The Gunsmithy Blog: Polishing the Mosin Trigger

Let me be the first to say, I like the Mosin for what it is; which is a tried WWI era battle rifle that sent as many Nazis to their graves as it did Commies. It is a rugged gun that is usually pretty rough around the edges but there is a certain charm to the old war horse, a humble, heavy hitting, ugliness that is much like Russian culture itself pragmatic and no-frills. I am not the guy who is going to drag this monster of a rifle kicking and screaming into the modern day standard, mostly because the monetary cost alone could get me a pile of decent AR-15s, a gold-plated AK or a single Kimber 1911.

The trigger on this stock Mosin was 7lbs (I must admit much lower then I expected) but the travel distance seemed about a mile long with sandpaper lost somewhere in the trigger. In other words, it sucked. In order to make the awesome process of blasting away with this old war horse better, I decided to polish up the trigger.

There are three parts of a standard Mosin trigger; the trigger itself, the sear which has the leaf spring attached and the catch which is located on the striker hammer located on the rear of the bolt.

To polish these up I used an India stone and honing oil. The smoother the flat surfaces of the metal makes it easier for the metal to rub against each other. I also reduced the height of the sear to make the trigger have less to do to move the sear out of the way of the catch, reducing the weight of the trigger pull. It is very important to make sure that the original angles are maintained through out this process. Also this process sharpens the angles of the parts which makes for a crisper break when you make the rifle go bang.

After I was done with the honing I did the requisite functions checks to ensure I didn't inadvertently break the rifle, specifically checking if the trigger group kept the bolt from running away and checking the durability of the sear by banging the buttstock on the ground. To my relief it passed all the checks.

The final result was 2 pounds shaved off the trigger pull. The long take up remains but it now functions like a decent two-stage trigger, with a smooth take up followed by a short pull at the end. All in all, job well done.

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