About a year ago I picked up a Stevens Favorite in .17 HMR. It was NIB but had been damaged in shipping. There is a crack on the stock at the upper receiver tang and a minor ding in the lever. I knew that when I bought it as the plan is to restock it anyway with a piece of curly or quilted maple and add a tang sight and make a mini "Buffalo Rifle". I think it would be cool to hunt squirrels "old fashioned" style. I have a modern .17 HMR which is the terror of the squirrel woods. And for $50 I could not pass it up anyway.

The problem is the trigger fails to hold the hammer at full cock all of the time. When it does hold it back it is very "hairy". I have pondered what to do to fix it for some time but have never really had the time to do it. Now that I am looking at it I have some questions. I am not clueless about what is going on inside and am pretty confident I can fix it if fixing it is possible.

The pins which hold the hammer and trigger seem to be pressed in, can they come out without damaging the receiver?

They are tight enough they haven't budged using a brass punch. Would I need a press to get them out and then back in?

If anyone has worked on them I would be glad to hear about the difficulties encountered.