Lately, I inherited an old 1970s Winnie 94. One of the reasons I have never owned a levergun, particularly Winchester of Marlins is that some of the designs have a trigger that just flops around when the gun is cocked. That has ALWAYS driven me nuts.



Well, since I inherited this one...I decided it was time to get more familiar with lever guns.



After dorking around with the Winchester for some time, I came to the conclusion there were only two ways to "stop the flop" effectively for me.



One involved a nice torsion spring but the machining would be too teeny for the tooling I have for my Bridgeport at work.



The other method involed installing a simple coil spring and plunger inside the trigger. The key would be too drill just far enough for compression room but not so far as to drill out the back or the inside of the curve of the trigger.



Thank God for my OGP Optical Comparitor.
I measured the distance through the angle that I needed to drill and then left myself a .050 safety zone.I had already marked WHERE I needed to start, I just needed to know where to stop. I then hit front illumination and traced my angle freehand and checked it against my mylar gage sheet.



Off to the machine shop!!!



I used 2 bits for this. A 2.5 millimeter and 3 millimeter ( 098. and .118 in respectively ) drill were used. The 2.5 mm was used to drill the primary spring hole to about .275 in. deep. the 3 mil was used to open only the top portion just enough ( about 3 mm deep ) to allow the plunger to fully seat. These bits were chosen for two reasons: they left plenty of meat for the trigger to enage the sear and they reduced the risk of punching through the trgger body from the front of rear sides which were the thinnest points.



Using a standard ol Bridgeport mill with a DRO and digital depth mic, I drilled the primary spring hole about .275 deep. That was a nail biter, despite my prep. DAMN THOSE TRIGGERS ARE HARD!!! They have an incredibly deep case. Probably .008 at the MINIMUM.



Next the 3.0 mm was used to widen and deepend the hole just enough for an M14 extractor plunger to fully seat during the trigger pull.



The spring I used was also right under 2.5 mm....probably around .095 as compared to .0984 for the hole diameter. According to my Compartor the M14 plunger head is about .1181 in diameter. and the 3.0 mm drill is .1184. PERFECT!!



Here's some pics:



























I used a drill bit in the third pic to show the apporxiamte angle used when I set the trigger in the vise.



Again, these triggers are HARD!!! You cannot hand drill them. In fact, I used a spherical diamond grinding bit for my starter divot for the drilling operatio. They are evil hard.



A shortened M14 extractor plunger was used for the plunger. The spring was trimmed to about 400 thousandths, give or take



THEORY OF OPERATION:



When a M94 is cocked the hammer sets the sear forward to a point where the sear spring bears only upon the sear and not the sear and triger as a pair.



The antikerfloppa mechansim psuhes the sear constantly AWAY from the sear so that even when cocked, the trigger has tenstion on it just like any other firearm.





How did it affect the trigger? Well, no floppin' that is for sure. Now the trigger has a nice 4 pound MAX take up before you feel the sear engagement and then "ping" A nice crisp 4 to 5 pound break.



MEGA SWEEEEET!!!!!





...and dear God....if any of you do this, let me warn you...have slave pins and an extra helper handy to put the sear, antiflopper and the trigger back together. I had to have my stepson help me by driving the pins while I had everything in alignment. Use a dollp of grease to keep the plunger in the spring while you work. Have a clean floor ready.....you'll need it if you lauch that little plunger!!!!



I wish I had more data...but on my way home ( after I had completed the project ) ...guess what blew out of my shirt pocket????



You got it....my effing sketches and data...........




Final pic COCKED AND "LOCKED":







A list of what I can remember before my notes went tumbling through the desert.



Starter ( due to trigger hardness and the fact that I can't find my center punch
)



1.5 mm diamond ball grinding bit





Drill bits ( use TiN coated or Carbide bits if possible )



2.5 mm



3.0 mm



NOTE: seat fully into the chuck and set depth mic to zero when bit touches the trigger at the drilling point.  





After locating the pathway with the most distance of material, layout a pathway marker on the outside of the trigger to help you set the proper angle of the trigger in your machinist's vice.  Center punch or use a diamond ball grinding bit as a starter, the case on these triggers is VERY hard and VERY deep.  If you have crabide or coated bits...use them.   Setup and double check angles prior to proceeding .  Drill with 2.5 mm bit  to .220 in. deep and check progress with a loose bit.  Mark and measure to check depth... compare the hole angle and depth to the profile of the trigger body to insure you do NOT drill through.  Proceed at .010 intervals until you hit around .250 inches.  Check and proceed a bit further if you have the room.



Take an M14 extractor plunger and trim off the last 1.8 of the thin part of the tail.  This is your plunger.



( more to come....I am beat )

I kinda like my trigger flop....

Say it ain't so!!!



No guy likes to have a floppy anything!!!!!



ETA:  unless ya gotta pee!!!

I've always more or less dealt with it and accepted that as part of the gun's charm.  No problems in the field where it matters most to me.  That's pretty cool you came up with a fix though.