"Action/TriggerJob" on HBB

[Bill.68]

Completely disassembled the BB Saturday night to hopefully improve the action a bit. It worked.

While I don't have a trigger pull gauge Id have to say that pull was in the 9lb range, crisp-ish, but darn heavy with a bit of pretravel to it. I took it all the way down and took the trigger mech apart and with the.........dremel.........and..........Flitz (no flames please) I polished every metal-to-metal contact I could find after playing with it a while and watching how all the parts interacted. Its actually very simple. I polished parts on the hammer as well.
Once done I used some of the TriggerShims on the trigger., hammer and lever and used the lighter Marlin spring.
Henry had already lapped the bolt to the receiver and did a fine job of it.so that worked smoothly and along with what I did I have to say that a Henry can be made to be quite smooth and slick, and with about a 6lb trigger. Now yes, Im guessing but thats about what it feels like but still not a super clean break and still has the pretravel. Much more tolerable than before though.
With the light spring I had no failures with either Federal or the CCI primers I used Sunday, about 300cci and 100 federal magnums so I feel good about that.
Did the TriggerShims help? I dont know because I didnt test those seperately but I doubt they arent playing a part, definitely didnt hurt and certainly made the trigher and lever feel much better.

[leverjc]

Glad you jumped in and improved your trigger. I have done trigger improvement work on two Big Boys. I am a trigger snob and had thoughts of using my Big Boy for Lever Silhouette so i worked on it tell it was just a little over 2lbs. I never was to remove all the over travel but I am satisfied with the way it is.

[Bill.68]

How, pray tell, did you get to 2lbs with that trigger? I am genuinely interested. I too am a trigger snob of the worst persuasion and at fjrst just resigned myself to the fact that hey, its just a plinking lever gun but pretty quickly it got to me and I had to act.
I detailed my course of action thus far above, what else do you suggest?
Dont get me wrong, there was vast improvements made in jist what I did but its far from a match quality single stage trigger.

[leverjc]

I had to do a lot of work on the sear and hammer engagement areas. They are both mim parts that are some what warped and are not machined. They need to be flattened and polished. I had to make a special tool out of a thickest feeler gauge I had that I cut to fit then glued some 600 and 1000 grit sandpaper to so it would fit into the opening of the hammer. Then I used a small flat stone to polish the sear area, other tools you will need is an opti visor or mounted magnifying glass and a magic marker. I go sloooow and became an expert at assembly and disassembly. Big boy triggers take me a lot of time because I have to do the whole thing by hand as I couldn't figure out how to make a jig for it.

If you decide to try trigger improvement on your Big Boy give me a PM and I can give you more detailed steps that I used.

[JEBar]

congrats on being able to fine tune your Henry's trigger .... if you ask Henry they will tell you the trigger pull isn't designed to be modified .... I didn't have the nerve to personally mess with the ones on our BBS 44 Mag or CCH 45-70 .... my solution was to pay a very talented gunsmith to do it .... for liability reasons, many gunsmiths won't undertake the process .... he told me that doing so is as much art as science .... we are pleased with both of ours

[pennsylvaniapete]

Well, I think that I will buy an extra sear and trigger from Henry and have at it. If I make a mess of things, I will re-install the original parts. Glad to hear you were successful in reducing the pull weight.

[Bill.68]

I had to do a lot of work on the sear and hammer engagement areas. They are both mim parts that are some what warped and are not machined. They need to be flattened and polished. I had to make a special tool out of a thickest feeler gauge I had that I cut to fit then glued some 600 and 1000 grit sandpaper to so it would fit into the opening of the hammer. Then I used a small flat stone to polish the sear area, other tools you will need is an opti visor or mounted magnifying glass and a magic marker. I go sloooow and became an expert at assembly and disassembly. Big boy triggers take me a lot of time because I have to do the whole thing by hand as I couldn't figure out how to make a jig for it.

If you decide to try trigger improvement on your Big Boy give me a PM and I can give you more detailed steps that I used.

I may bery well take you up on that offer. Before I gettin all crazy though Im going to have to get a rail and scope and putbit on the BB and see if the thus far accuracy issues are my aging eyes/open sights combo or if its just the barrel and its potholed interior surfaces or if its the fact that it just wont shoot. I need to rule a few things out before I get knee-deep in sear hooks and waterstones.

I do have the PowerCustom jig with adapters for S&W J K,L and N frame revolvers, ruger 10/22, Ruger blackhawks and Ruger redhawks and Ive done trigger jobs on all of those firearms and let me tell you what, that thing works, and thats part of whats making the Henry look so bad, Im comparing it to all of my other guns, which arent.
Mine is the series 1 jig but Im guessing if the possibility exists if Mr. Powers having an adapter for a Henry it would be in the series 2 jig. I may have to look myself, or inquire about the possibility of him making one. Henry is a pretty popular firearm these days. And, he does have adapters for some rather obscure firearms. Wont hurt to ask.

[Bill.68]

Yall have to bear in mind that I didnt modify or change anything, I just lightly smoothed metal to metal contact surfaces. Well, I guess the spring counts as a change technically, but that certainly is reversible. I learned long ago that smoothing metal to metal points can on its own make a huge difference. Im talking about smoothing not removing metal. Alot of times there will still be tool marks in whatever part but theyre smooth and that and ALG 0000 light grease can do wonders.

[leverjc]

Pennsyvaniepete, I think you have a good Idea about getting the new parts "just in case". Another tip I used was to put the trigger and hammer outside of the gun then hold it up to a light to see where what type of contact there is between the sear and the hammer. Use a glass with good magnification when you do.

[ol'pole]

I did the same smoothing on my BBS trigger & sear, smooth as a fat baby's butt, used some hBN in 1/2 micron mixed with light gun grease, super slick. Hexagonal boron nitrite (hBN) is more slippery than teflon and at 1/2 micron it fills the pores in the metal for a super smooth LIGHT pull, got it down to a little less than 3 1/2lb pull. One thing I did notice was as I reassembled my rifle, I installed the stock but didn't install the tang screw, pulled the hammer and the stock moved. An interference fit, (great Henry quality?) did some work on the inner stock got rid of the interference. I also reduced my springs, took a half turn off the little spring in the trigger assy. and a turn off the hammer spring. Very smooth with no creep, had very little creep to begin with. The lightest trigger pull I have is on my Uberti El Patron, from the factory with a 1 1/5lb pull as measured. Have to be careful with that light pull.

[JimCunn]

Spring currently installed is #33101 from triggershims.
Installed shims on lever, polished action, and used Boron nitride lubricant on brass .357Mag.
Did not do any work on the sear.

Made a big difference in the 'feel' of the gun. Trigger pull dropped from 2 pounds 14 ounces to one pound 15 ounces with much smoother action on lever. Trigger also seems crisper, maybe.

[pennsylvaniapete]

Where does one find Boron Nitride?
What parts do you put it on?

Thanks….Pete

[Mags]

Spring currently installed is #33101 from triggershims.
Installed shims on lever, polished action, and used Boron nitride lubricant on brass .357Mag.
Did not do any work on the sear.

Made a big difference in the 'feel' of the gun. Trigger pull dropped from 2 pounds 14 ounces to one pound 15 ounces with much smoother action on lever. Trigger also seems crisper, maybe.

Where does one find Boron Nitride?
What parts do you put it on?

Thanks….Pete

There are various products on Amazon. Just need Jim to suggest which.

[JimCunn]

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[JimCunn]

I use these two products.

[pennsylvaniapete]

Hey Jim,

Do you put the BN on the sear, hammer, ejector track in the bolt, and the top of the hammer were the bolt contacts to cock it.
How about on the lever pivot screw?
Any other place?


Thanks Pete

[JimCunn]

Everything that moves.

[Cleveraction]

I went the simple route and took it to my smith. For $45 bucks it was worth it, now it is exactly 4lbs. My bolt guns are all at 2.5-3 and my sporting rifle is at 3.5. The smith expressed that in his opinion, 4 lbs. was the lowest "safe" pull he felt comfortable adjusting it to. I am a big fan of consistency, but I don't know enough to lower it more myself, and frankly the 4 pounds feels right on this gun (for me).

[leverjc]

Cleaveraction, your smith gave you a great deal improving your trigger pull for $45. Working on a Big Boy trigger is tough because of how it is set up. I had to make a special tool to smooth the hammer notch. Just could not get any stone I had to fit in the restricted area.

20220113_105439.jpg

The sear is easier to work on.

[Mr. Neutron]

Leverjc,

Thank you SO MUCH for posting that picture!!! That helps a "Trigger Goober" like me a LOT!!! Many Thanks again!!!

I think I can now understand & respect how getting into that confined area of the hammer is a tough thing to do.

I hope you don't mind, but I copied your photo for the purposes of asking a question. Please accept the fact that I am no expert with a graphics program. I probably should have just waited until my trigger shims get here. After I do some disassembly for those, I will probably understand better. Sometimes, viewing something (even as good as your pic) in 2D i still have a tough time figuring things out, so please excuse what is likely a very dumb question.......

Is the part I have circled the return spring for the sear? Or mybe the trigger? Is there a geometric "feature" of the trigger, maybe hidden by the part of the carrier (or whatever that part is called that holds the trigger & sear pivot), that extends back a tad & pushes upward on the sear to make it release from the hammer when the trigger is pulled? I just can't tell from the pic. I'm trying to get a feel for what I am thinking of doing, or may more importantly what I SHOULD NOT try........I know what the hammer spring looks like, and will try replacing that with a lighter one when I shim the rifle (my H009G is one REALLY loose gun, at the hammer and especially at the lever). Will probably add the #6 brass shims some have mentioned. But honestly, from the experience I had with a really nice S&W 686 I shot in the Action Pistol matches, I don't want to go so light on the hammer spring that I have issues with "No-Fires". I've already had one No-Fire with my H009 completely stock and using factory ammo. There's really no substitute for the optimum engagement of a well done classic trigger job, I feel. Just my own personal opinion here........

Have done a trigger job on my Kimber Classic .45 auto, so I'm not totally new to playing with these things. There's not a lot in life that's much easier than a 1911 trigger job. But I guess I've learned to "Proceed with Caution" as I've gotten older. Or not to Proceed at all when I'm not certain, hee hee........ I believe the comment above about getting a spare trigger and sear has much merit.