Unhappy with Accu Trigger

[David Clark]

That goop you talk about is moly paste and is put on there for a reason.

[Dangerous Dan]

The Accu Trigger does have it's qurks to say the least .... The metal goop You have there is Savages Lapping compound It has been Used on there triggers for Years . That being said there are triggers out there like SSS Jared & Timmney That You may enjoy more than Your Trigger . Hope this helps DD

[psharon97]

As far as getting my extractor to work better, I put some liquid graphite where the extractor slides, and it works better than what it did before.

If I were in your position, I would just upgrade the trigger. I have two SSS Competition triggers, and they are very nice. Mine breaks clean at just over a pound.

[jinx-)]

That being said there are triggers out there like SSS Jared & Timmney That You may enjoy more than Your Trigger . Hope this helps DD

Dan, I see you mentioned SSS Jared & Timmney, but nothing on Rifle Basix Sav-1 and Sav-2 and I think they deserve a spot among triggers you mentioned.

[leftoversalmon]

That being said there are triggers out there like SSS Jared & Timmney That You may enjoy more than Your Trigger . Hope this helps DD

Dan, I see you mentioned SSS Jared & Timmney, but nothing on Rifle Basix Sav-1 and Sav-2 and I think they deserve a spot among triggers you mentioned.


I aware of all the triggered mentioned. Im pretty sure that I would go with a Jard, or Sav-2. But I bought the Savage because of the Accu Trigger, because it is an added saftey measure. Its just a shame that the trigger has issues...

[J.Baker]

Badmouth the AccuTrigger all you want, there's still no denying it's still by far the safest and best selling factory trigger out there. If there was really a wide-spread issue with the AccuTrigger it wouldn't hold either of those distinctions. If you don't like it simply replace it. If you don't want to replace it, send it back to Savage for inspection/repair. Pissing and moaning about it here isn't going to change anything.

[rusty815]

Badmouth the AccuTrigger all you want, there's still no denying it's still by far the safest and best selling factory trigger out there. If there was really a wide-spread issue with the AccuTrigger it wouldn't hold either of those distinctions. If you don't like it simply replace it. If you don't want to replace it, send it back to Savage for inspection/repair. Pissing and moaning about it here isn't going to change anything.


i actually prefer the accutrigger over many aftermarket triggers, i find it very comfortable (i have a "heavy" trigger pull, so i like to keep the trigger at around 2-3 pounds/pull, so its perfect for me in that aspect), and the safety feature that catches the sear in case of an accidental pull is very efficient for me, ive taken my model 16 fhlss hunting and target shooting a few times (i got it a few months ago) and its been great, better than my custom weatherby vanguard.

[LabRat2k3]

The way I'm reading it the Accu-trigger didn't fail, it worked as designed. It prevented the rifle from firing when the bolt was close sharply and the trigger was adjusted too light. You can replace the Accu-trigger with an aftermarket one, but you will still have to adjust the new trigger so that it will not fire on closing the bolt. While there are triggers that will allow you to adjust them to a lighter pull weight, it is even more important to get the weight right with an aftermarket trigger because they do not have the extra saftey of the Accu-triggers center blade which has been preventing unintended discharges for you so far.

[jinx-)]

on target accutrigger when I tried to set it to its lightest pull I encountered many issues when pulling on the middle blade, it snaps half way before trigger blade, so safety is engaged, it has nothing to do with how hard I close its bolt. I find it frustrating when I'm ready to take a shot then slowly pulling on the trigger, but no shot follows. Adjusting trigger pull screw clockwise by full turn did help me fix this issue. It works great now and no dry firing so far, but sometimes it feels like that I have to apply more pressure on the trigger to get it going, I'm talking about few ounces variations, its like as soon as middle blade reaches trigger it fires and sometimes I need to apply more pressure on the trigger I would say 5 - 10 oz spread.

[leftoversalmon]

Badmouth the AccuTrigger all you want, there's still no denying it's still by far the safest and best selling factory trigger out there. If there was really a wide-spread issue with the AccuTrigger it wouldn't hold either of those distinctions. If you don't like it simply replace it. If you don't want to replace it, send it back to Savage for inspection/repair. Pissing and moaning about it here isn't going to change anything.


I came to ask if there was anything I can do, or have a gunsmith do. I also figured that many of you would not have accepted this terrible trigger design as being okay. I may have bad mouthed the trigger, yes. But that is only because it doesn't work 100% of the time at their advertised level. Sorry but I seriously don't understand how I can adjust my Geissele trigger can be set to 2 pounds and it will catch EVERYTIME. I bet I could also throw the AR down a flight of stairs and it wouldn't fire. Also there is a whole lot more jarring going on in an AR than in a hard bolt reset. Yet I cannot set my savage to 2lbs without it being extremely unreliable... So to me the trigger design on the savage is trash.

However, you’re right I cannot argue the safety of the trigger one bit, and I haven’t. Because it is a very safe mechanism and the AccuRelease is an awesome feature. But the sear and trigger not catching makes it a terrible trigger design overall. The safety of the trigger was a selling point for me. But when the rifle doesn't function properly and the sear doesn't catch the trigger it makes me want to throw the ****ing rifle out of an airplane. That’s why I came here. Because many times there is a fix that a gunsmith can do to fix what the company can't seem to figure out. It appears there isn't a fix and that everyone has just grown to tolerate a trigger that has to be set to a higher poundage to function, yet its advertised to work at a much lower level.

Let’s take this same scenario for a different item: A performance car manufacture makes a car and they advertises that it can go from 0-60 in 4 seconds and has a top speed of 200. You buy said car expecting to be able to do 0-60 in 4 seconds and reach 200mph all the time, anytime you want 100% of the time. So now its time to drive the car and test it out. You get into the car and mash the pedal the RPMs start to climb, but all the sudden at 6k RPM the car starts to spuder and then the ECU drops the RPMS down to prevent catastrophic failure. So you call the company who made the car to figure out what has happen. All they say is that the fuel pump can’t keep up with the demand of the engine and that you will need to reduce how hard your pushing the car, they also tell you that the ECU was programmed to do exactly has it did because its a saftey measure.

Wouldn’t you be pissed that your car is advertised too go much faster than it reliably can? You bought and paid for an advertised 0-60 time of 4 seconds and a 200 mph car, but it will never reliably hit that level...

I bought a gun that is advertised to work at 1.5 lbs yet it simply cannot do it 100% of the time. Yet at the same time there are other trigger designs that will work at this lb 100% of the time. The fact of the matter is I bought a gun with an advertised 1.5 adjustment and it should work at that level 100% of the time. I don’t get what’s so hard to understand about that and why so many of you have just accepted it as being okay…

[psharon97]

I suppose the reason I accepted the trigger was the fact that it was still a mass-produced trigger, that had to be designed so that folks would not be able to sue the company. And while the trigger can get close to the wheight, close doesn't cut it if the use is competition shooting. Considering the stock trigger has a deviation smaller than +/- 5 ounces thats pretty good.

If this deviation is still too much, then I would recommend installing an aftermarket trigger. The downside to these triggers is that they are designed for specific purposes, mainly competiiton target shooting. A competition target grade trigger that breaks at a few ounces is not intended to be designed for hunting purposes.

[LabRat2k3]

You are comparing a factory trigger to an aftermarket trigger, the two will never be on the same level. If you are unhappy with the trigger either replace it with an aftermarket trigger, or sell the gun and buy whichever rifle you find that has a better factory trigger, good luck with that. No the Accu-trigger is not a comp trigger, although many competitions have been won with them, but they are far from trash or a flawed design. As a side note I would be willing to bet that few cars that are advertised as doing 0-60 in x seconds can acutally do it on a regular basis. All you have to do is read an issue of road and track or car and driver to see that even with professional drivers, and the best tires thay cannot get the numbers that the factories often put out. Most times the real world is not the same as a controlled test lab.

[jinx-)]

here is good example of the good factory trigger

http://www.tcarms.com/firearms/images/iconTrigger.jpg

I had one on my TC Precision Hunter, it was adjustable to 3.5LB, anyway I sold that rifle and bought 12 LRP ;D

[bowbrother]

I have a Model 10 PC with the same problem trigger. I put a set screw in from the bottom to hold the return spring tight. Had to shave just a little bit off the post where the back trigger guard screw comes up to clear the set screw. With a shorter set screw that may not be necessary. trigger now will hold it's setting and unless I drop way down no lock ups.
Good Luck

[leftoversalmon]

You are comparing a factory trigger to an aftermarket trigger, the two will never be on the same level. If you are unhappy with the trigger either replace it with an aftermarket trigger, or sell the gun and buy whichever rifle you find that has a better factory trigger, good luck with that. No the Accu-trigger is not a comp trigger, although many competitions have been won with them, but they are far from trash or a flawed design. As a side note I would be willing to bet that few cars that are advertised as doing 0-60 in x seconds can acutally do it on a regular basis. All you have to do is read an issue of road and track or car and driver to see that even with professional drivers, and the best tires thay cannot get the numbers that the factories often put out. Most times the real world is not the same as a controlled test lab.


I understand that the two will never be the same. But savage says it can go to 1.5 lbs, when in fact it cannot reliably reach that level. If it can't reliably go that low then don't advertise that it can be set so low. Also prevent people from setting the trigger to a point where it will malfunction. Is it really a flawed design, No. Because the trigger will work at a higher setting. But it is a flawed design because it can't reliably reach the levels they advertise. Its like paying for a whole pie and only getting 75% of it. (Im just pissed because I thought I bought a flawless gun that could reach advertised levels and it cant..) If they didn't advertise that it could reach 1.5lbs and I bought it. I wouldn't have created this thread. Does this make sense?

[leftoversalmon]

I have a Model 10 PC with the same problem trigger. I put a set screw in from the bottom to hold the return spring tight. Had to shave just a little bit off the post where the back trigger guard screw comes up to clear the set screw. With a shorter set screw that may not be necessary. trigger now will hold it's setting and unless I drop way down no lock ups.
Good Luck


Do you have any pictures of the mod? Also does it prevent the gun from "locking up" on hard bolt resets or just prevent the adjustment from moving?

[LabRat2k3]

How light can you set it before it locks up on closing the bolt hard? What type of trigger pull gauge are you using to measure the pull weight?

[bowbrother]

If you will send your email address I will send pics. Also talked to the guy at Rifle Basix today and he is shipping me a trigger to try. I'll post whether it works or not. Currently I can get down to 1.5lbs. without lock ups however I prefer 2.5lbs. for hunting which is where I have it now. Not sure if the trigger pull guage question was for me or not but I'm using a Wheeler Engineering.

[justinp61]

I recently purchased a model 12 FVSS in 22-250 to hunt ground hogs and shoot some 400 yard steels with a friend. So far I'm not very impressed with the trigger, it was fine for the first 15 or so rounds then it started locking the trigger up. Mind you this was shooting single shot from a bench and not slamming the bolt down, sometimes it would take three resets before it would fire. I have removed the barrel/action and added one turn to the trigger but it still does it, just not as bad. It will need to be adjusted again, in a hunting situation it will lock up when reloading. Once it didn't fire but I could hear the firing pin fall, after waiting for a minute I unbolted it, the primer didn't have a mark on it and fired the next time it was chambered.

Also if the bolt is drawn back slowly after firing it won't extract the case, it falls down on the magazine. The rifle shoots great, but all in all I'm not sold on the quality.

[bowbrother]

I recently purchased a model 12 FVSS in 22-250 to hunt ground hogs and shoot some 400 yard steels with a friend. So far I'm not very impressed with the trigger, it was fine for the first 15 or so rounds then it started locking the trigger up. Mind you this was shooting single shot from a bench and not slamming the bolt down, sometimes it would take three resets before it would fire. I have removed the barrel/action and added one turn to the trigger but it still does it, just not as bad. It will need to be adjusted again, in a hunting situation it will lock up when reloading. Once it didn't fire but I could hear the firing pin fall, after waiting for a minute I unbolted it, the primer didn't have a mark on it and fired the next time it was chambered.

Also if the bolt is drawn back slowly after firing it won't extract the case, it falls down on the magazine. The rifle shoots great, but all in all I'm not sold on the quality.

I've got a pre-accutrigger that I put a Timney in and it shoots great. You might try giving the guy at Rifle Basix a call they have a trigger that will work in replacing the Accutrigger. 22 250 really does a number on coyotes.