Trigger Pull

[Tascosa Joe]

What is the best way to lighten the trigger pull on a Henry?

[SGT John Chapman]

Frankly Sir,....Without a lever safety on it, I would leave it just the way it is,.....

To add to that,...you might possibly stone the sear surfaces to make them smoother and polish the burrs off the moving surfaces inside,....this might make things at least move a little better...

[Junkman]

The easiest way is to install a lightened main spring from the Smith Shop. I did that and added the Whisper lever and lifter springs and his hardened screws and you would not believe how smooth and light my Uberti Henry is now. Yes sir, I'm a happy camper!

http://thesmithshop.com/ldmainsp.html

[Coffinmaker]

You don't necessarily want a "light" trigger in your Henry.  The gun wasn't designed for a light trigger "squeez."  A light trigger results in the trigger sear hanging on the half cock notch.  Just make it smoother with a little polishing.

Coffinmaker

[Junkman]

It certainly didn't on mine. Now the gun is a joy to shoot and work. Before the lighter springs, it was a chore!

[SGT John Chapman]

To each his own,.....I stick by what I wrote,....and what Coffinmaker wrote,....Henrys were not made to go that fast.

I have only done to mine what I have told you,.. the gun is stock just cleaned up inside...and I shoot WARTHOG 45 Colts,.....

   

[Junkman]

Yes to each his own. Very nice shooting there. 

[SGT John Chapman]

Thank You Sir for the compliment.

[Cutter Carl]

I put a reduce power main spring and the slix-springs for the lever and carrier in my '66.  They really don't lighten the trigger pull very much.  It does reduce the effort to lever a bit and greatly reduces wear on the lever surfaces.  The stock springs (lever and carrier) are very heavy and put excess pressure on the lever and can cause extra wear on the levers surface were they ride. 

Lightly stoning the surfaces of the sear and trigger will smooth out any roughness in cocking put won't change the trigger pull unless you alter the angles and engagement of the sear.

The biggest thing with a '60 or '66 without the lever safety is proper levering.  Extend the trigger finger when levering and don't go to the trigger until the lever is all the way up againist the stock. 

[Tascosa Joe]

I am not looking for fast.  Over the years I have found that lightening the carrier and lever springs cause one to stick quicker when using BP loads which is about all I do.  I have not tested the trigger pull, but it is heavy enough I jerk myself off targer without a lot of concentration.
But thanks for all the info, I will stone the surfaces and see what happens.

[Tall Dark Slim]

If you've got two screws on the the mainspring it's fairly easy. Put a #10 stainless washer between spring and frame and tighten the screw down all the way after coating with Locktite BLUE(releasable). Take it to the range and tighten down the strain screw by quarter turns until it shoots twenty Winchester primers straight. Using quarter turns gives easy visual reference as it's either inline or perpendicular to the frame. Remove the screw and coat with Locktite BLUE and replace at previous setting. You can only afford to recontour the trigger spring so much due to the half cock notch being bypassed. Stoning the sear and hammer goes a long ways. You must be patient and willing to take your time and do it well with respect to recontouring the trigger spring. Best of luck.

[Driftwood Johnson]

If you've got two screws on the the mainspring it's fairly easy. Put a #10 stainless washer between spring and frame and tighten the screw down all the way after coating with Locktite BLUE(releasable). Take it to the range and tighten down the strain screw by quarter turns until it shoots twenty Winchester primers straight. Using quarter turns gives easy visual reference as it's either inline or perpendicular to the frame. Remove the screw and coat with Locktite BLUE and replace at previous setting. You can only afford to recontour the trigger spring so much due to the half cock notch being bypassed. Stoning the sear and hammer goes a long ways. You must be patient and willing to take your time and do it well with respect to recontouring the trigger spring. Best of luck.

Howdy

As the Henry comes from the factory there is no strain screw for the hammer spring, so that solution will not work.

Generally speaking, a lighter hammer spring will usually result in a lighter trigger pull. This is true of just about any firearm that has a hammer, including lever guns and revolvers. This is because with less downward pressure of the hammer full cock notch against the sear, there is less friction to be overcome when the sear slides out of the notch. But it is not the same as a trigger job, it only reduces the perceived trigger pull a bit.

When I got my Henry a few years ago I had Happy Trails of The Smith Shop work his magic on it. He installed his reduced power hammer spring and his whisper springs. But just putting a lighter hammer spring into a gun may cause more problems than it solves, unless a complete action job is performed. Without an action job, the lighter spring may not be able to overcome the friction left in the mechanism by the less than perfect finish Uberti leaves on their parts. Hap worked his magic, polishing all the pertinent parts, so the lighter hammer spring would do the job of reliably setting off primers. But I have had Hap work on several of my guns, and he tends to make the action a teeny bit lighter than I would like. So I asked him to drill and tap the frame for a strain screw while he was at it, just in case I needed to tweak the hammer spring a little bit. The arrow in this photo is pointing to the strain screw that Hap installed.




Sure enough, I had to tweak the hammer spring a tad to make the rifle reliable. Here is a photo showing the amount the strain screw is bending the spring.



Except for the cartridge elevator most of the parts inside a Henry are no different than the parts inside a '66 or a '73. There is really no reason one cannot be made to run just as smooth and slick as a finely tuned '73. Yes, there is the fact that there is no lever safety, so the shooter must always be sure to keep his finger away from the trigger when working the gun. In fact, Hap made another modification because I was concerned about the lack of a trigger safety. He installed a set screw in the bolt that rides in a slot cut in the firing pin extension. The idea is, if my finger should brush the trigger before the bolt is closed, the set screw should keep the firing pin extenson from exiting the frame in the direction of my eye. Knock on wood.

Here is a photo of the modification. The set screw is visible in the center of the photo. It is a dog point screw, and the other end extends up into the slot that is just barely visible in the firing pin extension. The other slot is just to reduce the weight of the firing pin extension.



Getting back to the question of trigger pull, the trigger on my Henry breaks at right about 2 pounds 10 ounces. That's pretty much the same as most of my revolvers. Not super light, but plenty light enough that there is no effort needed firing the gun. No squeeze, no shakes. Of course, in CAS we ain't shooting the rifle for accuracy. I always say, don't squeeze that trigger, slap it. Squeezing is fine for pin point accuracy with a long range rifle, but we are shooting fast, and slapping the trigger works much better for me, always has with all my CAS rifles.

One last thought. Unless you are experienced in stoning a trigger sear and full cock notch, I strongly recommend you don't even consider working on them. It does not take much to make a gun unsafe. Rounding over edges that are supposed to be sharp is very easy to do.