I have a real nice Marlin 880 .22 bolt, with a nice scope. I, by nature am a tinkerer and want to improve it a bit without breaking the bank. I plan on doing up a 10/22 later this year, but for now I want to improve this gun without buying a new barrel, or trigger etc.
Let me preface this all by saying that I am a machinist/engineer and have a small machine shop in my cellar.
I started last night with the trigger by shortening the spring slightly, this seemed to lessen the hard trigger pull somewhat. I understand that if you increase the sear spring tension that it will also lower the trigger pull tension. It is still gritty so I plan to polish the sear/trigger mating surface. I noticed that this is a very narrow surface and could easily be deformed by excessive/improper polishing. The mating surfaces are very small. My plan is to use some diamond polishing compound with a small square piece of ground flat stock so as not to deform the step. Any ideas here?
I also saw that replacement triggers have a set screw (looks like 10-32 UNF) that adds/subtracts tension from the trigger spring. I may modify mine to have such a screw.
The next thing I noticed was that the screw that mounts the stock bottoms out and doesn't really hold the barrel/action very securely in place. There is some froward and backward movement in these. I didn't see any sort of bedding/mounting lug or otherwise in the back of the action, just the bolt up front, that is directly below the rear sight. From looking at the marks inside the stock, I am guessing that the barrel/action only contacts the wood in on small patch just beneath the chamber. Would it be beneficial to bed the entire barrel and action, or free float some of it?
Lastly, realize that this a lot of work to do on a fairly inexpensive gun, but I like to tinker and want to ge all the performance I can without replacing the barrel and buying a new trigger and all the other addons that can be purchased.
Rick<><
Let me preface this all by saying that I am a machinist/engineer and have a small machine shop in my cellar.
I started last night with the trigger by shortening the spring slightly, this seemed to lessen the hard trigger pull somewhat. I understand that if you increase the sear spring tension that it will also lower the trigger pull tension. It is still gritty so I plan to polish the sear/trigger mating surface. I noticed that this is a very narrow surface and could easily be deformed by excessive/improper polishing. The mating surfaces are very small. My plan is to use some diamond polishing compound with a small square piece of ground flat stock so as not to deform the step. Any ideas here?
I also saw that replacement triggers have a set screw (looks like 10-32 UNF) that adds/subtracts tension from the trigger spring. I may modify mine to have such a screw.
The next thing I noticed was that the screw that mounts the stock bottoms out and doesn't really hold the barrel/action very securely in place. There is some froward and backward movement in these. I didn't see any sort of bedding/mounting lug or otherwise in the back of the action, just the bolt up front, that is directly below the rear sight. From looking at the marks inside the stock, I am guessing that the barrel/action only contacts the wood in on small patch just beneath the chamber. Would it be beneficial to bed the entire barrel and action, or free float some of it?
Lastly, realize that this a lot of work to do on a fairly inexpensive gun, but I like to tinker and want to ge all the performance I can without replacing the barrel and buying a new trigger and all the other addons that can be purchased.
Rick<><
