First time Savage Build, questions and progress

[Robinhood]

Great job and post. Its been good watching you develop this rifle.

[Rocketvapor]

Been putting in a lot of effort in her, need to concentrate a little on my shooting.
It's fun having a good shooting wife though. She had some tunnel vision watching the 10's and didn't pay attention to where in the 10 ring she was hitting.


The 95 SMK loads we tested where a guess of min to max charge. Looks like 2850 to 2860 will be the next test. Not much difference in drop/drift @ 600yds from the 2990 to 3000fps with Berger 85.5s (gonna keep that charge for now).

Will load up some of both to see 10 shot group sizes. We have some time to practice before the next match on the 19th.

[Rocketvapor]

Working on blade spring for Flo's rifle.
Using a 0.3mm X 5mm X 15mm spring, I bent up one loop to fit into hole in trigger.
Got UNDER 2oz Blade force with my Digital Trigger Gauge.
Checked @ 1.76oz (50grams).

[Rocketvapor]

Swapping springs on the trigger.
Started @ 3.5oz or so on blade force, about 7oz total.
Put in a lighter blade spring, 1.8 to 2.0oz and total went UP to about 7.8oz
I guess that is because the blade spring presses on the trigger.

Put in a really light trigger spring and got total force about 4oz but way TOO sensitive.
Went back to trigger spring that gave 7oz and cut less than a half turn off.

Now have 1.8-2.0 Blade, and 6.5 to 6.8 total, shimmed and no false drops.
Easily drops with 200 gram dead weight (7.055oz).
I'll stop here, rounding off it's 2oz blade / 7oz total with a noticeable step from blade to trip.
Maybe I'm done.
Will let her test at range.

Sort of a toss up with blade force. 3.5oz/7oz or 2oz/7oz with a more noticeable step.
I'll describe what I did tomorrow.

[Rocketvapor]

Here's MY approach to a Lighter pull on a Savage Accutrigger.
IF a pull of close to 6oz, more like 7-8oz is what you want, these steps MIGHT work.

First; measure/guess the side to side clearance of your trigger in the hanger.
High side clearance (more than a couple thousandths) will be susceptible to side force trips (thank you safety blade).
It will also cause variation in the 'Break' of the trigger/sear.
Deburr edges that rub together (not talking about sear/trigger notch)
Shim your trigger, not only to help with side force trips, but for 'Break' consistency.
Getting a slight variation in 'Break' feel? Shim it.

Second; Decide why you want a lighter trigger pull, and what is your force goal.
I don't think the trigger design is safe for trigger pulls much less than 6oz, with 7 to 8oz doable retaining the safety of the Safety Blade.
I RECOMMEND a trigger gauge. Something that can detect a small change of force (a couple tenths of an oz). Measurements of around 2oz of blade force and 7-8oz of total force.
If your calibrated finger can tell the difference in 7oz, 7.5oz, 8oz, fine.
Now, REMOVE Blade spring. Measure trigger pull. This will include Trigger spring AND sear/trigger release force.
Trigger spring force will be a little higher without the Blade spring. Shoot for 8oz (?).
Adjust spring, replace with a substitute, but DON'T get too low. You now have a shimmed Accutrigger WITHOUT Safety Blade function.
Dry fire, measure, adjust, dry fire, measure until you are happy with trigger function.
Record force measurement without the safety blade spring.

Third;
Install safety blade spring. Measure spring force to compress the blade to your finger just touching the trigger shoe. This should be 50% or less of the trigger force recorded.
My reasoning is that the BLADE force is pushing on the trigger. Too high a blade force will 'almost' trip the trigger for you.
Example: An 8oz blade force on a trigger spring force of 6oz puts the trigger/sear break in touchy territory.

Fourth;
I'll describe the bits and pieces I used to get these results.
(after the experts chime in :) )

[Rocketvapor]

No bites yet? :)
OK. The funny looking shim is 0.012" brass stock, drilled for the trigger pin, sanded down flat (about 0.0105" now), applied Brass Black to find any rubs/high spots.
The thought here is small diameter shims still allow the trigger to rock in the hanger. Covering a larger area of the trigger gives it more support from rocking.
I bent up the edges of the brass shim to keep it in place.
I used a regular shim (0.010") on the other side to take up remaining side play. I also added a 0.008" shim to the outside to take up extra space on the trigger pin.
This required a lot of fitting to get the side play right and not increase trigger friction.

The spring setup I used (for the 2/7oz trigger) was a Blade spring from China via ebay. Got a pack of 10, 0.3mm X 5mm X 15mm. Bent up a loop to fit in the hole in the trigger.
Blade force ended up a tad less than 2oz.

Now, to keep from losing the original 8oz Blade spring, I bent up a short tit on the end and used in as a trigger spring. I cut a little off after I measured trigger force. Took almost all night to fit the parts for minimal friction and that "just right feel".
2 oz feels like nothing to an AR shooter, and the step up to 7oz total is easy to find. Side force tripping is MUCH better.

The final test will of course be the Wife on the range.