Timney Triggers

In my judgment, the most notorious weakness of Ruger rifles is the trigger.  Critics claim that several years ago during the heat of illegitimate lawsuits and increasing manufacture liability, Ruger took a hard line by discontinuing their respected adjustable trigger and replaced it with a non-adjustable heavy trigger.

The backlash for this action has been harsh.  Personally, I feel that the criticism, in part, is unfounded.  For example, I have a friend that just bought a Winchester that came with a trigger that had a 7.5 lb pull.  Although the Winchester trigger is adjustable, there is not enough adjustment build in to get the pull down to a respectable 3 to 4 lbs.  My friend took his rifle to a gunsmith who honed the surfaces and replaced the factory spring.  Hugh, that is exactly what the same gunsmith did with my last Ruger rifle.  The cost for the trigger work was the same for both rifles.

So why all the negative karma against Ruger?  In my opinion, it is because Ruger’s trigger is totally non-adjustable whereas other manufactures tout that their triggers are adjustable (even though most of the times, they will also need gunsmith work).

My newly acquired Ruger MKII .204 Ruger came with a 4.5 lb trigger with a small amount of creep.  My options were to take it back to the gunsmith and have him work the trigger over.  The last trigger he did for me turned out great.  It now has a very crisp 3.5 lb pull.  It is a hunting rifle and the 3.5 lbs is perfect for me.  The only disadvantage is that I am still stuck with a non-adjustable trigger.

The other option was to purchase a Timney aftermarket trigger.  These triggers are available at many online sources for about $70.  This is more than I paid for a trigger job but is on par with what most gunsmiths charge.  According to Timney, their triggers are adjustable from 1½ to 4 pounds pull, have an over-travel adjustment and are made from 440C stainless steel.  All contact surfaces are precision ground, lapped and polished.

WARNING: If you are not proficient at do-it-yourself projects or cannot assume responsibility for YOUR mistakes, DON’T attempt this.  Have a capable gunsmith install your trigger.  Working on or installing triggers can be dangerous and result in you or others getting injured or killed.

Read the manufacture instructions thoroughly before attempting the installation.  This page should never be used in place of the instructions, but serves only as a supplement.

Installation:
The image below shows the trigger assembly after the action is removed from the stock.  The circles show the pins that need to be "knocked out" in order to remove the trigger and sear.  The instructions stated that an 1/8" punch is required to remove the pins.  However, the pins in my gun were removed by simply pushing the pins out by hand with the included allen wrench.  There was no need to "knock" them out.

Fitting the trigger to the safety:
The most tedious and time-consuming part of installing the trigger is matching the trigger to the factory safety.  This must be done by filing or grinding a portion of the trigger so it "fits" the safety on your gun.  I recommend the use of a Dremel or similar tool as there was quite a bit of metal that needed to be taken off.

CAUTION: Work slowly! If too much metal is taken off, the safety will mal-function causing the gun to fire even with the safety on.  This will render the trigger useless!  A file was used to put the finishing touches and fine tune the trigger and safety.

Remove just enough metal to allow the safety to be engaged.  Test the fit with the bolt in the gun and in the cocked position.  Tension from the firing pin removed all slack from of the trigger system and would not allow the safety to be engaged (where as the safety could be engaged with the bolt removed).  Reassembling the parts several times will be required to ensure a good fit.

When you are done, the trigger will allow the safety to be engaged but the parts will actually lightly touch each other.  Remove enough metal to prevent the safety from binding against the trigger, but not so much as to leave a gap between the safety and trigger.  Any gap could cause the gun to accidentally fire while the safety is engaged.

This is how my trigger looked when it was done:

Conclusion:
The Timney trigger worked great in my gun.  It was a drastic improvement over the stock trigger and is totally adjustable.  There is no noticeable creep and the trigger breaks cleanly.  Since it is a hunting rifle, I adjusted mine to break at 3 pounds.  This required me to use the stock Ruger spring.  If you are a fan of light triggers, use the optional lighter spring that Timney includes in the kit.

Spring tension (trigger pull weight) can be adjusted without taking the action out of the stock.  However, over-travel must be set before reinstalling the action.  This is not a problem as this is a "set it and forget it" adjustment.  There should be no need to readjust it.

Note: If the over-travel setting is set too tight, the sear will not drop completely out of the way of the firing pin, thus preventing the firing pin from striking the primer.  DO NOT test this with live ammo.  A simple dry-fire is all that is needed to detect proper firing pin movement.  To correct this problem, simply loosen the over-travel adjustment and retest.  This can all be done prior to reassembling the action and stock.

The Timney trigger does have a sear engagement adjustment.  However, the engagement is set at the factory and Timney recommends against changing this setting.  I concur with Timney as my sear came from the factory adjusted correctly.

I did have one problem with the function of the trigger.  After installation, the top of the sear drug on the bottom of the bolt as the bolt was cycled forward and rearward.  After contacting the extremely helpful technicians at Timney, the problem was found to be a recent manufacturing change by Ruger to their sears.  Timney has corrected the problem and the new sear design should soon be shipping in all kits.