The Feinwerkbau Sport Trigger - A Warning...

[Hsing-ee]

While it is not a match-grade trigger, the Sport unit is 'OK'. Except the one on mine. Having replaced the actual trigger blade with a nice custom aluminium version, and put in a sturdy new safety/secondary sear spring, my example still had an action which felt 'near-to-dangerously-light'. Initially I thought it might be because of the custom trigger blade, which was of uncertain parentage - perhaps it was designed to give a very light pull? After arsing around a lot and stripping the back block off and reassembling the trigger unit a few times - not fun as the rifle needs a spring compressor, a zip-tie and alot of patience to make sure the retaining bolt doesn't chew up the threads in the back block - I finally cured it.

What was happening was the safety/secondary sear spring was fouling on the edge of the cut-out on top of the primary sear, and was unable to exert its full force on the secondary sear. This meant the secondary sear was only engaging to about one-third of its depth, resulting in a over-light trigger. Five minutes with a Dremel to grind away the inner edge of the cut-out on the primary sear, five minutes to polish, and the spring was no longer binding. I even thought about making a tiny spring guide for it, but skipped it as that is a bit nuts.

As mentioned in the excellent thread below, the degree of engagement of the secondary sear is relative to the strength of the spring, and if this force is not operating on it either through a weak spring or one which is binding, the trigger will be too light and perhaps dangerous. I suggest everyone checks their triggers. See if the spring is bent, and if not, then check if the primary sear is binding or snagging on it. It is a safety issue so worth checking the next time you strip the rifle or if it is feeling a bit 'funny'.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/79537...FWB124+trigger


To be honest I am very disappointed with the Feinwerkbau engineers for making such a poor design. I would have rather they had abandoned the (rather useless) safety catch and spent their resources on a more robust mechanism. The stamped primary sear is functional but nasty, and the fact that the degree of secondary sear engagement is down to the pressure of a small coil-spring which is subject to lateral stresses is really 'quite rubbish'. The less than perfect trigger is all the more surprising as the others Feinwerkbau designed during the same era - the ones for the FWB 65 pistol and for the FWB150/300 series - are some of the best springer triggers every made, brilliant pieces of engineering.

At least mine is safe and functional now, with a smooth feel and predictable let-off. But it was a bugger diagnosing the problem! The rifle was a lovely but flawed design and I can see why it died out in the face of the battleship-strong and faultless HW77.

[isobar]

i recently got myself another sport which wouln't cock reliably.the piston seal was shot as usual and i set about dismantling.the trigger housing was full of seal fragments clogging the linkage.i used the excellent thread link posted above to reassemble the trigger.pictorial threads like this are a great help to us tinkerers.keep up the good work. atb.

[junglie]

Totally agree with you on this, mine was frankly the worst trigger on a otherwise lovley shooting gun I've had, got it a lot better with replacing the springs, re-lubing & careful adjustment but I'm inclined to pull the back block off & check it's not binding like yours. The auto-safety is to comply with german law so they couldn't do without that, but it really is built down to price. The target FWBs I've shot had the best triggers I've used ,but then again just look at the price of those guns new compared to the sports price. Just had a thought, maybe your Idea of spring guides isn't as nuts as you thought? Some nylon rod free floating guides in both springs might work to stop the buckling? Obviously they'd have to be short enough to alllow the full travel of the spring in normal operating cycle & may need fine tuning but once you'd got the lenth right? On the other hand they may just stop the trigger working, only one way to find out & thats try it out.

[Amac]

I would agree that the triggers on the FWB spring match guns are second to none, and also that the unit fitted to the Sport is far from that! I suppose the cost of a new gun with a better unit would have made it even more expensive against the likes of the Rekord HW unit fitted to the competition. Anyway, trigger unit apart, it is still a fine and well engineered gun!

I also found the strip down post useful so thanks for that Hsing!

Andy