What is a 2 Stage Trigger Job?
The two stage design of the trigger is there for a reason and a big part of the first stage travel or take up is primarily for safety. The trigger release is part of the second stage.The two take up stages combined make up the total length and weight of pull.
Take up in the first stage, while it may seem a bother, is important in that it covers a good part of the weight of pull. It's probably psychological, but the mind pretty much ignores the weight required to pull through the first stage. That's because almost all of the shooters concentration is then on the second stage to fire the shot. The remaining weight of pull feels very light because half or more of the total weight is taken up in the first stage.
The important part in tuning the trigger is to eliminate the creep in the second stage. Most of that is done by honing the hammer hooks as you know. Since there is no creep in the second stage at this point and the pull "feels" much lighter than the total of 4 1/2 pounds, it allows the shooter to break the shot with minimal disturbance to the rifle(providing the shooter does everything else right).
When you shorten the creep in the first stage, it imparts additional trigger over travel which can result in the shooter not being able to control his follow through. That can throw the shot off. It requires a major modification of the trigger to eliminate excessive over travel in this situation.That is why we ignore the creep in the first stage.
As a side note, some shooters use a special technique for shooting rapid fire that eliminates the time and effort spent on first stage take up.They simply allow only enough release after each shot to let the hammer hooks drop off the safety sear. They do not release the trigger all the way. This requires a good deal of control and practice to do right, but it saves time lost during trigger take up by not pulling through the first stage.
By Ted Brown
Shooters Den
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H2O MAN
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