Hi Power .40 Cal - Trigger Slap?

[sams1]

Went out to the range with my shooting buddy who recently got a .40 cal Hi Power.  This one has FN rollmarks (not Browning) with serial starting with 513.

This is a real Hi Powered HP shooting the .40 cal bullet! As expected, pistol functioned flawlessly, very accurate fun to shoot!

After shooting a couple of mags, I started to feel discomfort at my fingertip - felt like some kind of a trigger slap after each shot.  Never felt this before on a 9mm OR other .40 HPs I shot before...

Anyone seen/felt this before?  Is it possibly the trigger lever?

Any feedback on this is greatly appreciated!

[Bob Reed]

Hello,

If the gun still has the disconnect, you'll need a magazine in place to actuate the trigger lever for this test: Lock the slide back via the slide stop and push-n-hold the barrel fully to the rear and work the trigger through its full range of motion making sure there's no contact between the lever and the face of the chamber (or anything else). Look through the ejection port and you'll see the lever is very close to the face of the chamber when the barrel is unlocked and fully rearward - and if there's any contact that's probably what you're feeling during live fire.

BTW: Please don't post the same question in two different sections.

Thanks, and let us know what you find.

[sams1]

Thank you Bob for your reply and for the good check procedure - I will do this this evening and will report back.

Also thank you for reminding me to avoid double posting - will definitely not do this again.

[sams1]

Hi Bob, An 'interim' update..

Your instructions were very detailed and clear! Thank you very much!
As you've indicated, I could clearly see the trigger lever moving up and down as I fully cycled the trigger. While pressing the barrel fully backwards, I could not feel contact between the lever and chamber face. visually it looked VERY close, almost touching the bottom rear-right of the chamber. I deliberately did not clean the pistol after last practice two days ago so I could see any contact marks. This evening, after this test, I disassembled the pistol and inspected that bottom rear-right of the chamber. I did notice a very small rub mark (shiny) right where the forward edge of the lever would be.
I cleaned the gun completely and put Dykem on that contact area. I am thinking that even if I didn't feel contact of the trigger lever with the Chamber face, it might be possible that there is contact when firing that strong .40 bullet.

If there is, I expect to see a clear rub mark over the Dykem... Does this make sense?

Thanks again 👍

[Bob Reed]

Good morning,

Yes, it's possible for the contact to only occur during live fire, and if so, the lever needs to be relived along the forward edge. Also, check for signs of brass/copper on the inboard side of the trigger lever - the early .40s came with thinned-down levers to make way for the larger cartridge. My '94 is really thinned-down and Steve Camp's was too I believe (he for sure noticed the thin levers on the .40s), but apparently the modification was halted later on - because I have two late model .40s that came with unmodified levers and Steve noticed the lack of factory thinned levers on the later guns too.

Good Luck, Sam.

[sams1]

Hi Bob, went to the range yesterday to test 'our theory'...     Turns out we were correct!! #1: Yes, there was contact between trigger lever and chamber face. #2: Yes, my suspicion that even if no contact when testing this on the bench, contact can (and did) occur under live fire condition.

By the way, the Trigger lever looks normal (not thinned) and looks identical to another trigger lever on a 9mm HP.

Please see pics of the contact area on the barrel's chamber face, bottom-right area.  You can see the blue dykem and the shiny spot where the trigger lever contacted it, removing the blue dykem.

You mentioned earlier that if there was contact, the Trigger lever contacting area should be relieved.  Wouldn't be better to remove a little metal from the small contact area on the barrel instead?

Click on the links to see the images.

imgur.com/CNLakLx

imgur.com/IPdWKAv

Bob, you nailed the problem right out-of-the-gate!  I greatly appreciate your help and sharing your amazing Hi-Power knowledge with me and this great Forum!  I trust this issue happened to more than just me...

Thanks again! 👍👍

Sam

[tnorris]

Apr 23, 2023 1:28:02 GMT -5 sams1 said:

 

You mentioned earlier that if there was contact, the Trigger lever contacting area should be relieved.  Wouldn't be better to remove a little metal from the small contact area on the barrel instead?

No. Alter the $10 trigger lever, not the $300 barrel.

Cheers,

Tim

[Bob Reed]

Hello,

Like Tim said, work on the lever, not the barrel - however, if there's a burr or a ruff spot, etc. then cleaning-up the chamber face would be in order. Also, make sure there's clearance between the lever and the feed ramp (where the ramp meets the chamber) when the chamber is pushed towards the lever.

Thanks for the kind words, Sam. I do hope this cures the problem.

Bob

[sams1]

Tim has a good and logical point!

Bob, will check the clearance and work on the lever. Will test fire again and report back.

Thank you both 👍👍

Sam

[tnorris]

Apr 23, 2023 12:56:32 GMT -5 sams1 said:

Tim has a good and logical point!

Bob, will check the clearance and work on the lever. Will test fire again and report back.

Thank you both 👍👍

Sam

Sam,

You might check out this BHSS video (below) for general tips on fitting a trigger lever. The video is discussing the BHSS Advanced Trigger Assembly, but you might find some guidance for fitting the standard trigger lever. At around  00:31:00 Mark compares your trigger lever type to the one for the BHSS Trigger. It is a brief appearance followed by fitting the new one into an Arcus. A word on the trigger not resetting happens around 00:37:00, followed by more fitting.

 [  www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-e&q=BHSS+Advanced+Trigger+instalation#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:7e18b9e8,vid:Ck6huLszMB8  ]

Cheers,

Tim