Lightening trigger pull on 1903A3

[Bob S]

Doesn't reducing the front hump also increase trigger pull?

Reducing the front hump increases the sear engagement in the second stage. Good to know if someone has over-mothered the sear engagement of the second stage to the point where the second stage has been lost. You can usually recover the second stage by slightly reducing the front hump.

What a lot of folks don't appreciate is that there is a lot of vertical "slop" in bolt fit with WW II parts and that makes it difficult to get a good crisp second stage with no creep. The sear will tend to drag the bolt down as the first stage is taken up, esp. if there is no cartridge in the chamber. If the second stage engagement has been mothered to an absolute minimum engagement and tested on an empty chamber, the shooter can get a surprise if there is a long cartridge, neck sized cartridge, or a cartridge with the bullet jammed into the lands in the chamber. This restricts or reduces the vertical movement of the bolt somewhat as the trigger is pulled and can cause the second stage to be "lost" when a cartridge is chambered. Years ago, when most of the rifles extant were original or at least competent arsenal rebuilds with mostly pre-war parts, I seldom saw sloppy bolt fit like I'm seeing it today.

Resp'y,
Bob S.

[Parashooter]

That slop has been a problem since at least the Krag era. The Norwegians were sufficiently annoyed to adopt a neat little leaf spring in the sear channel of their model 1912 that controls it by pushing the cocking piece up to the top of the slop.

[Roadkingtrax]

I tend to swap firing pin rods until I get a nice clean break.

Bob S.: I've read that part of the inspection criteria of the 1903 was to cock the bolt on an empty chamber and pull UP on the rod to see if the rifle sent the firing pin home, testing the sear engagement. Unfortunately this doesn't test the trigger pull as you have suggested.

I've only had one trigger assembly that had the top of the sear humps polished or ground...guess I have been lucky.

[Bob S]

That slop has been a problem since at least the Krag era. The Norwegians were sufficiently annoyed to adopt a neat little leaf spring in the sear channel of their model 1912 that controls it by pushing the cocking piece up to the top of the slop.

Forgot about that. I thought that was pretty clever when I got my first Norwegian!

Resp'y,
Bob S.

[Tom]

That slop has been a problem since at least the Krag era. The Norwegians were sufficiently annoyed to adopt a neat little leaf spring in the sear channel of their model 1912 that controls it by pushing the cocking piece up to the top of the slop.

Nice picture Parashooter, I can even see the little pin which spreads the rivet?