"here has to be a way to remove some side-to-side play, improve the pin fit and smooth out the pull."
Pin fit is an easy fix; new trigger or drill it out and press in a bushing (or file down the bushing to fit like I did). I got mine to ~1/4 the original wiggle using standard 3/32" brass tubing (which is till .003" or so oversize; a 'proper' hole would be half that or less and polished, too).
Smoothing the pull is also pretty straightforward, but I think is limited by the quality/weakness of the internal parts. Polish that stirrup and disconnector all you want; they'll still flex and bind, respectively. The trigger can be lightened greatly, but someone who actually knows what they're doing will have to take care of that for me (at least until Remington starts selling spare parts). I found my sear had a very round nose and very positive engagement; recipe for a break that is heavier and longer than it needs to be (especially since the gun has a trigger safety the high engagement really makes no sense. I think Remington purposely made it thusly so their lax production would not result in guns that fire themselves, or repeatedly with one pull
). Due to the trigger safety design, I would be very reticent to attempt removing the trigger take up*, but its over travel could be tuned down a good bit (I don't think it would be self-disconnecting, though, so you'd be relying on the slide/disconnector interface to work properly more than you are now)
*The safety sear has a longer lever than the sear, so the extra take up is needed to disable it. A redesigned safety sear and stirrup could be made with a short lever so it deactivates with less take up or is timed closer to the sear's release.
The safety backstrap levers have two aluminum ramps that cam the safety block down. The angle of engagement is initially steep and shallows as the lever rotates, which is why the safety force drops as it engages. When fully depressed, the cam actually slips over the block, so very little camming force is delivered to the lever. Unfortunately, the tolerance stackup of the block, frame, lever, and cam seems to be pretty bad, which is why we have guns with too little safety block engagement (1SOW) and extra slop (JRH). Mine has maybe .05" of slack, not even worth mentioning. Seems they run the gambit (which might mean there are guns where the safety is half-off with the lever released
). It'd be nice if this could be adjusted somehow, but I don't see a good way that isn't complicated, like putting steel ramp inserts in the lever that are retained with set screws.
TCB
