I don’t always have the time or notion to disassemble my rifle to the extent needed to get my trigger out for a full-disassembly cleaning. Is there a recommended way to flush out a trigger as it sits in the rifle? Something along the lines of the apocryphal but not recommended “lighter fluid and canned air” flush? Along the same lines, does anyone have any thoughts on the risk/reward of doing something like this vs doing nothing?
Let’s say you shoot the first day of a two day event in super windy, dusty conditions. Every moving part of the rifle seems to grind with dirt. Cleaning the action and bolt is easy enough but taking the trigger out to open and clean involves completely disassembling the rifle and necessitates re-zeroing. Which, at most events ranges from impossible to awkward to the point of dubious results. What do you do? Anything? Take it apart and hope the zero board is up and ready in the morning? Do nothing and hope the trigger lasts for ten more stages?
I’m no expert on this topic, but I never take my rifles apart to clean triggers. Most of the trigger guys tell you not to mess with it. Because the high end stuff is so sensitive to assembly, it is not a good idea to tear them apart or remove them. My guess, if you are experiencing grit in the trigger, is to take it to someone who knows what to do and have them clean it. I would hate to think you need to take your rifle down to complete disassembly after every match. Good luck.
you should not use lighter fluid to clean a trigger. that method is age-old and gained support because it sometimes was the quick cure to remove dirt from a jammed trigger. but it leaves residue that will attract more dirt and create ongoing problems. so … flushing with lighter fluid will enhance your chances of failure.
cleaning a trigger properly will not require re-zeroing your rifle. all you need to do is remove the action from the stock and remove the trigger from the action. this has no effect on your sight base. and it is a very quick exercise.
if you are at a range where you have picked up a lot of dust and dirt then it is always advisable to clean your trigger. the likelihood is very high that the trigger will not malfunction but if you are up in the standings then it is a small investment to give you the peace of mind the following day.
Thanks Chris. That’s exactly what I was wondering. I regularly take my triggers apart to clean them after dusty match weekends. Taking the action out/removing and reinstalling the trigger rarely results in a zero shift beyond perhaps .1 mil. What got me thinking about it was I came home from a very dirty (blowing dust on day one, intermittent rain and mud day two) match and had to leave for work the next morning. The day after I got home from work, I had a local match. Not only was there not a lot of time to do rifle maintenance but there would be no range time before the local match. So, if I took the rifle apart, I would be relying entirely on whatever zero-board was set up before the local match to verify things went back together. I’ve seen your videos where you address the old lighter fluid technique but hadn’t seen any kind of alternative option for a quick-cleaning that doesn’t involve removing the trigger. I shoot around 10,000 rounds a year and use exclusively TacSportProX triggers. Keeping them clean, dry and well adjusted, I’ve never had one fail.