New M1-A -- Have Range Report, Need Advice

[BenW]

Well, I finally got to shoot my new M1-A Scout that's been sitting in the safe and calling to me for the last week. The report will be short and sweet cuz the gun shot sweet.

I put 200 rounds of South African surplus through it, not one hiccup. I didn't do any prone stuff today as I mostly just wanted to get some rounds through and loosen things up a bit, but from offhand with surplus ammo and open sights, I was getting more than acceptable accuracy.

I'm really impressed with the rifle out of the box. The only thing I noticed that concerned me and that I could use advice on is the following:

From the get-go, every maybe 4 or 5 rounds, the trigger would behave differently. On most shots, I could put my finger on the trigger, feel a very little bit of creep, but engage the firing mechanism in one smooth solid motion. On the oddball round however, as I would go to pull the trigger, I would feel about a 1/16th - 1/8th inch of play in the trigger. NOT creep, but free movement of the trigger before I could feel any pressure. When it first happened I thought maybe the bolt hadn't closed all the way or something and the trigger wasn't engaged. But that wasn't the case. I would just have this free play. Once the play was taken up, the trigger engaged normally the rest of the way. Then on my next shot, everything would be back to normal and there would be no play.

Any ideas on what's causing this? My big fear is that maybe there's something going on with sear engagement that may lead to a full-auto situation or something. I don't really shoot a lot of center fire autos so my only experience to compare with is with my bolt action triggers, which doesn't help me here.

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[rathman]

Probably OK, mine was like that too. Remove the trigger assembly and check it out. Mine came with so much grease and crud packed in it I'm suprised it even worked. I sprayed it out with gunscrubber and then lube and it worked (felt) fine since. Remember that the M1A is designed with a 2-stage trigger.

 

[hps1]

On the oddball round however, as I would go to pull the trigger, I would feel about a 1/16th - 1/8th inch of play in the trigger. NOT creep, but free movement of the trigger before I could feel any pressure.

Ben:

The M1 Garand and M1A both have two stage triggers. That is, the 1/8" or so "free travel" is normal. Many military rifles use this type of trigger with which you need to take up the slack until you feel the sear engagement, then begin your trigger squeeze. A good two stage trigger will have the 1/16-1/8" free travel, then a crisp (no creep) 4.5# or more trigger pull required to break the shot.

Suggest that you need to get a good gas gun plumber to look at your trigger and see what is wrong. If the trigger is binding on something and preventing it from going fully foreward, this could cause the lack of free travel but someone who knows the M1/M1A triggers needs to take a look at your rifle.

Regards,
hps

 

[hps1]

rathman:
Guess my typing is slower than I thought! Your reply was not there when I started .

Good tip....could be his trigger group is just full of cosmolene and needs a good cleaning. If that doesn't work, _then_ call in the gun plumber.


Regards,
hps

 

[BenW]

Answers sure come fast around here -- I like that!

Okay, so I was bass ackwards in my thinking. I just pulled the trigger group and cleaned it out. It didn't look REALLY heavily gunked up, but there was definitely some lube in there.

Now on to follow-up question 2: How sensitive is the M1-A firing pin? I don't have any snap caps and wanted to dry fire to see if I can get that "problem" free play to happen all the time like it's supposed to. Don't want to damage the pin though if it can't handle dry firing.

 

[yankytrash]

Aaa, snap caps are cheap. Go ahead and get some regardless. In the meantime, pop a primer out of a used casing with a sharpened punch (pierce the primer from the outside and pry it out) and overfill the hole with some hard rubber (like the kind you can find on your boss's truck ).

 

[BenW]

Shoulda said don't have any snap caps handy -- they're with my reloading equipment 200 miles away, and the only empty cases I have are for my bolt gun, which I don't full length resize and I don't want to add to my problems by getting a case stuck in the barrel . I wanted instant gratification on the trigger problem, but looks like I'll have to wait till the gun shop opens tomorrow so I can buy a snap cap to see if my problem's solved.

 

[hps1]

Ben:

Wouldn't worry about dry firing the M1A some. I have dry fired my M1's quite a bit and only broke one firing pin
(suspect it was probably due to 4-5000 rounds of firing as much as the several hundred rounds of dry firing, though) .
You won't hurt it in one evening, anyway. I always figured that was just part of normal wear & tear on the rifle and
kept a spare firing pin in my shooting kit.

By the way, you can remove the trigger assy from your rifle and observe the trigger. Just cock the hammer and hold
it lightly with your left palm against hammer. Pull the trigger and you can watch the first stage (sear slips forward on
the front hammer hooks) then the disconnect touches the rear hammer hooks (beginning of 2nd stage). As the trigger
is pulled further, the hammer spring is compressed slightly by the disconnect as the sear slips off front hammer hooks,
releasing hammer. You should be able to see what is keeping your trigger from moving back forward with the trigger
group out of the rifle. Just be sure not to let the hammer fly forward unsupported by your palm.

Regards,
hps

 

[4V50 Gary]

Curious as to what type of sight you plan to install. I'd go for a red dot type.

 

[BenW]

Gary -- after reviewing some of the other threads here, I'm currently leaning towards a Leupold Scout scope. Still haven't decided for sure and am going to order the Sprigfield scope regardless because of the price. If nothing else, I'll turn around and sell it for a profit.

Update on the trigger: After cleaning out the trigger group and lubing it up, I dry fired about a dozen times last night and the trigger was working two stage fashion (now that I know what that is ) every time. Final test will be to take a couple hours off work in the next few days and try it at the range to be sure.