I am pretty confident in my skills, but messing with a FCG other than replacing parts is something that has made me nervous and never done. Well, the Norinco SKS I just picked up has great metal, beat up “red” wood and a really nasty trigger.
So I watched a bunch of YouTube videos (the IV8888 and Tactical Canadian one’s are must see for doing it) and then had at it.
I only shortened the sear a few tenths of a mm as I didn’t have the stones to mess with that much at all. I’ll likely go back at some point and shorten it further to reduce trigger pull distance.
There was also still a lot of cosmoline packed in the FCG (nylon brush and soaking in mineral oil got it more or less cleaned out).
I then reshaped the sear engagement surface as it had very slightly negative engagement. Drop testing and banging on it with a rubber mallet couldn’t get the hammer to drop before working on it. I used a 600 grit stone and took about 20 minutes slowly changing the shape. It is now neutral or maybe just the tinniest but negative.
I then polished with a 2000 grit stone on the sear face and hammer engagement surface. Polished the receiver and sear rails with some 1000 grit and then hit everything with some bluing paste.
The initial take-up was yucky before (probably the cosmoline) and it is now clean and smooth until you hit that initial resistance. There is maybe 4mm or creep, but it is a lot smoother (not perfect as the sear face might still have some imperfections from reshaping). Not anything I’d really call gritty. Then it has a clean break once you finally hit that final wall before the hammer drops.
Before it was yucky on take up (best way I can describe it), gritty and halting pulling through the roughly 5mm of creep and then a numb hammer drop where it was very hard to tell when it would drop.
So way better.
I also smacked it around with a rubber hammer and dropped it a few times on a rug over concrete a few times and the hammer wouldn’t drop, even when I’d pulled it right up to the edge of releasing, let go and then dropped it.
So yay! I didn’t F it up.
Eventually I’ll probably take it apart again and spend some more time shortening the sear so the take up is less once I hit resistance as well as very, very slightly extra reshaping of the sear face and a ton more polishing.
Definitely the sort of thing where I want a little creep still (just smooth) before it releases the hammer. I’d just of course prefer less. Also if I can get a decent positive sear engagement angle I’d feel comfortable dropping in a Wolf or McCarbo reduces power spring to lighten the trigger pull. I’d probably shoot for about 1mm instead of the 4mm or so there is now.
So I watched a bunch of YouTube videos (the IV8888 and Tactical Canadian one’s are must see for doing it) and then had at it.
I only shortened the sear a few tenths of a mm as I didn’t have the stones to mess with that much at all. I’ll likely go back at some point and shorten it further to reduce trigger pull distance.
There was also still a lot of cosmoline packed in the FCG (nylon brush and soaking in mineral oil got it more or less cleaned out).
I then reshaped the sear engagement surface as it had very slightly negative engagement. Drop testing and banging on it with a rubber mallet couldn’t get the hammer to drop before working on it. I used a 600 grit stone and took about 20 minutes slowly changing the shape. It is now neutral or maybe just the tinniest but negative.
I then polished with a 2000 grit stone on the sear face and hammer engagement surface. Polished the receiver and sear rails with some 1000 grit and then hit everything with some bluing paste.
The initial take-up was yucky before (probably the cosmoline) and it is now clean and smooth until you hit that initial resistance. There is maybe 4mm or creep, but it is a lot smoother (not perfect as the sear face might still have some imperfections from reshaping). Not anything I’d really call gritty. Then it has a clean break once you finally hit that final wall before the hammer drops.
Before it was yucky on take up (best way I can describe it), gritty and halting pulling through the roughly 5mm of creep and then a numb hammer drop where it was very hard to tell when it would drop.
So way better.
I also smacked it around with a rubber hammer and dropped it a few times on a rug over concrete a few times and the hammer wouldn’t drop, even when I’d pulled it right up to the edge of releasing, let go and then dropped it.
So yay! I didn’t F it up.
Eventually I’ll probably take it apart again and spend some more time shortening the sear so the take up is less once I hit resistance as well as very, very slightly extra reshaping of the sear face and a ton more polishing.
Definitely the sort of thing where I want a little creep still (just smooth) before it releases the hammer. I’d just of course prefer less. Also if I can get a decent positive sear engagement angle I’d feel comfortable dropping in a Wolf or McCarbo reduces power spring to lighten the trigger pull. I’d probably shoot for about 1mm instead of the 4mm or so there is now.