CVA/Jukar Kentucky Rifle Trigger

[USCSURVEYOR]

What is the best way to "tighten up" a CVA/Jukar trigger?  I am trying to "rebuild"  a Kentucky Rifle for my son.  The trigger is sloppy.  What is the best way to take out the slop?
Thanks,
USCSURVEYOR

[Dogshirt]

By slop, do you mean trigger take up, or just general wiggle and wobble?

[USCSURVEYOR]

General wiggle and wobble.  I don't have a problem with the trigger pull, it just wiggles and wobbles back and forth.  I know I could get a BETTER trigger, but I am trying to do this as cheap as possible.

The stock was a mess when I got it.  Someone had cut the crescent out of the butt stock and glued on a piece of wood with the grain perpendicular to the grain of the stock.  They then glued on a Remington recoil pad.  I ordered a new butt plate and kick plate from Deer Creek.   That is now ready for installations as soon as I blacken it and all of the other brass.

The barrel, etc. was in great shape.  I had to put in a new nibble and clean our screw, but that was it.  I paid 60  for the rifle, 1# of Pyrodex, brass powder flask, brass powder measurer, .45 great plains bullets, a few balls, cleaning equipment/supplies, etc.

[Dogshirt]

I have seen CVA/Traditions triggers that have a small spring assembly that holds the trigger up against the sear. I used to have a couple but lost them in the fire. I don't remember where I got them, perhaps others can shed more light on this. But it was not complex, just enough to hold the trigger without the wiggle.

[Patocazador]

Sometimes the 'slop' is due to a loose fit of any pins that are smaller in diameter than the holes they go into. Replacing them with larger diameter pins can firm it up quite a bit.

[hotfxr]

If the slop is front to back & it does not wiggle from side to side, it's probably missing the spring. I have failed to find replacement springs but have made a couple with springs from a pen. Not the greatest but it works. Great deal there, just throw that pyrodex stuff out and you will be set.

[mongrel]

The CVA locks are like CVA guns overall -- they work fine but are fairly cheaply-made. Unlike better-quality locks, their sears aren't at the same point when they're at hammer-down, half-cock, and full-cock. What this means in terms of the trigger is that, especially when the lock is hammer-down and the sear is at its highest point above the trigger bar, there is a lot of free play. Even when the sear is nearest to the trigger bar, at half-cock, there is still a lot of play due to the guns being made to fairly loose tolerances in order to insure that over time nothing binds up or ceases to work safely.

Some CVA single triggers did have a spring that fit under the rear of the trigger bar and kept it lightly-pressed up against the sear arm, but most in my experience just flop around loosely. I have half a dozen or so such triggers in my shop and all of them came out of finished but used rifles I acquired here and there, and none of them have a spring installed or any visible way to add one. Nor do I know of any source for the springs themselves, which need to be fairly carefully-shaped due to the smallness of the triggerplate on which they would be mounted.

Installing an aftermarket trigger, such as the ones made by Davis, would give you a mechanism built to tighter tolerances but wouldn't help the fact that the lock itself is made with that sear that doesn't stay in the same place through all three cocking positions.

Wish I could offer more helpful info but using the CVA stock and parts, as-is, unfortunately involves settling for somewhat less than the tighter tolerances one expects on higher-quality guns. Bear in mind I say this not as a snob but as one who actually thinks highly of the CVA/Traditions guns. They're a low-cost alternative to "better" guns with price tags that might keep a person on a budget from being able to enjoy our sport.

[USCSURVEYOR]

The trigger without a spring came from the Kentucky Rifle.  The trigger with the flat leaf spring came from a CVA Hawken pistol.  The black trigger with the wire spring came from a CVA Bobcat.  I was able to put on same thin brass washers to eliminate 80-90% of the side to side slop.  I will try to rig up a spring like the Bobcat has to eliminate the back and forth slop.