Ruger 77/22 hornet trigger job

Oakie

I need to lighten the pounds on my 22 hornet. It is a ruger 77/22 and my favorite gun. I shoot great groups with it now, but there is definitely room for improvement. I have a great load for it.


I really don't want to replace the trigger with a timney, what other options do I have and how do I do it.[?][?][?] I can work on guns by myself, so that is not a problem. I have built many 10/22's from the ground up, but never messed with the 77/22 Hornet. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I would like to try to get it down to at least a 21/2 to 3# pull. It is about 13 to 15 right now and that is just to much. Why Ruger ever built them this way, I will never understand. Great gun with a lousy trigger pull. Oakie

5mmgunguy

Hi Oakie. I have a Ruger 77/22 Hornet that I had James Calhoon convert to the 19 Calhoon. My favorite gopher gun. He reworked my trigger when he built the rifle. It is at 3 lbs...original trigger. Give James a call his number is on his 19 caliber website. 406-395-4079.

spirits

The easiest fix for lightening the trigger pull for the Ruger 77 II series rifles I have heard (goggle it) of is to replace the trigger/Sear spring with the spring from a Pilot G-2 07 pen. I have tried it in a 77/357Mag and a 77 II custom 8mm Mauser and as long as I exercised good safety practices especially for any rifle with a light trigger it worked fine for "MY USE". I have tried the usual safety tests on an "EMPTY RIFLE" 1. cocking, putting the safety in the middle position, pulling on the trigger as hard as possible, then forcibly flipping the safety off as fast as possible (it passed this test) 2. cocking, putting the safety in the firing position, and slamming the bolt close (it passed this test for me but a gunsmith friend after many attempts managed by using much greater slamming force than I had used to get it to fail(i.e., firing pin tripped). So would I trust it for all conditions "ABSOLUTELY NOT" and I usually keep the Ruger 77 II safety in the rear locked position before getting ready to shoot.

dfletcher

quote:Originally posted by Oakie
I need to lighten the pounds on my 22 hornet. It is a ruger 77/22 and my favorite gun. I shoot great groups with it now, but there is definitely room for improvement. I have a great load for it.


I really don't want to replace the trigger with a timney, what other options do I have and how do I do it.[?][?][?] I can work on guns by myself, so that is not a problem. I have built many 10/22's from the ground up, but never messed with the 77/22 Hornet. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I would like to try to get it down to at least a 21/2 to 3# pull. It is about 13 to 15 right now and that is just to much. Why Ruger ever built them this way, I will never understand. Great gun with a lousy trigger pull. Oakie


I had a Ruger 77/22 Hornet and fiddled with the trigger. I used fine grit "wet 'n dry" paper to polish the sear engagement and switched out to a lighter spring. I drilled & tapped a 6x48 hole in the front of the trigger body as an overtravel screw. Used a headless allen screw, torqued it down tight & red loctited. Trimmed the exposed stem to give me just a bit of overtravel. Made quite a difference in the trigger.

tsr1965

I have done several triggers on the 77 MK-II's, and the 77/22 series, including the Hornet. I change the engagement angle slightly,with a set of stones, and polish it, and replace the trigger spring. I will not do one under 3 pounds for anyone but myself. But I can tell you this...for a Ben Franklin, you get a glass rod crisp trigger, and as mentioned, previously in a post, it removes most all of the over travel.

Best

Oakie

hey, thanks guys. I want to do this myself, so I think I will give it a try. At worst I will have to replace a few parts if I screw up, I can live with that. I have a ton of springs, so that is not a problem. I have the stone too. Thanks for all the advice.

5mmgunguy

I talked to James Calhoon. Make sure the rifle is unloaded. He said he doesn't touch the hammer. Carefully stones only the trigger. makes the break point square, basically takes the hook off. Uses the factory spring just cuts half a coil off. Try it. Is still too much, you can cut up to a full coil off the spring. Have fun and be very careful using a lighten trigger pull. And do a safety check. With the safety on bump the recoil pad downward firmly on a hard surface several times. Should not fire. Now push the safely off. Firing pin should not fall.

Oakie

quote:Originally posted by 5mmgunguy
I talked to James Calhoon. Make sure the rifle is unloaded. He said he doesn't touch the hammer. Carefully stones only the trigger. makes the break point square, basically takes the hook off. Uses the factory spring just cuts half a coil off. Try it. Is still too much, you can cut up to a full coil off the spring. Have fun and be very careful using a lighten trigger pull. And do a safety check. With the safety on bump the recoil pad downward firmly on a hard surface several times. Should not fire. Now push the safely off. Firing pin should not fall.


Thanks, will do. Thank you for taking the time to talk to James and getting me the info. I really appreciate your time and effort. Oakie[:)]

charliemeyer007

A really good hand lens and a really fine stone helps in not breaking threw surface hardening. Magic marker your working surface first, it will show you where you are polishing. Changing angles is risky, easy to make stuff unsafe that way.

5mmgunguy

No problem go slow. You can always try it and if still to heavy take a little more. Easy to take more metal off than put it back on. Let us know how the project goes.