It's pretty tough to improve on the good trigger mechs that are readily available. They are strong, reliable, and relatively inexpensive. I have absolutely no intention of ever making any for sale. But still I often find myself thinking about other approaches.
This concept occurred to me a while back, and Popgun Pete's recent thread on trigger mech design inspired me to dust it off, and build a prototype to see if the idea would work. Basically, I thought that you could put the most trigger in the smallest package, if the levers could nest inside one another, instead of working around each other. So that's what this is. The sear is large, and fills up almost the entire distance between the mounting pins. The intermediate lever, and trigger, are then contained within the sear. You get a reduction of almost 10:1 due to the long sear, and then another 2.3:1 or so due to the intermediate lever, for a total reduction of 22:1
It also incorporates a few other features. The intermediate lever resets the line release automatically, and the black pin that you see in the lower left is an "hour-glass" shaped pin that functions as a built in guide for the pushrod. I really like a short, but crisp trigger pull on my guns, and this mech feels just right so far. It fires with just 1/8" or so of pushrod movement. With the 22:1 reduction, the pull force is mostly due to the single spring, so it's easy to adjust by simply using a stiffer or weaker spring.
There's also room for a safety pin behind the trigger, though I haven't installed one in this prototype. Lastly, the overall height is kept to a minimum. It's just 1-1/4" tall, and that would be the full installed height because the pushrod is already contained. Most mechs that I have played with require about 1-1/2" or a bit more to do a good remote trigger / pushrod installation. Length is the same 3" as the common mechs, with the same installation pin position as well.
The lower view is a cutaway, so that you can see inside the sear, to view how the intermediate lever and trigger interact.
These two cutaways show the latched position (above) and the fired position (below). Once fired, the intermediate lever is captured so that the mech cannot relatch until the shaft is re-inserted. I thought that it might be difficult to cock with the 22:1 reduction, but I was pleasantly suprised. It's as smooth as can be.
So anyway, that's what I have so far. It's probably an evolutionary dead end, and likely not even a new idea, but it's been fun to play with. Here are a few quick videos showing it in action.
This concept occurred to me a while back, and Popgun Pete's recent thread on trigger mech design inspired me to dust it off, and build a prototype to see if the idea would work. Basically, I thought that you could put the most trigger in the smallest package, if the levers could nest inside one another, instead of working around each other. So that's what this is. The sear is large, and fills up almost the entire distance between the mounting pins. The intermediate lever, and trigger, are then contained within the sear. You get a reduction of almost 10:1 due to the long sear, and then another 2.3:1 or so due to the intermediate lever, for a total reduction of 22:1
It also incorporates a few other features. The intermediate lever resets the line release automatically, and the black pin that you see in the lower left is an "hour-glass" shaped pin that functions as a built in guide for the pushrod. I really like a short, but crisp trigger pull on my guns, and this mech feels just right so far. It fires with just 1/8" or so of pushrod movement. With the 22:1 reduction, the pull force is mostly due to the single spring, so it's easy to adjust by simply using a stiffer or weaker spring.
There's also room for a safety pin behind the trigger, though I haven't installed one in this prototype. Lastly, the overall height is kept to a minimum. It's just 1-1/4" tall, and that would be the full installed height because the pushrod is already contained. Most mechs that I have played with require about 1-1/2" or a bit more to do a good remote trigger / pushrod installation. Length is the same 3" as the common mechs, with the same installation pin position as well.
The lower view is a cutaway, so that you can see inside the sear, to view how the intermediate lever and trigger interact.
These two cutaways show the latched position (above) and the fired position (below). Once fired, the intermediate lever is captured so that the mech cannot relatch until the shaft is re-inserted. I thought that it might be difficult to cock with the 22:1 reduction, but I was pleasantly suprised. It's as smooth as can be.
So anyway, that's what I have so far. It's probably an evolutionary dead end, and likely not even a new idea, but it's been fun to play with. Here are a few quick videos showing it in action.
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"Why buy one when you can make one half as good for twice the cost", my wife would say.