Challenger 2000 trigger work: easy to do, no drift pins

[neric]

I've worked on most of my guns, except for the really good ones. I've modified quite a few my triggers also. The Crosman Challenger 2000 with the small CO2 cartridges I haven't done anything to because it was real good right out of the box.

Well, I ended up with an IZH 46M match pistol and the trigger on that is soooo nice right out of the box - a lot lighter than my Challenger. Since I had gotten used to the 46M it was pretty hard to go back to a heavier trigger.

I got to thinking that the Challenger trigger can't be that much different than the Crosman 1377 pistol trigger - which is very simple and easy to work on. The 1377 has a sliding piston that performs the actual release of the charge of compressed air. I polished and tweaked the 1377 trigger down to very light weight - I don't have a scale to measure,,,but its very nice.

So I decided to look into the Challenger:

Only one screw holding the stock on to the action. Came off very easily

Trigger assembly looks easy to dismantle, only two straight slot screws holding a plate on. I took those off but can't get to the insides, yet.

I found it has to slide straight off the back: three fasteners and it slides off easily with out any horrifying surprises of something flying off on the floor to be lost. Two little phillips screws on either side of the receiver tube come out,,,and one large nut has to be loosened (not taken off) at the front of the trigger assembly.

Slide the trigger assembly out, take off the two straight slot screws and lift off the side cover. Its a very straight forward assembly, no drift pins to be drifted out. There are two springs: a simple coil spring sits behind the trigger and a sear spring that has two functions. The sear spring: 1. holds the sear up in place to engage the sliding piston (the piston moves forward to release the valve holding the charge of compressed CO2), and 2. the other end of the sear spring provides the positive click action of the safety button.

Both of these springs need to be weakened a bit. The sear spring can be weakened by squeezing the two long legs together to where they are in line with each other and hold there for a few seconds. If you weaken it too much to where it won't hold up the sear,,,,no problem,,,just open it up the other way until you get it where it holds the sear in place,,lightly.

The sear spring was easy to weaken,,the coil spring is quite strong - I compressed it completely and held it for an hour (with a bolt and nut) and it never weakened one bit. One could clip off a couple of rings to make it shorter but then you wouldn't have a flat circle on the end to sit squarely. A better solution is to go to a hardware store that has a selection of coil springs and choose one approximately the same size but a little weaker.

I polished the sear faces and all mating sliding surfaces with 600 grit sandpaper. Put a lite coat of moly paste on the polished areas and reassemble. I find the moly paste is a little dry for my liking and so just before reassembly I put a small drop of light weight synthetic lube on each of the polished areas with a syringe so there isn't an excess of lube.

Reassembly is simple,,,the reverse order of disassembly.

There are two things to be aware of for safety's sake: 1. if you weaken the sear spring too far it may be too light and release unexpectedly on its own. Perform the bump test when you are finished to ensure you have a 'safe' trigger. 2. If the trigger spring is too weak, the trigger won't be pushed forward all the way so when you go to load and cock the gun,,,the T-bar won't push in to complete the cocking. But the fix for that is very easy - if you don't want to dismantle it all again,,,simply push the trigger forward with your middle finger , only a little - but all the way,,,,then the T-bar will push shut with your thumb. (This is what I do,,,I got the trigger spring too weak - I didn't want to dismantle it again,,,it passes the bump test and is very light now.

I am very happy with this trigger now,,,,with out measuring,,,it feels just as light and smooth as my IZH 46M trigger.

[jhmartin]

it feels just as light and smooth as my IZH 46M trigger.

Just make sure you realize it's no longer a sporter approved air rifle if you are trying to shoot in competitions ... it moves to the precision class with that trigger mod.
Now that said, it would make one heck of a 4-H Air Silhouette rifle

[TexasShooter]

Just make sure you realize it's no longer a sporter approved air rifle if you are trying to shoot in competitions ... it moves to the precision class with that trigger mod.

What specifically makes these modifications not legal for sporter? The light trigger pull maybe?

[jhmartin]

I mostly based the comment on his note that:

it feels just as light and smooth as my IZH 46M trigger.

Which is a very light 2 stage pistol trigger ... IZH46's, and other olympic pistols have a minimum weight of about 1.1 lbs (500 grams) .... too light for Sporter Air (1.5 lbs)

Also, there are very few internal mods allowed on sporters other than some general polishing and smoothing on triggers.

Any alteration or modification of the external or internal dimensions of factory-manufactured parts of approved Sporter air rifles or the substitution of factory-manufactured parts from other air rifles or the substitution of parts that were not manufactured by the original manufacturer that is not specifically authorized by these rules is prohibited.

Alteration of the springs come to mind when I read the post.

Seems a lot of work to me for a C2000 as I've never found them to be all that accurate for 10m work. (C2009s are a different story)

If you do work on sporters (any of them) to get the triggers on the light side, just make sure you give them a good bump test, especially on 10m competition guns. Its really a bad thing when the gun goes off for a miss on the target (not to mention the safety aspects). I cannot tell you how many points I've seen lost as even a RO at the JOs after the coach has "worked on the trigger" for a kid.

[TexasShooter]

Thanks, jhmartin, for clearing that up for me! Do you find that you need do any trigger work on the C2009S?

[jhmartin]

We don't use those in our program.
I've only fired one of the pre-production rifles a few years ago ... it was a nice trigger.

My own $0.02 is that I want to hand a kid a rifle that they can get thru an entire match with before they have to charge or change the cylinder.
A Daisy CO2 gun can easily go an entire 3x40 if necessary.
The XSV-40's and T200s, same deal.

I see the Crossmans coming off the line between standing and kneeling for fills ... just too much of a distraction for my taste ... better than the 2000's though when you'd better be changing out that bitty 12 gram cylinder after each position.

I had one coach tell me he limits his kids to 3 sighter shots in each position to get them thru the match (!!!!??????!!!!!). I coached one <precision> shooter who would shoot more sighters than records (an extreme case, I know).