L57 Trigger Adjustment

[stonecreek]

The butane and propane are just propellants (although I guess when briefly in liquid form they could have some solvent qualities.) Many an old farmer has gone many a mile with his tires inflated with propane from the tank in the back of his pickup truck, mostly without mishap. But you wanna talk about dangerous -- think of a beauty salon with about a half-dozen of those canned hand grenades called "hair spray" discharging constantly!

As with most "gun scrubber" aerosols you won't hurt your trigger by dousing it, but it might not get inside as well as a soak in a liquid solvent would. No need to worry about the stock finish since you'll have the metal completely out of the stock to work on it, anyway.

 

[douglastwo]

I finished my trigger job on my L57. It turned out to be a pretty simple fix. I've got it adjusted to a consistent 2.75 lb crisp pull. The first thing I did was give it a good cleaning which helped. Then I went to work adjusting screws B and E. I installed screw E to a point where about 1 to 1.5 threads were showing. Before I began my job, the overtravel screw (E) had been screwed in all the way so the lock nut could be used on screw B. I'm convinced this was definitely part of the problem. The gunk was the other part. I then screwed in B until I felt resistance and started playing with it until I was satisfied the sear would engage and it wouldn't slam fire. I backed off 1/4 turns checking pull weight and at a little over 1 turn I had it down to 2.75 lb. and I stopped. While trying to figure out if my L57 trigger needs a lock nut on screw E, I only found pictures that show no lock nut. Plus, the 1960 catalog introduces the #4 trigger and it does not have a lock nut. As a matter of fact if you removed the safety from the 1960 #4 trigger it looks exactly like the #2 trigger on my L57. The 1961 catalog shows a slight change to the body of the trigger, and the mid 60 catalog shows another slight change to the body of the #4. I would guess that Sako wanted to add the lock nut to screw E and they made the necessary change in 1961. Just a guess though. I didn't use the lock nut, so I used a small dash of nail polish which has worked well for me in the past.

 

[icebear]

This is a model approach to this kind of problem. Thanks for sharing; I'm sure many of us will learn from the way you have handled it.

 

[douglastwo]

I forgot to thank everyone for your help. Thanks!

 

[stonecreek]

I didn't use the lock nut, so I used a small dash of nail polish which has worked well for me in the past.

It used to be so embarrassing for a guy to go into Walgreens to buy a bottle of clear nail polish that you would try to get your wife or girlfriend to do it for you. Nowadays no one even bats an eye. By the same token, Walgreens used to sell Sakos! Nowadays many people wouldn't even venture into the store if they saw a display of rifles behind the counter.