Scoremaster 511: light trigger to won't cock at all.

[cprodave]

I have a Remington Scoremaster 511 with the original Weaver 4X scope that has developed a trigger/bolt problem. As the bolt is actuated, the firing pin will not stay cocked. For 30 years the gun was a real tackdriver but has always had a very light trigger. After 1 or 2 rounds went off (at my local outdoor gun club range, fortunately I was in about as safe a situation as could exist for such an event to occur), I disassembled the gun and replaced a part of the trigger (sear, as I recall) that appeared to be worn (Igot the part for $10 or $15 at Gun Parts Inc). Low and behold, that fixed the problem--at least for about 50 rounds fired. But then the problem came back, except that (in current form) the firing pin will now not stay cocked at all. The gun has some sentimental value to me (when my dad was a young man, he built a kayak and traded to another guy for this gun) but with a fair market value of only around $125 it's not worth spending much to fix it. Are there any Model 510/511/512 owners out there who could swap-in my bolt and/or trigger assembly (these are OK to ship without FFL, right?), and tell me which is the malfunctioning part (i.e. trigger assembly vs. bolt/firing pin)? Any help would be much appreciated. I'll pay the shipping both ways. Dave C in NC.

[Rich/WIS]

The other posibilities are the trigger spring has weakened, or the mating surface on the firing pin is worn. I had this problem on a 513T, replaced the sear and had to stone the firing pin to get rid of burrs and also remove some burrs from the bolt head. Check the firing pin notch. If it looks okay replacement springs are readily available. If your bolt is battered along the bottom remove any burrs as these can prevent the sear from going into place in the firing pin notch.

[cprodave]

Rich, thanks for the ideas. I am starting to "home in" on the trigger spring. If I push the trigger forward and hold it forward, the gun will cock properly and stay cocked. I'll try a new spring before I look for burrs etc on any portion of the bolt. I swapped the bolt with another 511 at a gun show a couple weeks ago and the problem did not move with the bolt, i.e. it stayed with the trigger assembly. Thanks again, I'll be sure to post an update as my debug makes progress!

Dave C

[sieckoutdoors]

i just had the same problem with my 511 and struggled with it for quite a while. i bought parts and filed and polished and nothing worked. finally i had a brain storm and noticed there was play in the trigger mech., i shimmed the play out and fixed the problem. i would bet the same thing would help you. the play in the trigger mech. is a side to side play and when i first started trying to fix the problem, i didn't think it would effect the cocking and trigger pull. i had nothing else left to try so i finally just put a small shim in to tighten up the assembly and the problem was cured.

good luck

andy

[cprodave]

Andy, thanks for the tip, I will give that a try. It's a bit late (10:30pm plus) for my eyes tonight but I definitely do see some side-to-side play in the trigger. I have also noticed that if I keep forward pressure on the trigger (like if I had a super strong spring on the trigger) the gun functions perfectly and repeatably. So by keeping the forward pressure I may also be accidently reducing the side-to-side play. I will let you know results. Thanks again.

[cprodave]

I checked for side-to-side play as recommended but there is less than .010 inches side-to-side play at the Trigger (relative to the receiver). However, the side-to-side play between the trigger/searstud/sear is greater than .010. And when the gun is cocked and sitting "stable", a small sideways pressure (with thin screwdriver) on the Sear Stud fires the pin. I also noticed that the position of the rear screw (there are 2 screws sideways through the receiver,just in front of the trigger) seems to be very important. When the rear screw is fully seated, the pull is around 7 pounds. But when I backout the rear screw a fraction (maybe a 1/16 turn CounterClosckwise, I get a decent pull of around 4.5 lbs--a bit heavy, but acceptable. The bad news is that after repeated firing cycles, the rear screw continued to unseat, and when it goes another 1/8 turn or so, the pull is unsafely light--or gun won't stay cocked at all.

Questions, 1) is this rear trigger for adjustment of Pull Weight and 2) is it common/safe practice to LockTite that rear screw in position? I could live with the 4.5 lbs pull, but must feel comfortable that the gun is safe, and locktite is reasonably safe. 3) How much side-to-side play is acceptable, and (Andy) where did you add the shims, how thick were they and what was the side-to-side play after you shimmed?

Thanks for any help--I think I'm getting closer to a solution...if I can take out the side-to-side play, and get the rear screw locked safely in position. I may be shooting this old favorite again...

[sieckoutdoors]

dave,

my gun did have loctite on the rear screw that you are describing. i only put one shim in my gun and it was on the stud that extends down from that rear screw that we are talking about. i did have to play with how tight that screw was to adjust my trigger pull.

good luck
andy

[cprodave]

Andy, thanks--I'll give the shimming and locktite a try this weekend and update you with results.

[cprodave]

Andy (and all), I was able to position the rear screw and loctite it in place to get a pull of around 5 lbs, which is heavy for really good accuracy but at least I feel the gun is safe now. I'll shoot a couple hundred rounds through it and see if the trigger "wears down" a pound or so--if it does I'll be real happy with that. If the pull stays heavy, I may tear it apart and try some very thin shim stock as suggested. But at least I feel the gun is safe now--no accidental firings in around 100 dry fires so far. Thanks for the help

[1971rover]

we had the same problem with my score master. we adjusted the trigger screw and helped for a few mags but then went back to the way it was. I was going to shim the trigger as stated in this post and decided if I was going in that far I would get a new trigger spring. numrich has a lot of parts for these and other firearms..great price..great costomer service. got the spring and took the trigger assemble apart. found the original spring was about 3/4 the size of the new one. it had kind of collapsed into itself. after seeing this I decided to replace the spring and not shim the trigger. now there is minimal side to side play compared to before and after 100 rounds no problem. spring cost about 3.00.