Neil Jones Gunsmithing service?

J

Jbordi

Guest
Does anyone here know if Neil Jones' trigger jobs are worth the money? Thinking of having rem. 700 adjusted by a smith. would I be better off with a Jewell. This is on a hunting rifle.

Thanks,

Jarrod
 
Neil Jones trigger

Jarrod: Five of my six Remington 700 receivers are equipped with Neil Jones triggers, and I keep a spare. They are all 1# to 1 1/4#, safety functions, clean breaking, easily worth the $70 charge IMO.
 
Neil Jones trigger question.

Hi:

Neil did a trigger for me years ago and when I got the trigger back,I noticed that there was no change in the weight of pull. I got a used Hart trigger and never looked back.

Save your money and get the Jewell!


Zeke
 
Jbordi said:
Thinking of having rem. 700 adjusted by a smith. would I be better off with a Jewell. This is on a hunting rifle.
Click to expand...

Adjusting a Remington 700 trigger is not difficult, and can be safely done by a careful person in about 15 minutes. Instructions are easily found on the internet. Just Google for them.

On the other hand, some people don't install their own scopes, so if you're one of those, then it would be better to send your trigger to Mr. Jones. :D
 
Bill Ohio said:
Adjusting a Remington 700 trigger is not difficult, and can be safely done by a careful person in about 15 minutes. Instructions are easily found on the internet. Just Google for them.

On the other hand, some people don't install their own scopes, so if you're one of those, then it would be better to send your trigger to Mr. Jones. :D
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the difference between a good trigger job and a accident waiting to happen is about a 1/2 turn on a allen wrench,,,,,,,,,, $25-75 for a comptent gunsmith to do a trigger is money well spent,,,,,,,,,,,,also if it's a hunting gun it's hard to beat a Shilen Trigger,,,,, but on a BR,,,,,,,, Jewell is the only route

the wind is my friend,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

DD
 
Bill Ohio said:
Adjusting a Remington 700 trigger is not difficult, and can be safely done by a careful person in about 15 minutes. Instructions are easily found on the internet. Just Google for them.

On the other hand, some people don't install their own scopes, so if you're one of those, then it would be better to send your trigger to Mr. Jones. :D
Click to expand...

Bill is right regarding adjusting the trigger. I'm certainly not a gunsmith, but I've adjusted several triggers on Reminton 700's. Having said that, I did run into a problem with a friend of mine's Rem. 700 / .221 Fireball. I could not get a consistant trigger pull on that trigger. I could get it down to 2 1/4 pounds and try it several times and then it would take 3 to 4 pounds to trip the trigger. I finally gave up and put in a Shilen trigger. I think we paid about $85-$90 including shipping. That trigger adjusted up in no time and remained consistant. Easy to do if, you make up some slave pins to assist in taking the old trigger assembly out and installing the new trigger assembly. :cool:
 
david dumas said:
the difference between a good trigger job and a accident waiting to happen is about a 1/2 turn on a allen wrench,,,,,,,,,, $25-75 for a comptent gunsmith to do a trigger is money well spent,,,,,,,,,,,,also if it's a hunting gun it's hard to beat a Shilen Trigger,,,,, but on a BR,,,,,,,, Jewell is the only route

the wind is my friend,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

DD
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Says you. I say different. :cool:

And I hope the "comptent" gunsmith is more detail obsessed than you are about typographical errors. :D

Using a so-called gunsmith for such a simple task is false assurance. I've watched "gunsmiths" use a riflescope (the very scope to be mounted) as the lever to cam over Redfield style scope rings. I brought a NIB Browning Hi Power to a recommended and competent "gunsmith" for a trigger job, and received it back with a scratch down to bare metal in the beautiful Belgian blued finish, and best of all the pistol fired double and triple taps with one pull of the trigger. (Call me timid, but I didn't load more than three rounds to determine if it would fire the entire magazine. I don't have a Class III license!)

"Competent" doesn't meet my requirements. There are plenty of "competent" mechanics who will take your money and claim they changed your car's oil and rotated the tires. But if you were clever/cynical enough to mark the tires and the old oil filter, you realize that the only thing the mechanic did was drain the old oil and replace it with new, while charging you for the full service and a new filter. Imagine that! Was that money "well spent"?

Sure, some people are highly skilled and honest. And way too many aren't. So considering what's involved in tuning a factory Rem 700 trigger -- but what do I know, I've only had about two dozen Rem 700 rifles over the years -- I vote for the OP (original poster) to give it a go himself.

As to replacing the trigger, considering your concern with "accidents waiting to happen", what would be Remington's reply if they knew their trigger was replaced? Is replacing the trigger easier/safer than adjusting the factory trigger?

The choice is yours. My choices are mine. ;)
 
Jbordi said:
Does anyone here know if Neil Jones' trigger jobs are worth the money? Thinking of having rem. 700 adjusted by a smith. would I be better off with a Jewell. This is on a hunting rifle.
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Jarrod, a couple other things to consider: The very narrow blade of the Jewell vs. the wider Remington trigger blade. For a hunting rifle, I like the Remington trigger width. It can get cold in Idaho. Will you ever hunt/shoot while wearing gloves?

How heavy/light do you wish the trigger pull to be? Jewell triggers (of which I have several), depending on the model, can be set to as little as 1.5 OUNCES or as much as 3 to 4 pounds. (Maybe higher, but I've not tried, why bother with such foolishness?) The factory Rem 700 trigger can typically (note I said typically, not always) be adjusted down to about two pounds. Safely, reliably, easily. If your trigger is currently at 7 pounds, and you want it to go at 4 pounds, no sweat! If it's at 3 pounds, and you want it to go at just one pound, then you're looking at a different situation. One that merits sending that trigger to Mr. Jones or somebody similarly talented/expert/honest, or replacing the trigger with a unit that is designed to operate safely at the desired weight.

Want to try adjusting the trigger yourself? PM me your phone number, and I'll call you to go over the process step by step.
 
For the money, a Shilen trigger is pretty hard to beat on a hunting rifle. It has two moving parts not including the safety mechanism which you'll either have to rob from your Remington trigger or buy an aftermarket safety. I include them on all my hunting rifle package builds unless they want a really light pull trigger then we go with a Jewell. Brownell's usually carries Shilen triggers along with aftermarket safeties or you can buy them direct from Shilen. The trigger has to have the older style of safety. The safety off the new Remington triggers will not work with it. The Shilen is marketed to adjust down to 1.5 pounds. I was getting ready to ship out a rifle Monday and checked to make sure that the Shilen trigger was breaking 2 pounds. It was breaking 12 ounces. So, had to increase weight of pull to make it break at 2 pounds. The adjustment screws also have lock nuts to lock the adjustment screws in place.
 
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Bill Ohio said:
Adjusting a Remington 700 trigger is not difficult, and can be safely done by a careful person in about 15 minutes. Instructions are easily found on the internet. Just Google for them.

On the other hand, some people don't install their own scopes, so if you're one of those, then it would be better to send your trigger to Mr. Jones. :D
Click to expand...

The older the Remington 700 trigger is the better it is IMO and those are adjustable fairly easily. Later Remington triggers were "blessed" with a heavier weight of pull spring than the earlier ones. I've had a number of these triggers come into the shop that had been adjusted out to where the spring was just about loose in the trigger. A coil spring has to be under compression to work and adjusting the spring to where it's not under compression will make the trigger unsafe and prone to accidental discharge.

The new Remington triggers with the weight of pull adjustment in the trigger shoe are made to defeat just about any effort a customer can do to make it lighter than Remington intends. You can back the weight of pull screw out as far as you want even to the point of taking it out and the trigger is just going to break at the lowest weight that Remington has determined. The spring can not come out unless you take the trigger shoe loose from the housing. Taking the trigger shoe loose is made harder by a clip that holds the bottom of the bolt release and retains the pin where the trigger shoe pivots. This clip is made with the intention that it is not to be removed. You can make the pull weight heavier, but only so much lighter and it's not in the 2 pound weight of pull range when adjusted to it's lightest. The sear engagement screw is set with permanent loctite. If you try to break it loose without breaking the loctite seal first, you will strip out the head on the allen head sear adjustment screw.
 
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Wow, lots of good info. I actually have two rem. 700 triggers. Both are off newer guns (SPS models). One is the older style trigger that has terrible creep and pull. The other is the X Pro w\o the external adjust. What about a Timney or Basix trigger?

Jarrod
 
Jarrod, the older style SPS trigger that has the new type safety can be adjusted, but it also has the sear engagement screw loctited in place. The loctite bond needs to be broken if you are going to adjust the sear engagement. The weight of pull spring needs to be replaced with one of the aftermarket springs such as the one that Holland sells. The best thing to do with the X-Pro trigger is to replace it as it's not worth trying to make it better, just too much work to get it done and probably just as easy as chasing a new spring for the older SPS is to replace it with a good aftermarket trigger as well.
 
I just worked over an x mark trigger, I really don't see what is so different about it. If anything I thought it was easier, the trigger itself is one piece and the pin comes out easily unlike the older triggers. I keep wolff reduce power trigger springs on hand for rem triggers so I installed one in the x mark and polished the trigger and changed the angle slightly (I use a power custom jig for triggers). I ended up with a nice crisp 2lb pull with very little work.
 
There was a time when sections of a Bic cigarette lighter spring did wonders for Remington triggers, but that was long ago when we all smoked & even disposable cigarette lighters were well made....
 
Mike Bryant said:
The older the Remington 700 trigger is the better it is IMO and those are adjustable fairly easily. Later Remington triggers were "blessed" with a heavier weight of pull spring than the earlier ones. I've had a number of these triggers come into the shop that had been adjusted out to where the spring was just about loose in the trigger. A coil spring has to be under compression to work and adjusting the spring to where it's not under compression will make the trigger unsafe and prone to accidental discharge.

The new Remington triggers with the weight of pull adjustment in the trigger shoe are made to defeat just about any effort a customer can do to make it lighter than Remington intends. You can back the weight of pull screw out as far as you want even to the point of taking it out and the trigger is just going to break at the lowest weight that Remington has determined. The spring can not come out unless you take the trigger shoe loose from the housing. Taking the trigger shoe loose is made harder by a clip that holds the bottom of the bolt release and retains the pin where the trigger shoe pivots. This clip is made with the intention that it is not to be removed. You can make the pull weight heavier, but only so much lighter and it's not in the 2 pound weight of pull range when adjusted to it's lightest. The sear engagement screw is set with permanent loctite. If you try to break it loose without breaking the loctite seal first, you will strip out the head on the allen head sear adjustment screw.
Click to expand...

Thank you Mike!!

You've put in words something I've been at a loss to explain except to say that "new Remington triggers SUUCK!!"

You explanation is better :D

al
 
ndh78 said:
I just worked over an x mark trigger, I really don't see what is so different about it. If anything I thought it was easier, the trigger itself is one piece and the pin comes out easily unlike the older triggers. I keep wolff reduce power trigger springs on hand for rem triggers so I installed one in the x mark and polished the trigger and changed the angle slightly (I use a power custom jig for triggers). I ended up with a nice crisp 2lb pull with very little work.
Click to expand...

You may not have worked on the newest version of this trigger. I ordered an SPS that came in last week. The trigger was unlike any other SPS trigger that I had seen. The earlier x mark triggers gave no problem working them over, but this one did.
 
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