Umarex Trevox - thoughts, mini review, trigger tweak

[Biker_Bob]

I needed a spring pistol with silencer for back garden shooting (lockdown), my HW45 barks too loud.
The choice is not wide, it seems Hatsan Supercharger 25 or Trevox. The Hatsan is screwcut for a silencer but doesn't come with one, the Trevox has the silencer built in.
Since nobody seems to stock the Hatsan I ended up with a Trevox.
First impressions, very nice build quality for the money as seems to be the thing with Umarex. It's long and it's heavy, it feels like a BSA Scorpion in terms of size.
It has very nice fibre optic sights, the rear is scredriver elevation and finger windage adjustable and it doesn't wobble about like a lot of rear sights.
Cocking effort is quite high and because of the gas ram it feels different to a spring, I'm not sure why but I think maybe it's because it requires the same effort all the way through the stroke whereas I tend to find with a spring that the effort reduces towards the end of the stroke.
The grip is ambi and comfortable although it feels a little smaller than I would have liked.

The trigger, dear lord the trigger. It has the longest pull of any trigger I've used, it is exceptionally heavy (I've seen online reports of over 7lbs and that seems right) and creeps and creeps and creeps until the shot is off. On the upside it is smooth not graunchy and the let off point is predictable but it's sooooooooo loooooong.
Despite the trigger I was able to achieve 10mm ragged holes at 10yds if I concentrated really hard indeed. Hold it on aim and pull and pull and pull.

Good Things:
1) The action is extremely fast, due to the gas ram I suspect but the shot is instant making the pistol very hold in-sensitive (in complete contrast to my HW45), you can grip it however you want and the shot goes in the same spot.
2) The sights are as good as I need them to be.
3) The silencer is very effective, the pistol emits a dull thud on firing with none of the metallic twang from the cylinder that a spring generates so it's good for garden shooting.
4) It's doing 4.1 ftlbs with 8.3gn Superdomes with only 5fps shot to shot variation.
5) It has low recoil, linked to the comments for 1) I think the gas ram is the secret.

Bad Things
1) The trigger
2) The trigger
3) The trigger
....you get the idea

BUT there is an easy fix.
The gun is easy to strip and the mechanism is simple. The blade is plastic and the secondary rocker is plastic. The sear and the sear interlock are hardened metal. The problem is that the interlock interlocks the sear by about 3mm and when you pull the trigger you are dragging that interlock face the entire 3mm across the mating face of the sear, under the pressure of the gas ram. This 3mm is amplified by the compound leverage of the secondary rocker and that is what generates such a long and heavy pull.
I ground the interlock engagement face back by 2mm so that it interlocks the sear by 1mm.
I also replaced the short M5 screw that sets the trigger 1st stage pull length with a longer screw, which enables the trigger rest position to be set much further back (it is possible to set it so far back that the safety won't work but just be mindful not to do that).
I also relieved the tension on the sear and interlock spring (a tradional coil spring) and the trigger 1st stage sping (a helical wound effort).
The result is a million times better, it'll never be a Rekord but now it has a light and adjustable length 1st stage followed by a very short 2nd stage, the pull weight is a fraction of what it was. The 2nd stage is still slightly creepy but it feels like 1/4 or less of the length it was and it's lighter and still smooth.

I have cocked the pistol and beaten it repeatedly from all directions with a rubber mallet - it doesn't go off unless you pull that trigger.
The only job I haven't looked at yet is how to remove the anti-beartrap, but I suspect this will just involve shaving bit off the top of trigger moulding. I hate not being able to de-cock a springer.

In conclusion:
For £100 it's a damn fine device. Fast lock time, very powerful, very accurate (if you can work around the trigger) and with a good silencer built in and good sights.
Spend an hour sorting the trigger and it turns into a lovely shooter, I'm going to pick up a couple more I think.

[Biker_Bob]

I've just removed the anti-beartrap, it was easy and just needed a little shaving off the top of the trigger moulding.

[short-carabine]

Sounds like a great "lockdown" pistol and interesting that the built in moderator is very effective. I was looking at these online the other day and wondering what they were like. Great mini review and the trigger tips I'm sure will be useful to anyone getting one of these.

[stick0945]

Biker Bob, Do you have any pictures of you Trevox trigger modification?

[Modski66]

Do you know if the sear you ground down is case-hardened or fully hardened? You may find the edge of the sear starting to round-off after a couple of hundred shots and the trigger will get lighter until the point it will not cock.

If it is case hardened, you can re-harden the ground area at home if you know what you are doing.

[Biker_Bob]

No idea on that one.
I didn't grind the bit of sear that engages with the piston and in fact all I did was shorten the length of the engagement between primary and secondary sears, so the load is still carried on the same part of the sear as before, on and unground part of the face - so it shouldn't wear any faster than it did before.