looooooooong trigger pull on m39

[SS396]

the trigger pull on my m39 is way long. much worse than any of my m44's or 91/30. any ideas why, or how to fix?

i have a junk m44, and i thought about switching the trigger parts to see if that would help. just a thought.

[REDSTAR]

There's a few ways you can approach this.

1) trade out the sear and trigger from the M44.
The sears are all the same on Mosins. It is a leaf spring. The front (the widest part) of the leaf spring attaches by a screw into a lug at the bottom of the receiver. The Russian triggers are all the same but there are some Finnish triggers that include a coil spring in them to smooth out the pull. If you have a coil spring Finn trigger I would keep it and replace the sear only. If not, I would replace both the trigger and sear.

2) Bend the sear slightly:
The arc of the sear bend determines the pull. If you look at the sear you will notice a slight bend to it at it's narrowest point. The arc of that bend determines how far up the sear nose (the part that engages the cocking piece lug) protrudes through the slot in the receiver in which the cocking piece slides. When you pull on the trigger its forward end pushes down on the leaf spring and the sear nose moves downward until it disengages the cocking piece lug. If you bend the sear ever so slightly it will change the amount of pressure needed by the trigger until the sear nose disengages the cocking piece lug.

This is a little tricky for a few reasons:

First, there is a slight tension involved between the trigger and the sear at rest. This tension helps keep the trigger pin stable. If you bend the sear too much it will remove that tension and the trigger will feel loose and wobbly side to side. If the bend you do is such that the trigger is kind of wobbly, you're going to have a hair pin trigger or the situation described next...

Second, if you bend the sear too much, the sear nose will not protrude out enough to catch the cocking piece lug and when you cock, the bolt will come right back out of the rifle and won't cock.

Third, the sear/leaf spring is brittle enough that it will break in half if you apply too much pressure when bending. I'm talking a very slight bend here can make a big difference so you don't want to go overboard. The only way to do this is to hunt and peck for the proper balance you desire. Try to just do it by hand or very gently with pliers.

3) The last and least desireable way I can think of changing the pull would be to file down the sear nose a little at a time, checking it often so that by the removal of part of the sear nose there is less time involved between pull and disengagement from the cocking piece lug. I don't like this idea much because if you file too much off your going to have the second scenario described above and the sear will be shot for good. Or you will have a hairpin trigger so touchy that it could be very dangerous. Then again, if you screw it up you could bend the sear in the opposite direction that what was described in the first scenario above.

These scenarios involving modification of the sear can result in a dangerous situation if the trigger is hairpin so be advised of that.

Good luck. I think I prefer swapping the trigger the best as long as that sear doesn't cause a long pull too.

If you need help disassembling the trigger let me know.

[SS396]

thanks for the info redstar!

[zouavexx]

REDSTAR truly is the man!