Page 36 Check Us Out at www.WinchesterCollector.org The Winchester Model 1873 Set Trigger by Stephen Rutter, M.D. If you’ve seen that little screw behind the trigger of some 1873 Winchesters and wondered about it, this is the story. With the new model Winchester 1873 rifle, Oliver Winchester finally had, as Buffalo Bill Cody wrote, “…the most complete rifle now made.”i It combined the lever activated toggle-link mechanism of Smith & Wesson to cycle the rounds, the receiver-mounted loading gate of Nelson King that first appeared on the rim-fire Winchester 1866, allowing a closed magazine tube and the addition of a forestock, a vast improvement over the Henry rifle. And the reloadable, more powerful centerfire .44 WCF brass cartridge was the crowning improvement for the 1873. An additional interesting feature that first appeared as a special order item was the set trigger. Simply stated, the set trigger is composed of additional internal parts that convert the standard trigger to one that can be adjusted to reduce the pull weight to the shooter’s choice. In other words, into a hair trigger. This was advantageous for the target shooter as well as some hunting situations. Like the standard trigger, it could also be fired without “setting” the trigger. It is estimated that no more than 5% of the approximately 720,610 model 1873 Winchesters made between 1873 and 1923 were so equipped, many on the earlier guns and on all of the “1 of 1000” and other special, fancy guns.ii As with the early guns themselves, several design changes to the set trigger were also made, seemingly to not only improve function, but to also simplify manufacture or repair and to reduce production costs. To understand the set trigger design and function, it helps to review the standard trigger. The first standard triggers for the model 1873 combined the trigger and sear as one piece; the sear being the component that engages the half and full cock notches of the hammer until the correct amount of pressure has been applied to the trigger to disengage the sear from the full cock notch and allow the hammer to fall and fire the gun. When the safety bar was added at about the 28,000 serial number range, the trigger and sear were made as two separate, though interacting pieces. The safety bar required that the sear be separate from the trigger for the safety to function.iii Guns with set triggers were never able to utilize the safety because of the very different configuration of the modified and additional parts. It is interesting to note at about that same 28,000 serial number range, the trigger pin became external again, like the model 1866, having been inside the receiver of the model 1873 up to that time.iv Later in the production of the model 1873 Winchester, about the 89,000 serial numbers, the hammer screw, that had been external up to that point, was replaced by an internal pin and the trigger pin was again returned to an internal position. These changes allowed the trigger mechanism to be assembled into the lower tang before placement in the receiver. The exact dimensions and details of the upwards of 16 to 18 modified or additional parts that make up the set trigger assembly are beyond the scope of this discussion and are enumerated elsewhere.v However, a general description is in order to provide the reader with an overview of how the set trigger works. After the gun is cocked, the set trigger is engaged by pushing the trigger slightly forward until a “click” is heard, indicating that the sear kickoff catch is set on and holding the sear kickoff under tension.vi The adjustment of the screw determines how far the trigger must be moved rearward to release the kickoff by adjusting the amount of overlap the catch has on the kickoff. The following parts are found on both the standard and set trigger guns, though other than the trigger pin, they are modified considerably for the later: Trigger: The external trigger is more slender and tapered than the standard trigger and can also be easily identified by the tiny adjusting screw immediately behind the trigger on the right side.vii The internal portion of the trigger is larger and very different, as the pictures show. Sear: Because the sear can be released in two ways, its shape is likewise different from the conventional, non-set trigger sear. If the gun is fired without setting the trigger, the sear is rotated forward by the flat surface on top of the trigger. When the set trigger is used, the sear is knocked forward by the sear kickoff, releasing the hammer.viii Hammer: The hammer itself is generally the same size and shape on both. However, the hammer of the set trigger also had one of two types of additions in the form of a sear over-ride or “fly” as described below. The set trigger hammer had either a hole for the “outside over-ride” or a slot and pin for the “center over-ride” as well as milled relief to allow movement of the fly. The notches are about half the width of the standard hammer. The stirrup attachment brackets on the rear are on the left side rather than the center. Stirrup and Pin: The stirrup that connects the hammer to the main spring and the pin attaching it to the hammer are shorter and they are off-set to the left side, as is the main spring. Main Spring: To allow room for the additional necessary set trigger parts, the main spring is tapered to the left to engage the hammer stirrup on the left side of the hammer.
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