Set Trigger Location Mistake?

[greybeard]

What seems obvious to me is that you will have to cock the triggers before you cock the lock.
Otherwise that rear trigger is always going to have tension on the sear bar, a potentially dangerous situation.

Any disagreement from the peanut gallery?

   I agree 100%.   Bob

[Captchee]

  No I don’t think you trigger is inlet to deep . Most time I have to do alittle work on the davis triggers as the trigger bars are rather tall  for the rifles I build ..
 IMO the proper set up is that you should be able to cock the lock without setting the trigger . If you have to set the trigger then cock the lock  that makes for a very  touchy   set that if set to light can  lip the notch and fire with little effort. i have made rifles that required the triggers to be set before cocking . but they wrer mostly dedicated target rifles

Let me  try and see if I can explain myself better .
 The tighter more pressure the main  trigger spring places on the   rear trigger then  harder it slaps the sear .
 Now that being said , that same pressure will hold the rear trigger up  a given degree . If your trigger is alittle to tall  it can hold the sear out of the full cock notch .
A slight adjustment of the  trigger main spring screw . Releases presser on the trigger , thus allowing the sear spring to  set the sear in the full cock .. However if your adjustment is to much , them trigger wont have enough force to  slap the sear free of the full cock ..

 You say your problem is that the trigger  wont fire the lock . Thus as others have said , the preload isn’t enough . IE your trigger main spring isn’t  applying enough force . So  you need to check and  see how far the screw holding the trigger mainspring , is tightened down . If its tight , then  you  either have a weak spring , the spring isn’t  inlet enough to allow the spring  to open  fully . The tell tail for that is a very hard to set rear trigger .
OR the sear itself   doesn’t have free movement  in that the  sear is rubbing on the stock .
.
What I would do ?
 Well I would pull the trigger , check the spring . Compare how hard it is to set the trigger while out of the stock , compared to when its in the stock . If it feels the same and the  spring is screwed down snug  then you may have a weak spring . As others have said . . With the spring tight , it should slap your finger smartly ..
 If its much easier to set out of the stock , then most likely  your inlet isn’t enough and either the spring or trigger is binding in the inlet and not applying enough force to the sear

 My comment about how high the trigger locks  was  based on  how high the rear trigger bare rises up  in one of your photos . At that angle it has to be hitting the sear

[toddsndrsn]

I've played with load screw.  I can tighten all the way down and it still takes no effort to set.  So a bad spring or I need to modify the trigger.  There is a new spring on the way however that may not solve the other problem that seems evident with having to set the trigger to operate the lock properly.  This will be a hunting gun so that's just not going to work for me.

What's the appropriate fix for this.  The only thing I can see to do is fill in the inlet with a piece of wood and file down the trigger to reduce the depth of the inlet.

[Dave B]

Being a Kit did it come with the springs pre-tempered?  I want to say the Davis triggers I put together years ago had pre-tempered springs I had to heat treat the triggers  but the springs were just fine. What it sounds like is the rear trigger may need to have a re-positioning  done. What I mean is that the pivot point of the rear trigger if drilled too high on the trigger blade will put the main spring shelf of the trigger too low for the spring to act on it properly. The filing of the trigger bar would help in this instance or the soldering of a small block of metal to raise the triggers mainspring shelf. to test this theory just super glue a small bit of metal square on the shelf where the main spring rests, tighten the screw of the main spring down and see if it has more power or not. if it works well you could just solder the bock in place on the shelf.

[Bob Roller]

What seems obvious to me is that you will have to cock the triggers before you cock the lock.
Otherwise that rear trigger is always going to have tension on the sear bar, a potentially dangerous situation.

Any disagreement from the peanut gallery?

   I agree 100%.   Bob

Many range officers will tell you to get the lock and trigger redone if the trigger must be set before the lock can be cocked.

Bob Roller

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Set your trigger assembly in a machinist's vise, as if it was installed in your rifle.  Set the triggers.  hold a screw driver between your thumb and forefinger, by the end of the handle.  Hover the bit of the screw driver over the back trigger's bar, and fire the triggers.  The back trigger bar will strike the bit of the screw driver.  It should have enough force to make the screw driver jump.  If so, it should fire the lock.  If not, the spring may be soft.  Re-hardening/tempering will take care of that.

If everything works as I have described out of the gun, but doesn't fire the lock when installed, I suspect that when you set the triggers, the inlet is stopping the trigger's mainspring from rising to it's zenith, thereby diminishing it's force downward on the trigger.  That spring requires clearance.  From your photos, I can see that the rear trigger rises sufficiently to fire the lock.  Another issue may be that your full cock notch requires some stoning/polishing, if it is hard to trip the lock when hand held out of the stock.

Everything from your images appears to be fine.  Filing out the mainspring stop on the trigger plate as illustrated above, will cause the rear trigger to be held high, interfering further with the lock's sear.

[Don Stith]

Worst come to worst, I am only  two or three hours drive away from you.  Bob Roller is even closer but I can't volunteer his time.

[eagle1209]

look great, I've never tried to open his gun, LOL 

[Pete G.]

What seems obvious to me is that you will have to cock the triggers before you cock the lock.
Otherwise that rear trigger is always going to have tension on the sear bar, a potentially dangerous situation.

Any disagreement from the peanut gallery?

This part of the peanut gallery disagrees. The trigger should not rest against the sear bar; it should have enough travel to fly up and whack the sear, but return to a lower position at rest. This is accomplished but adjusting the spring travel by either altering the tip of the spring or possibly installing and adjustable stop screw. I believe that some commercial triggers now employ a stop screw in the trigger plate itself for this purpose.

[toddsndrsn]

This part of the peanut gallery disagrees. The trigger should not rest against the sear bar; it should have enough travel to fly up and whack the sear, but return to a lower position at rest. This is accomplished but adjusting the spring travel by either altering the tip of the spring or possibly installing and adjustable stop screw. I believe that some commercial triggers now employ a stop screw in the trigger plate itself for this purpose.

I like your optimism, but I think the other part of the peanut gallery is right.  I think the front trigger sits about .01" above the sear in the set position...  I'm guessing that means a properly working set trigger would interfere even more when setting the lock.