Took my SOCOM 16 out again the other day, and although it shot flawlessly as expected, I noticed after running the mag empty there is some clicking in the trigger that goes away after a few pullbacks. This doesn’t happen when manually locking the bolt to the rear only after live fire.

What would those clicks be after running empty and the hammer is already down? Almost feels like a half trigger pull and then after a few pulls it smoothens out again to feel empty as one would expect after the hammer falls and the round is fired.

standard M14/M1A trigger?

pull the trigger assy out and see if you can duplicate it and watch to see what may be catching or rubbing?


I have tuned a handful of standard triggers in the past, but that past is way long ago for me to remember anything acting like you say

Standard trigger and it’s a good one for a battle rifle I just do not know if it is something about the geometry as it breaks in due to it being a 2 stage trigger and perhaps the force of live fire is taking the components to a further end range or reset point versus just dry fire practice/manual bolt lock back.

Remove the trigger group, hold your thumb in front of the hammer and see if it does the same thing out of the rifle.

So you feel clicking when the hammer is dropped (fired)? Or do you mean you hear clicking when the hammer is cocked?

If the clicking is when the hammer is cocked and after the first stage is taken up and just before the break, it's rough machining or casting on the sear.

If the clicking is with the hammer dropped (fired), then it's probably the hammer spring housing shifting around. The hammer spring housing free-floats and pivots. The hole that the trigger pin goes through is huge on the hammer spring housing. It's a tight fit going through the trigger and the trigger housing.

Tony.

The clicking I’m talking about is after running the magazine empty with the bolt locked to the rear. Seemed almost like a half weighted trigger pull a couple times then it smoothed out.

When I would manually close the action and pull the trigger, it was perfectly fine. When I would lock the bolt back to the rear manually (not live fire), the trigger was in a dead state as expected, and it was smooth with no clicking as it demonstrated after running empty during live fire.

No malfunctions at any point trigger always resets, trigger pull seems decent. So I’m not sure what the clicking is and why it smooth out after a couple of pulls. And I do realize that most people would not pull the trigger after it had run empty as there is no reason to, but I did and that’s how I discovered it. Perhaps it’s out there on other rifles, but people don’t test that because it’s not something one would ever really test. I discovered it by accident.

What you're most likely feeling is the trigger lug interfacing with the back hammer hooks. The front set of hooks engages the trigger sear, and the back set engages the trigger lug. The back set is what holds the hammer back during cycling so you don't get full-auto or hammer follow.

With the bolt locked back, and after you've let go of the trigger, the hammer is not being held by any part of the trigger, but the back hammer hooks are very close to touching the trigger lug.

The clicking you're most likely hearing is the back hammer hooks touching the rear trigger lug, but not engaging them. Once you send the bolt forward the hammer rises and either engages the rear trigger lug (if you're holding the trigger back), or the sear (if you've let off the trigger). The trigger lug pivots and may feel different as you massage the trigger with the bolt locked back.

The distance the hammer travels down when cycling varies from rifle to rifle. If you remove the action from the stock and insert the trigger group (TG) to the action without the stock there, you'll see the trigger group can rock back and forth. If you rock it forward, you can see the distance between the hammer and the bolt increases (hammer hooks move down). If you rock it back, the distance closes (hammer hooks move up). The distance is determined by how thick the stock is at the three contact points where the trigger group engages the stock. It can be rocked back or forth depending on stock geometry.

If the TG is rocked back, the hammer moves closer to the bolt which means the bolt compresses the hammer farther down and well clear of both the sear and the trigger lug. If the TG is rocked forward, the hammer moves down and the bolt will not compress the hammer down as far past the trigger lug and you can get some clear contact with the rear hammer hooks and the trigger lug.

Clear as mud?

Tony.

Wow thanks okay that is very well explained. So am I to assume that those clicks from that contact will not damage anything then? Meaning will anything get gouged or scratched to wear the metal components?

I highly doubt anything is being damaged.

OK, good to know. I was hopeful that that was the case being as how robust the system seems.