The best way to improve the trigger on Moison Nagant M91/30, M38, M39, M44's, M53 and M91/56 is to:
Trigger and Trigger pin mod's:
Drill out trigger pin hole in trigger and receiver ears with a .165 drill, then cut the drill tang off (Dremel tool) to length for a trigger pin, this will insure .001 tolerances and make the trigger pull more consistent in weight from pull to pull.
Polish with a SQUARE fine hard Arkansas stone, the inside and the outside of the trigger bearing surfaces and the inside of the receiver ears to insure smooth movement and to remove any drilling burrs.
Sear Spring:
Too lower trigger poundage grind the back side (side viewed when assembled upside down) of the sear spring on a belt sander (being careful to cool and not burn metal) taking about .010 off (keeping thickness consistent/parallel) and then reassemble and test pull weight. Ideal weight is between 2.5 to 3.5 lbs for target shooting, add a pound if used for hunting.
Polish with a SQUARE fine hard Arkansas stone, the sear bearing surface (cocking piece bearing area) and square up the top surfaces (measure dimension parallel to bottom) for a sharp square edge.
Cocking piece:
Polish with a SQUARE fine hard Arkansas stone, the sear bearing surface removing any indentations or galling, square up and polish top surface to improve bearing surface to a sharp corner.
Some firing pins and bolt bodies are loose fitting and when you pull the trigger the cocking piece moves downward and you get a mushy first stage. I weld a small 1/16" diameter or smaller bead where shown and then grind/polish down till the pin/cocking piece does not bind with the bolt body, this greatly improves the crispness of the first stage.
The photo is of the weld bead prior to filing/stone polishing to "restrict the loose fit between the under-size firing pin diameter to the oversize bolt body".
Disassemble the bolt, remove the firing pin spring and reassemble the bolt body and firing pin. Move the firing pin up and down to determine slack/gap between cocking piece and bolt body (measured with feeler gage) at tip of cocking piece and bolt body. Weld up/on a bead as shown and adjust/grind/polish the weld bead height to HALF the measured slack/looseness/tolerance you measured with a feeler gage and reassemble bolt.
Basically you are creating a stop/support for the cocking piece movement during the initial trigger pull first stage and forcing sear engagement to define total trigger travel instead of the firing pin/bolt body gap, and sear engagement defining Total trigger travel.
It allows for a more crisp consistent pull weight and release.
Finnish M39 trigger:
The best way to get a really nice two stage trigger is to find/buy a Finnish M39 trigger and proceed with the above mods assembling and testing first and second stages.
Some trigger pulls may be too long and you can remove .010 off the top of the sear spring sear surface to reduce final stage/sear engagement and retest for engagement and pull weight.. Some may be too short and you may need a replacement sear spring but you may already know that before you start this whole process.
Final note:
After the above mods most all triggers will now drag on the stock or trigger guard, you could bed the action forcing it into the center of the trigger guard while it cures, or you can open up the trigger guard trigger slot with a file or on a milling machine, this insures no trigger contact and you end up with a consistent pull and release.
I hope this helps unravel the mysteries of the Moison.
