Making A Good Hunting Rifle Even Better

Jewell Hunter Varmint Trigger Installation - Remington
by Joe D'Alessandro

If Brownells were a retail chain with a neighborhood presence, odds are it would be a great place to hang out. I'd be hard pressed to think of another  company of its size that has managed to maintain such a friendly presence, or retain a full staff of knowledgeable people to work with customers. That's not a sales pitch, it's a statement of appreciation from a guy who works with firearms all of them time and can use a little help every now and then.

When it's time to build, repair, or modify a firearm, I know that anything required in parts and/or tools will be found at Brownells, at fair prices and if a technical or product application question needs to be asked, Brownells will always provide a well considered response. That means I can attempt more complex projects, I'll have fewer false starts caused by incorrect part selection and there will be an increased opportunity for me to learn about firearms. I believe this project is a good illustration of what I've just said. No, not what I JUST said in that last sentence, I mean the stuff I said just before that.

The patient...the premise
A Remington  Model 700 Mountain Rifle, chambered for the 7mm-08 Remington, was purchased as an all around hunting rifle and recreational target shooter. It's a great little gun, both light and accurate, but it fell short of an ideal gun in just a couple of areas. Produced in the seam between the last generation Remington trigger and the current generation X-Mark Pro adjustable trigger, the original Mountain Rifle's X-Mark Pro trigger introduction was smooth and crisp...certainly made well, but not consumer adjustable. Not to be a rabble rouser about the issue, but I like to adjust the trigger on every gun I own, minimum and maximum, before eventually deciding the original factory pull force setting was ideal. I'm not sure, but this control, this right, may be guaranteed under the Constitution, or should be. I suppose I could have solved the no adjustment problem by buying a replacement X-Mark Pro Adjustable, but there is more to be had from a good trigger than just pull force adjustment.

The longer a finger is kept on a trigger, the greater the opportunity there is for concentration to be broken. The loss of concentration manifests itself with a move off target before sear release or before the bullet leaves the gun's muzzle. Especially if it is a .308 Winchester, those things take forever to push a bullet out of a barrel. The deeper the sear engagement, the longer the required persistence of force applied to a trigger. The greater the over travel, the longer the duration of finger movement and potential for rifle movement after the sear is released. All brilliant concepts I invented...immediately after reading exactly the same in Franklin Mann's 1909 The Bullet's Flight From Powder to Target: The Internal and External Ballistics of Small Arms and in Julian S Hatcher's 1947 Hatcher's Notebook. There are no new ideas, just new people expressing them...and often poorly. In any event, a trigger that is well finished and provides for adjustment of pull force, sear engagement and over travel, without stock removal, is ideal and can eliminate just about every trigger related excuse for inaccuracy even I can fabricate.

With an objective in mind, selection becomes easy
Checking at the Brownell's site, I was able to identify thirty two candidates running for the office of Remington Replacement Trigger. So a town hall meeting was called, candidates were interrogated regarding their qualifications, and the field was quickly narrowed down to one. The Jewell Model HVR 700 Trigger is stainless, the model most appropriate for a firearm with stainless hardware. The trigger comes complete with a safety and bolt release, no transfer of parts from the original trigger is required. This Hunter Varmint version offers three way external adjustment and a pull range from 1.5 oz to 48 oz...the latter representing three pounds in most parts of the world where ounces are still legal tender. The trigger's housing is fabricated from 0.050" thick 300 alloy stainless, internal parts are CNC machined from 440 stainless steel and contact parts are hardened to 58 Rockwell. All of the adjustment screws have nylon inserts to assure adjustment is held without the use of thread locking glop. Joe, how do you know these arcane design details? Easy, I read the arcane product literature, then examined an actual trigger and determined the statements were truthful before repeating them. At $232.99, the Jewel HVR price is quite reasonable for this grade of product.

Trigger, pictured below actual size...
The Jewell trigger is not a standard trigger with adjustment screws added, it is a new and patented design which differs from other triggers in seventeen tangible ways, beginning with increased mechanical advantage and decreased frictional resistance. In summary form, the geometry of parts differs to the benefit of: easing sear loading, making the trigger modular as an assembly and permitting all adjustments to be made while the firearm is fully assembled. Neato.

The Jewell HVR 700 Model's trigger pull range of adjustment is determined by the use of one of three springs. Jewell refers to them as springs "A", "B" and "C" which are as good as any others they might have selected...except perhaps Curly, Mo and Larry, or perhaps Huey, Dewey and Louie. "A" provides an adjustment range from 8.0 - 48.0 oz., "B" a range from 2.0 - 16.0 oz. and spring "C" a range of 1.5 oz. to 3.0 oz. The trigger is supplied with spring "A" installed and springs "B" and "C" packaged along with the product in a small manila envelope.

Adjustment to the pull force and sear engagement hex head adjusters is accomplished with a 0.050" hex wrench, overtravel adjustment requires a 1/16" hex wrench. Neither wrench is  packaged with the trigger, however, both are available from Brownells as part of a ball end hex wrench set for under $14, or as an individual wrenches for about a buck...one U.S. dollar. Utilizing ball end hex wrenches, pictured above, allows the wrench to be angled, clearing the trigger guard while fully engaging the head of the fastener, so wrench turning is 360° for easy and fast adjustment, rather than taking a thousand shots, in 10° increments, while adjusting from inside the trigger guard. Sort of like #8 spark plug on my old '68 Cobra Jet Mustang. Anyway...

Installation...a little more detail
The Jewell Trigger comes with post installation instructions for adjustment, a caution regarding stock/trigger clearance, but no detailed installation instructions. Jewell might be assuming that anyone working on triggers already knows the salient points of that process and most of their customers may be gunsmiths. However, I believe there are lots of folks who would competently perform the task, given detailed steps to follow. The following is me inch worming myself through the process.

Firearm repair and/or modification projects always begins with the caution, "Assure the subject gun is empty". I did, then the gun's bolt, two floor plate fasteners, floor plate, and the magazine box were removed. The barreled action was then lifted straight up and out of the stock.

Taking digital pictures of assemblies and parts as they are removed help. They serve as a reminder when trying to remember if the "U" shaped notch in a magazine box faces forward or aft and when asking ourselves, "Where did that little spring come from?" Some comparisons between the still installed Remington X-Mark Pro non-adjustable trigger and the Jewell HVR trigger, below, prior to installation.

The trigger is secured to the action with two taper tipped pins, red arrows as pictured above. These are driven out right to left and installed left to right. The aft pin also anchors the  bolt stop (blue arrow above) and bolt stop spring. Associated parts, pictured right, above the action.

The bolt stop resides in a channel on the left side of the action and obstructs the path of the forward pin. So, on disassembly the aft pin is knocked out, the bolt stop and spring are removed, then the forward pin is driven out.

The sear and sear spring are not retained when the X-Mark Pro trigger, below left, is removed from the rifle so if you have a small spring and pivoting lever drop out on the bench... The Jewell Trigger has a forward pin spacer that keeps parts in place when the trigger is separated from the action.

The new Jewell trigger is slipped into place in the Remington's receiver; holes line up and clearances within the receiver are the same as the Remington trigger so no fitting work is required. Pin "A" is installed first, as this can only be accomplished prior to installing the bolt stop. Again, the 0.125" tapered tip pins are driven in left to right and this one needs to be seated just below the surface of the slot in the receiver so it won't interfere with the bolt stop's operation when it is reinstalled.

The orientation of the bolt stop spring is pretty straight forward. It is placed in position with the hook end "B" in the receiver slot that mounts the trigger  and the bolt stop retaining leg "C" pointing outward. The loop will sort of, kind of align with the aft trigger housing cross pin and will be fully drawn into proper position when the aft pin is driven into position.

Next, the bolt stop is slipped into place in the bolt stop recess, aft to forward, under the bolt stop spring. With moderate downward pressure on the bolt stop at the pivot location, the aft cross pin is started into place to anchor and align the bolt stop and bolt stop spring with the cross pin and action mount hole.

The aft pin is tapped in so that the pin's bevel projects just beyond the surface of the bolt stop so the stop will be positively retained. The tail end of the bolt stop is then depressed and released to check for free movement and positive return. Hopefully, being free will prevent it from becoming further depressed and you will have what is technically termed, a well centered and happy trigger.

Function and stock fit check

At this stage of installation the trigger should be fully functional, which means the bolt release, safety and trigger can all be checked for proper operation with just the barreled action in hand. If the ops check goes well, it's a good time to trial fit the barreled action to the stock. While stocks do add weight, they do add something in the way of shooting comfort so reinstallation is nearly mandatory.

The Jewell product instructions caution that some rifles have closely inletted stocks and may require minor fitting. The trick when trial fitting is to stop if interference is felt and to resist the temptation to apply 250 ft/lbs of torque to the guard screws to "make 'er fit". Force fitting the assembly could damage the stock and the new trigger. $232 for a quality trigger is an OK price, but $232 for a small piece of scrap metal is less than exciting.

Here, just forward of the aft guard screw hole is where the trigger hit the stock, at the safety's central pivot. I couldn't get to the spot with a straight file without contacting the exposed parts of the stock, so I cut a small relief with a Dremel rotary file and coated the spot, using a small brush and some poly sealer. At this point the barreled action mated correctly with the stock, the safety and bolt release levers worked without hanging up, so I called this step done.

Final adjustment

As mentioned earlier, the Jewell HVR trigger provides for three types of trigger adjustment. In order of adjustment; sear engagement, over travel and pull force. After assuring the rifle was unloaded -

Sear Engagement - Cock action, turn adjustment screw "A" slowly inward until sear release. Back screw out ¾". Again, screw is held in position of adjustment by nylon inserts so no thread locker substance is required.

Overtravel - Cock action and turn adjustment screw "B" out until it contacts tabs. Apply moderate pressure on the trigger while slowly turning adjustment screw inward until sear release. Release trigger and turn screw in ¼". How much is moderate pressure, enough that would result in the sear release under normal use circumstances and less than required to take the curve out of the trigger.

Pull Force - measure pull with a trigger pull scale, then turn adjustment screw "C" in to increase required force or out to reduce required force. In this case, where I usually set triggers around the four pound mark, this trigger is so clean and crisp, and the release is so consistent, I set it to 2¾ lbs. which seems to work well with this firearm in terms of accurate shooting.

In regard to trigger pull range, 3 lbs is typical maximum range for replacement triggers intended for hunting use, competition only rifles tend to run much lower and the Jewell HVR trigger comes with three springs to allow adjustment within three gross ranges. I did not attempt substitute springs to see if ranges could be shifted further upward.

As a final check, with the rifle cocked but still empty, it's probably a good idea to work the bolt hard, pull the trigger several times, bounce the rifle on the recoil pad, slap the forearm a few times, etc. The idea is to handle the gun enough to feel confident the trigger can withstand aggressive field handling, in the manner the gun will be used, without the chance of an accidental discharge.

And then it's done...

Here's a case where a replacement part is both an aesthetic and functional enhancement to a factory piece, which is saying a lot considering the quality of the part it replaced. It is just nicely sculptured piece of stainless. The pull force is very consistent and, by design, made to adjust into a lower range than the stock piece. The minimized overtravel is a big plus for me; there is something about a trigger that goes on for a while after firing pin release that adds challenge to control. The sear engagement is brief, but very positive. Shooting from a rest, accuracy improvements were minimal, but shooting from any field position, the improvement from increased control was significant. The less supported the position, the more significant the degree of improvement. The trigger has zero creep and no grittiness or rough spots. Now all I have to do is put on a competition sling and figure out what scope system to install and I'll be all set for deer season.