Lowering the tension of a trigger sear spring on Charleville musket

[Tyockell18]

Hello everyone,

So I ordered a 1777 Charleville musket from Loyalist Arms, Overall the gun is pretty decent quality, good enough for a shooter, especially a shotgun.

Anyway, on to my issue. The trigger/sear spring is very strong. If I had to guess in the 30-40 pound range before the action breaks. I have a strong grip and fingers and I cannot pull the trigger more than several times in a row before my finger starts to hurt and my forearm cramps up on me, it's pretty ridiculous actually.

What do you guys recommend would be the best route to take for reducing the sear spring tension on this lock?

I shot them an email and they stated they tune all the locks and it should be fine as muskets have stiff triggers. This one however is simply just far too stiff.

 

[Jman91]

Same thing happened to me, however not as bad as you describe. Make sure you installed the lock properly. Then give them a call and ask if you can ship the lock back so they can work on the sear, they were more than happy in my case. Or any good gunsmith can fix this for you in 10 minutes. They also claimed they had never had such a complaint before, in the end I had a gunsmith fix it just less hassle then shipping.

These guns are historic right down to their flaws

Oh and by the way, I own a pedersoli brown bess which has a very conformable trigger pull (less than mosins) so I don't buy the line that muskets must have heavy triggers.

 

[mooncoon]

the first thing that I notice is that the sear spring is too short; it should contact the sear just behind the bump where the pivot goes through. The farther back it contacts the sear and the less mechanical advantage you have at least until it becomes to short to actually contact the sear. I think the first thing you need to decide is how strong the spring is with the gun uncocked ---- if it is just as difficult to pull cocked or uncocked then your problem is the spring. If it is only difficult when cocked it means that the notch on the tumbler is angled to far back and in effect you have to force the tumbler more cocked before the sear will release.

cheers mooncoon

 

[mooncoon]

as an addendum, you can reduce the strength of the sear spring by grinding it more narrow from side to side or you can make a new spring which presses farther forward on the sear. If you feel that it is the angle of the full #### notch, that can be stoned to be more perpendicular to the line of travel of the sear nose. Two cautions in that regard; if the angle slopes too far forward, the sear will not hold full #### and also the tumbler is probably case hardened mild steel which means that you would need to recase the tumbler once you have the angle correct

cheers mooncoon

 

[Tyockell18]

The spring tension is just as bad when not cocked, I am sure it's the spring itself, there is also nothing impeding the function of the lock inside the lock inlay of the stock, everything is good to go, it's literally just that spring is very strong.

I also understand what you mean now mooncoon about having a leverage issue since the spring is short. I'll see if loyalist will work on the issue for me, if not perhaps I will try thinning it a bit.

On a positive note, the lock sparks really well and the hammer spring does not seem to smash the flints. The gun overall is pretty nice as well.

 

[mooncoon]

You can also check how significant the full #### notch is by removing the sear spring and cocking the lock with just finger pressure to engage the sear. Then press the sear and see how much tension it takes to get the sear to release. When putting a sear spring back in, I usually find the easiest way is to have the sear already installed then fasten the spring loosely enough that you can swing the spring down into engagement and have the little blade on the upper arm engage in the slot it fits in. At that point finish tightening the spring screw so that it does not come out again.
Putting the sear spring in place then putting the sear in is usually pretty difficult because you have to get the screw hole to line up while pushing fairly hard on the sear

cheers mooncoon