In what order!!

[Roger Fisher]

Got your attention?   So, assuming (only assuming now) that you or that other guy, has his project on the bench with Siler by Davis flintlock installed, Tang bolt fitted into double sett trikkers and of course the trikkers installed and working...  Although he/you centered the frt and rear trikker bars onto the sear, the young lady insists she will have a 90 lb trikker pull with the frt trikker unsett.  Sett she works fine.  

In what order would you attack the b        to reduce that 90 lb pull?        

How far off the beam  are we if we go thisaway?  

First file/stone down the sear spring mucho without shortening it.

2nd: slick up the sear nose and if sober 'slick' the full draw notch (slick only) Or carefully stone that lil groove out of the notch!

3rd: File and stone the stiff bugger of a main spring thinner (longways certainly) and polish incl it's nose.

4th:  Polish the sear area of the nose to tumbler area.

5th:  Polish all friction areas incl the trikker bar and sear at contact points.

6th:  Heat and bend the sear bar towards it's axle to gain a bit of leverage there.

7th:  fill in the tang bolt hole in the plate and shift the plate to the rear a bit redrill/tap and refit the bolt in the plate.

8th:  Beat up the old woman, and if you survive that and the resulting divorce just live with it and always use the sett trikkers

[smylee grouch]

# 8 but just the last four words 

[Acer Saccharum]

First find out if the pull is due to the sear spring or if the notch geometry is wrong. How?

Put a piece of wood in the cock jaws instead of a flint.
Take the sear spring out of the lock, and gingerly see if the lock will stay on full cock. Shut the frizzen, and get your fingers out of harm's way. Then see what the trigger pull is like. If it's still a hard pull, then it's the notch causing the problem.

If the pull is easy, then put the spring back in and see if the pull is now hard.

[Mark Elliott]

Roger,

I hate to tell you this, but it is my experience that a trigger so installed will result in the symptoms you describe.   You would have to move the trigger back or deeper into the stock to get a better pull on the front trigger unset.    It is a simple trigger/sear geometry issue.  Since the purpose of a set trigger is to use it set,  I consider the only purpose of a double bar set trigger is just to allow you to easily uncock the lock, not to fire the lock.   Also,  you tune a lock to either be fired with a set trigger or a single trigger.   A lock tuned for set triggers is going to have a hard pull with a single trigger.   A lock tuned for a single trigger may not stay cocked, and therefore be unsafe, with set triggers.   The geometry of the lock and triggers is very tricky and always a compromise.    The last gun I made did have set triggers that worked well set and unset, mainly by accident.  Because the gun was so thin,  I had to put the triggers right up against the sear.   I had to grind down the triggers, and bend up the sear in addition to all the other normal lock tuning to get it to work.   The sear had to be bent up just right so the the front trigger bar was closer to the  sear than the rear trigger bar.   I don't think you really want to go down that road.   Just tell the young lady she shouldn't be using he front trigger unset to fire the gun.    Most original rifles didn't even have the double bar type set triggers.

[Roger Fisher]

Roger,

I hate to tell you this, but it is my experience that a trigger so installed will result in the symptoms you describe.   You would have to move the trigger back or deeper into the stock to get a better pull on the front trigger unset.    It is a simple trigger/sear geometry issue.  Since the purpose of a set trigger is to use it set,  I consider the only purpose of a double bar set trigger is just to allow you to easily uncock the lock, not to fire the lock.   Also,  you tune a lock to either be fired with a set trigger or a single trigger.   A lock tuned for set triggers is going to have a hard pull with a single trigger.   A lock tuned for a single trigger may not stay cocked, and therefore be unsafe, with set triggers.   The geometry of the lock and triggers is very tricky and always a compromise.    The last gun I made did have set triggers that worked well set and unset, mainly by accident.  Because the gun was so thin,  I had to put the triggers right up against the sear.   I had to grind down the triggers, and bend up the sear in addition to all the other normal lock tuning to get it to work.   The sear had to be bent up just right so the the front trigger bar was closer to the  sear than the rear trigger bar.   I don't think you really want to go down that road.   Just tell the young lady she shouldn't be using he front trigger unset to fire the gun.    Most original rifles didn't even have the double bar type set triggers.

Well now Mark I'll give you a passing grade and thanks for the nice description, now I can sleep better at night.  It was a challenge and I like a challenge depending what it is.  Oh yes, and thanks for saving me all that alimony          BTW the unsett mode is tolerable.

[Mark Elliott]

Did I miss something    Was this a test?

[KLMoors]

I flunked.

[bgf]

Like Mark, I had a setup where I had to cut/grind the trigger-bar and bend up the sear bar (to give the rear trigger running room).  That trigger works pretty acceptably unset (and perfectly set).  On the one I'm now working on, the trigger and sear bar were left alone, and the unset trigger pull is very heavy.  It is all geometry and physics, but you can't always control it all.  If it functions set, and the trigger also works unset, that is the requirement.  If you luck/work your way into a trigger that works well both ways, it is just gravy.

PS.  One of the triggers with backlash adjustments, like the L&R 17xx series gives you a few more options than a trigger without any backlash adjustment.  That may be part of the difference b/t the two I was talking about also, as one was L&R and other was Davis DST6.  I think I like the L&R's better.

[Roger Fisher]

Did I miss something    Was this a test?

Not really; but it brought out darn good information for many that read this (and made me feel a  lot better (which is a plus).

[Mark Elliott]

Roger,  I am glad I made you feel better.