Jewell Trigger issues

Ryan Avery

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I have switch to only Trigger Techs on my personal rifles. But when I got this rifle to review from Redrock Precision it had a Jewell. Not wanting to mess with there rifle I hunted with it all season with zero issues until yesterday. It was the last day of Idaho deer season for me and a wet soggy day. Right before dark I decided to shoot a rock at 700 yards for the hell of it. Got lined out flicked the safety off and pulled the trigger...... nothing! Rolled the bolt, aimed squeezed... nothing. Emptied the rifle, pulled the trigger nothing. Damn good thing I didn’t see a big buck. This is the third time I’ve had Jewell‘s not fire on wet soggy days that turn freezing rain/snow mix before dark.
6e70ffc84a6b58477fd1d0b0a560a840.jpg


After it sat in the truck on the ride home it dried out and worked fine.

It’s Trigger Tech from here on out, personal rifle or not.




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gelton

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What are your thoughts on Timney? Functionally how do they compare to trigger tech?

Never had one fail me its the first thing I do when I get a factory rifle is change the trigger so I have them on most of my rifles. No creep just bang. But I have only tried factory triggers and Timney triggers so I dont have much to compare them to.
 
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Ryan Avery

Ryan Avery

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What are your thoughts on Timney? Functionally how do they compare to trigger tech?

Never had one fail me its the first thing I do when I get a factory rifle is change the trigger so I have them on most of my rifles. No creep just bang. But I have only tried factory triggers and Timney triggers so I dont have much to compare them to.


I've never had a Timeny not fire. The issue I've had with them, especially the Calvin elite is after few hundred shots they seem to get a little creep in them.

The Trigger Techs one screw adjustment and zero creep after thousands of shots is just a no-brainer to me.
 

Formidilosus

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Ryan,

I have seen dozens of Jewels fail. Sand, dust, but most especially rain and sleet freezing them. Truthfully every trigger for the 700 based actions that I've seen has failed save one and it isn't available commercially. It is the reason that I do not want to mess with guns based on that action. Even work guns that have Stiller and Surgeon actions I don't like as the weak point is the trigger.
 
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Ryan Avery

Ryan Avery

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Ryan,

I have seen dozens of Jewels fail. Sand, dust, but most especially rain and sleet freezing them. Truthfully every trigger for the 700 based actions that I've seen has failed save one and it isn't available commercially. It is the reason that I do not want to mess with guns based on that action. Even work guns that have Stiller and Surgeon actions I don't like as the weak point is the trigger.

Out of all the triggers do Jewells fail the most?

Do you see more failures with custom actions or standard 700 actions?
 

gbflyer

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I have 3 of them. No failures. One carried in the field daily in the summer time. The biggest mistake with them is not enough over-travel. If that is set too tight the grit and sand can't drop out. Clean with lighter fluid, frequently and liberally. Don't oil.

That said, it isn't made to drag through the mud. It was designed as a target trigger. Save that for the Model 70 trigger. It never gives up.
 
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Ryan Avery

Ryan Avery

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I have 3 of them. No failures. One carried in the field daily in the summer time. The biggest mistake with them is not enough over-travel. If that is set too tight the grit and sand can't drop out. Clean with lighter fluid, frequently and liberally. Don't oil.

That said, it isn't made to drag through the mud. It was designed as a target trigger. Save that for the Model 70 trigger. It never gives up.

I cleaned it out with lighter fluid early November because I knew I was headed into some shitty weather.

I just don't trust them at all.
 
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Ryan what trigger is on your Cooper Model 92? Did you change it after you got the rifle? I thought coopers came with Jewel triggers
 
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Thanks for posting your thoughts on the Jewel trigger. The smith that built my rifle originally suggested the Calvin Elite for hunting because they supposedly handle dirt and sand better than the Jewel. Of course that was before Trigger Tech came along.

Even though I've had zero issues with my Calvin, I'll definitely give Trigger Tech a try on my next rifle.

Just my 2 cents and worth the price charged.
 
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I've used a Jewell trigger in my 6.5 Creedmor competition rifle for almost 4 years now, through all kinds of weather except for rain. I live at high altitude so mostly sand and freezing temperatures is what I run into. Cleaned maybe twice.

Never had a problem.

I always wonder whether it is the Jewell trigger design or maybe the gunsmith? I think that a lot of gunsmiths that might be blaming the trigger instead of their own work? Who knows.
 
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Interesting info. I’ve been running Jewell triggers in my bench guns and my hunting rifles for nearly 20 years and I’ve never had an issue with them. They’re made about 1.5hrs from me and I’ve always just driven to the factory and bought mine right off a work bench or waited while they built one for me. It’s been nice to support a local Texas business. That said, we don’t get a lot of freezing wet weather here in S Texas. But we DO get an unbelievable amount of dust and dirt flying around. Lighter fluid on a regular basis as always kept the issues at bay for me. Even on my predator rifles that get laid down in the ground a lot. However, I’ve been really intrigued my those Trigger Tech triggers for a while now. I’m building a new rifle right now and I may just use this thread as my excuse to buy one and try it. Can I come blame y’all if I don’t like it? Lol!


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Ryan Avery

Ryan Avery

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Ryan what trigger is on your Cooper Model 92? Did you change it after you got the rifle? I thought coopers came with Jewel triggers

Yeah, I hade cooper change mine to a TT. I believe they now offer them with TTs.
 
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Ryan Avery

Ryan Avery

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I've used a Jewell trigger in my 6.5 Creedmor competition rifle for almost 4 years now, through all kinds of weather except for rain. I live at high altitude so mostly sand and freezing temperatures is what I run into. Cleaned maybe twice.

Never had a problem.

I always wonder whether it is the Jewell trigger design or maybe the gunsmith? I think that a lot of gunsmiths that might be blaming the trigger instead of their own work? Who knows.


Three different gunsmiths, so I can't blame all three.

The google machine tells the story... Way to many issues to just be the gunsmiths.

Might be a great comp trigger. But not a great North Idaho hunting trigger.
 

jmden

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How/why does the TriggerTech work better where the Jewell, etc. fails in situation described above? The housing that's supposed to protect the mechanism better--does that actually work? Guys have never had TriggerTechs fail? I'm curious because I'm running a couple of Jewells and have never had a problem and they stay adjusted well, but am wondering if I should switch to TriggerTechs.
 
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Yeah, I hade cooper change mine to a TT. I believe they now offer them with TTs.

I might have to get mine down to Cooper and have them change it. Do you get a different safety with the trigger change? I had your exact conditions when I shot a whitetail this year and had to try a few times just to get the safety flipped off because it was frozen and I don't like how easily the safety will flip off normally. Luckily the trigger must have stayed dry enough on my hike in the dark, I tried to be conscious about keeping the bolt area clear of snow and moisture to make sure I wouldn't have an issue this year.
 

Formidilosus

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Out of all the triggers do Jewells fail the most?

Do you see more failures with custom actions or standard 700 actions?


Yep. Jewels fail the most, but have seen Shilen, Timney, CG Jackson, etc. all fail. Haven't used TT, but overall it seems to just be a bad trigger design.


Depends on the action. Any of the "benchrest" actions get bound up easier with sand/dust than the "field" actions, but like the 700 based triggers the actions just seem to be more susceptible to sand and dust causing issues. We had a day a while ago with multiple M700 based rifles, Surgeons, a Stiller, several Tikka T3's, a Sako TRG, and multiple AI's. High desert with 20mph winds blowing the sand and moon dust in all of them. All the 700 based triggers had problems, and most of the 700 based actions had feeding/chambering/ejecting problems. A couple had to be taken apart to clean out. The Tikkas, TRG, and of course AI's suffered no issues. Not that I'm saying they are "bad", just that the system as a whole isn't the most resistant to environmental issues.
 

C Bow

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62 years old and have been shooting Jewell triggers since Moby Dick was a minnow never had a failure guess I am just lucky
 
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