Lakefield Mark 1 sear

[ipscgraz]

When my sons were young I bought a couple of single shot 22's as their first rifles. One is perfectly fine and still in service but the other rifle (Lakefield Mark 1) had some pretty poor sights . I hired a sight sponsor to install a Williams rear peep and appropriate front bead, which worked out well but somehow the trigger went to hell during the process. By this time both boys had progressed to other rifles and I didn't worry about and considered it a rainy day project.

Fast forward a few years and I now have 4 grandkids so it is time to start preparing to repeat the intro-to-firearms-with-a-single shot-rimfire plan. I dug out the poor abandoned rifle; somehow the trigger had gotten worse with a lot of creep and a lot of force required to make it work.

I opened it up and the sear has no straight edges on mating surfaces; everything is rounded off a little bit. I tried using a stone and got rid of a lot of the creep but still has a pretty tough trigger.

Before I throw my hands in the air I thought I would replace the sear and try again. WGP has no stock and no recommendation as to where I might find one.

Anybody got an old parts gun, or an idea where else to look?

 

[trevj]

Like to be your best bet, is to hit up a few used gun parts dealers at a couple Gun Shows.

 

[SomebodyTookMyName]

I had the opposite issue with one, and wound up with a sear that was a bit lighter than I like after I cleaned the rust off. If memory serves, I think it’s hiding in the parts bin yet.

Send me a PM as a reminder and I’ll try to dig it out for you next time I’m in the shop.

 

[Potashminer]

When my sons were young I bought a couple of single shot 22's as their first rifles. One is perfectly fine and still in service but the other rifle (Lakefield Mark 1) had some pretty poor sights . I hired a sight sponsor to install a Williams rear peep and appropriate front bead, which worked out well but somehow the trigger went to hell during the process. By this time both boys had progressed to other rifles and I didn't worry about and considered it a rainy day project.

Fast forward a few years and I now have 4 grandkids so it is time to start preparing to repeat the intro-to-firearms-with-a-single shot-rimfire plan. I dug out the poor abandoned rifle; somehow the trigger had gotten worse with a lot of creep and a lot of force required to make it work.

I opened it up and the sear has no straight edges on mating surfaces; everything is rounded off a little bit. I tried using a stone and got rid of a lot of the creep but still has a pretty tough trigger.

Before I throw my hands in the air I thought I would replace the sear and try again. WGP has no stock and no recommendation as to where I might find one.

Anybody got an old parts gun, or an idea where else to look?

I had about same - back in the day I had bought a Lakefield Mark 1 for our son at local MacLeod's Hardware store - I sawed off the butt to make it shorter - the boy was using it like that, although trigger very "heavy" to pull - sometimes needed two fingers on it to make it go "bang". Some years later that .22 ended up back here - to be modified some more, for his son to learn with - can GrandPa fix it? I got a Lakefield Mark 1 trigger from Numrich in Sept. 2019 - maybe they still carry those? It did not really help - it is still VERY heavy to pull the trigger - as if all made of very soft metal parts that grab / gall instead of sliding under pressure.

I gave up on it several years ago - just dug it out for this thread to confirm what it was - barrel has been shortened and new front sight dovetail was installed - stock had been totally scraped to light white - then coated with linseed oil - sort of a "honey blonde" now - pistol grip area worked down to fit small hands, an elderly 1 inch body Bushnell 4X ".22 Varmint" scope installed. GrandMa sewed a rifle sleeve out of blue jean leg, with the Grandson's name on it. Still a POS, though. I solemnly swapped for it with the Grandson, for a CZ452 Silhouette with Mueller APV 4-14 scope - I think that one left with 2 10 round magazines.

As result of this thread, I will probably try on it again - I do want a little single shot .22 - but has to be less than 15 pound trigger pull, and trigger pull has to be the same each time.

 

[257hunter]

Rifle basix makes a drop in sear for the older pre accutrigger savages. I don’t believe there are any changes between the lakefield and the savage so might be a solution for you.

 

[ipscgraz]

Thanks to everyone for your replies.

Rifle Basix doesn't seem to carry anything that would work.

Numrich, however, has the trigger housing:

The entire trigger assembly that they show as in stock is not the same as what I have. It has a safety which mine doesn't:

I will have to do some head scratching to see if I can make it fit and work, before I gamble on $23 US plus shipping.

 

[Buck1950]

Just a tip - I 'polish' all the actions of my 'low-cost' rifles using 1000 then 1500g wet/dry. I polish in the 'direction of use', then lube with permatex synthetic (silicone) grease from Can Tire. I apply a tiny bit and spread it really thin, so as to 'not drag' on the parts.
My Sav B-22 has about 1# pull, as does my Ruger American .223 and CZ-455, so it seems to work for me.

 

[Potashminer]

Deleted - Double Post

 

[Potashminer]

Just a tip - I 'polish' all the actions of my 'low-cost' rifles using 1000 then 1500g wet/dry. I polish in the 'direction of use', then lube with permatex synthetic (silicone) grease from Can Tire. I apply a tiny bit and spread it really thin, so as to 'not drag' on the parts.
My Sav B-22 has about 1# pull, as does my Ruger American .223 and CZ-455, so it seems to work for me.

Is what I have in mind - up until now all the triggers that I messed with, work "dry" - this one obviously different - maybe I will have to try that polish first, then grease. Do you have to periodically refresh the grease, or is one application good until next tear down?

 

[Potashminer]

Thanks to everyone for your replies.

Rifle Basix doesn't seem to carry anything that would work.

Numrich, however, has the trigger housing:

The entire trigger assembly that they show as in stock is not the same as what I have. It has a safety which mine doesn't:

I will have to do some head scratching to see if I can make it fit and work, before I gamble on $23 US plus shipping.

It is getting fuzzy - has been more than a few years - but I think the Lakefield Mark 1 originally came with a safety lever on the trigger - I had discarded it. No clue how you would make out for shipping from Numrich - my only experiences were via mail with them - several times - won't work too well with Canada Post on strike, although the thing might sit with Canada Customs for hours or weeks, once USPS gets it to Customs. And then you might get dinged for GST and the Canada Post fee to collect that tax - not for sure, though - I would get dinged for GST perhaps one out of three parcels that go through Canada Customs - the other two out of three just "sail on through" - even though opened - but no bill to pay at Post Office to get the parcels.

 

[Buck1950]

RE the lube on the action, I just look at it when I clean the action to make sure there is some left. It's the consistency of Vaseline or such, doesn't really 'go away' with use. I only need to replenish on my semi actions since I usually spray those with 'silicone dri-lube' to clean them. They get 'dirtier' since much gas/powder gets back into the action area. Then I may need to add some grease. My bolt actions stay much cleaner, for longer.
I use that grease on everything except my CZ457 VMTR because it has a Timney that's pretty light and slippery already.

 

[fat tony]

I had one. The problem with it was also trigger related. The swinging sear had a large amount of stacking because imo it was caused by the sear sticking up far too high into the reciever, so the sear was forcing the fully cocked striker back even further in order to fire - pretty bad. This resulted in an estimated trigger let off of maybe 18 lbs. I decided rather than messing with sear angles, it would be better to shim the sear /trigger to hopefully improve the trigger. It took some experimentation with shim stock stacks drilled for the rear retaining screw. I tested it to ensure jolts to the stock would not allow the striker to fly forward in full ####. Half #### safety, no lever safety.

The other issues with my Mk I were that the plastic trigger guard cracked, the ergonomics of the pistol grip were all wrong for my mitts, and the stock was bastard grained. But compared to the trigger these were all minor issues. The open sights were average but serviceable. Note that as I recall the front sight was plastic but was a 3/8" dovetail type. Trivia: in the 1974 Eaton's catalog, you could buy one for $4.75

After the trigger work I managed to take small game with it.

It was a problem getting the trigger pull reasonable with the shims while keeping the safety notch reliable as I recall. This is how I did it, a pro might not agree with how I did it. On the upside, my modifications were reversable. In addition, you must agree an 18 lb trigger pull on a small game rifle is unacceptable. I kind of wonder why these guns were sold at such a massive discount. $4.75 for a .22 rifle seems wild even for 1974. Did Lakefield Mossberg recognize a flaw in the sear design?

It is also possible the very small locking lug contact area was recognized as a design flaw...Long post, sorry. The Numrich exploded diagram of the Lakefield Mk 1 apparently shows a later version of the Mk 1 with a redesigned bolt and with the lever safety. There are pics on icollector of the earlier version, which was set up in the manner of guns like the Cooey #75 etc.

Not sure if the lever safety equipped trigger group will work with the manual cocker version - that might be a waste of cash.

Even with these flaws, they are nice examples of Canadiana from simpler times.