Ron:
Yes, the Barnard trigger can be sensitive to foreign bodies etc getting into the works, but it doesn’t have a monopoly on this. Target rifle triggers nearly always have multiple levers in them, some just three, and others rather more. They are usually designed to be capable of being adjusted down to let-off weights in the single ounces range, so some parts have very little spring force on them, and this does make them sensitive to getting even slightly gummed up inside. Far more so than, say, a typical two lever hunting rifle type of trigger set to let-off weight of two or three pounds.
Over the years, I have seen a number of postings on internet forums with people complaining about Jewell triggers misbehaving, and then subsequently finding that the problem was due to foreign matter in the works.
About twenty years ago a friend inherited a couple of Grunig and Elmiger target rifles which were probably made at least forty years ago. He decided to keep one of them, and I bought the other from the estate. There was obviously a close tie-up between G & E and Anschutz in those days (maybe there still is) because the triggers on these two rifles, five lever jobs, are almost identical to that on my Anschutz 1408 22 target rifle. Just some minor differences in the top lever/sear arrangement.
For a while, all was well with both rifles, then my friend’s one started failing to reset, exactly in the way Ryan described in his original post. He tried the ‘wash it in spirit’ remedy, but it didn’t help, and as he didn’t feel confidant to dismantle it himself, I did it for him. There was a horrible mess inside of it – blackish coloured gunk stuck all over the inner faces of the housing, the sides of most of the levers, and on some other non-contact parts of the levers. I don’t know what this stuff was, but it was VERY difficult to remove. Solvent and toothbrush made no impression on it at all, and a bronze brush didn’t do much better.
In the end I had to resort to fine abrasives to clean things up. Fortunately, the disengagement ledges and other ‘working’ surfaces of the levers looked clean and shiny, with no discernible burring or damage, so I left them alone. I reassembled the unit, put it back in the rifle and it worked perfectly after some minor adjustments, and is still doing so today. Less than a year later, my G & E rifle did exactly the same thing, and I had to go through all that drill again. Once more, after minor adjustments, it worked perfectly and still does. I don’t pretend to know what had caused the build-up of gunk in these two triggers, but I suspect the previous owner might have belonged to the school of thought ‘If it doesn’t move – tighten it. If it does move – oil it’.
Matt:
I presume that by ‘sear engagement’ you mean overlap of the tip of the middle lever and the ledge on the bottom lever. (which is quite separate from the sear) I suppose an excessive overlap there COULD cause reset problems, but it would also result in a large amount of trigger creep (pre-release movement) which I think most shooters would find unacceptable. The majority of shooters want a clean, crisp, creep free trigger release - not a big long pull like the trigger on a Glock pistol.
