Dremel. I center punched the flat and drilled the first hole with a #50, followed by a 0.106" (#36?). This was the easy one.

 

For the overtravel hole I started at the front of the trigger (not shown in the picture) and made a dent with the 0.106" bit drilling at 90*. Then I tilted the trigger to the angle shown in the picture aiming directly for the rear point of the trigger that meets the rear of the sear. With the angle established I slowly drilled with a #50 and finished off with the 0.106" and tapped both holes with #6 x 32 - a 40 would have been better, but I don't have that tap.

 

I checked to make sure the set screws worked and rehardened with Kasenite.

 

It looks like its going to work great, but the reciever is busy rust bluing so I haven't checked bolt release yet, I'll update this later!

 

I thought you guys would enjoy today's fun, and hopefully it'll be helpful to someone.

[cold shot]

How would you take up the slack on a M98 and also lighten the trigger pull? DAVE

[Doble Troble]

Dave,

 

For 98s I've followed advice given in Roy Dulap's Gunsmithing book.

 

For Take-up on a 98 you can weld an extension on the front lip of the trigger overhang (in front of where I've drilled this 91 trigger for take-up), you can also drill and tap a hole through the sear channel of the receiver tang.

 

For over travel on a 98 its very easy to drill and tap the center of the spring case. You put a set screw in to limit travel.

 

There are other approaches for the 98 too. The stock 98 trigger is fairly easy to modify for take-up and over-travel. The design is very similar to the 91, but the 91 is more compact, there's more room for modification on the 98.

 

To reduce pull on a 98 start clipping coils on the trigger spring, one at a time until its better (but sometimes with this approach you'll never make it "good" - if you go too far it gets "mushy" - it's important that there's enough spring there to completely re-engage the sear if you release the trigger). You can also work on the sear height, but you've got to keep everything square - better have a back-up on hand if you want to try that approach.

 

Of course this is an area where you can get into safety issues, to measure twice, cut once, and test so many times that you almost wish you hadn't started to begin with.

[cold shot]

I've grond down the seer before but they're a little stiff I'll give that a try and I'll get back later on

[Doble Troble]

UPDATE:

 

This is the best modified stock Mauser trigger that I've done.

 

It's 100% reliable with crisp let off after a fraction of an inch of trigger movement and the overtravel adjustment stops it dead. It went from a horrible trigger to rivaling the Bolds that I've installed for crispness. I've got it adjusted now which was easy even with the 32 tpi, and the locktite is drying. The cock on closing made this really easy to adjust. I like cock on closing.

 

The pull is still on the heavy side. I might keep it this way or I might try clipping trigger spring coils - I haven't decided yet. I'll probably wait until the entire rifle is together and I shoot it a bit to decide.

 

The receiver blackened-up more quickly than the barrel and the buttplate. The buttplate has been particularly hard to blue. I suspect it had some sort of brass plate finish originally that (there were a few specks left even though most was long gone before I started) is still causing bluing difficulty. It can't resist the rust forever (muah ha ha). Patience grasshopper.