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Just a newby, lurker here. I just installed a V. extractor, sear and trigger in my MKIII 22/45 Hunter. Can someone please explain the pre-travel and over-travel adjustments and how to adjust them? I spend at least an hour on this forum every day, and learn something new every time. Great info. Thanks!

Welcome to the forum and congrats on getting the upgrades done.

Use some blue loctite on the adjustment screw threads to keep them from walking during firing.

Pretravel: With the pistol unloaded and cocked, turn the upper set screw clockwise. You can see the trigger move rearward. Continue until you get the pretravel decrease you want. No problem with testing the trigger as you go. You can over adjust the trigger and the sear will not reset. If this happens, just back the adjustment out. You will need some pretravel to get the sear to reset.

Post travel: Clockwise adjustment until you have the trigger where you want it and the sear resets.

Make the final adjustments during test firing. Be sure to take the allen wrench with you. (Don't ask how I know about loctite and allen wrenches.
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Good Shooting

Welcome to the forum!

You will still have a little pretravel movement in your trigger but very little. The way a Ruger trigger system works it needs a little forward movement for the disconnector lever to reset on the sear. If one adjusts all this movement out then you will only get one shot then the trigger will feel like it doesn't work. What I do is adjust the pretravel like greener said but after I release the hammer I continue to hold the trigger rearwards. Then I slowly release the pressure on the trigger and listen and feel the trigger 'click' or engagement of the sear and trigger by the disconnector lever. I keep adjusting until I get the minimum amount of movement but 100% resetting on the sear. This level usually gives me 1/8th to 1/16th of an inch of pretravel trigger movement, which is way better than the half an inch in the original unadjustable factory trigger. Locktite sealant applied on the screws is essential. They will eventually work their way loose without it - Not if, but when! It is just a matter of time and the amount of recoil based on the number of rounds fired.

Post travel (or Overtravel) is adjusted so when the hammer releases the trigger does not slam into the frame after the tension on it is gone. You want to adjust it for minimum movement, but also take care that the sear clears the underside of the hammer. Otherwise you can create a light strike problem, as the hammer is dragging on the sear face after release and slowing down the hammer's momentum.

Hope this helps.

R,
Bullseye

My guns are all MarkII's and I have always done all of my adjustments with the receiver/barrel unit off. May not be the best way but it works for me. Guns have functioned flawlessly for many rounds for a few years now with no re adjustments required. Must have done something right in my old age.
You can't knock success.

I have a 22/45 with the VQ kit installed. I cannot seem to get that "click" that Bullseye alluded to in his adjustment of the pre-travel, although I do hear it with my MK III VQ trigger. I have adjusted the pre travel screw slowly in and out, but only hear the click after pulling and holding the trigger (after the hammer drops) and then re-cocking and slowly releasing the trigger, but this is what it should do without affecting the two travel scenarios. Maybe the 22/45 doesn't do it-I'm stumped. I would hate to have to re-install the factory trigger.

I have adjusted the pre travel screw slowly in and out, but only hear the click after pulling and holding the trigger (after the hammer drops) and then re-cocking and slowly releasing the trigger, but this is what it should do without affecting the two travel scenarios.

If you hear the click after recocking the bolt and slowly releasing the trigger, then you're doing it right. Now all you need to do is adjust the pretravel so there's minimal trigger movement and the click still happens.

R,
Bullseye

Again many thanks for your help. After fighting with the Pre and Over all day in my MK III and 22/45, I decided to write for help-you came to the rescue.

Bullseye would you happen to know if the sear spring for the 22/45 is available anywhere-I've straightened out a little bend I got in it, working with it today-it seems ok but I'd like to replace it. I would hate to send it to SR with VQ parts in it.

I've straightened these 22/45 sear springs out before with no ill effects, and some were bent quite considerably. You should be fine with it. I know of no other 22/45 sear spring suppliers other than Ruger. You can buy the sear springs from them, these are not restricted parts. The 22/45 spring is AP03100 and lists for $0.50 each.

You do not want to send in your gun with aftermarket parts, they will remove them and replace those with factory originals. This is one reason why I recommend to folks to hang onto the originals. Put them in a bag and save them for re installation, just in case you have to send the pistol back in for repair.

R,
Bullseye

My question is there are two screws, which goes in which hole, as there's a long and a short one?

What's the diff? You can swap them externally if your guess is wrong. I'd go for the longer screw in the pre-travel and give you 50/50 odds on it being right.

Mine were the same length for the MKIII 22/45 but the Post travel sticks out more because of the thin cross section of the trigger as compared to the angular tapped hole of the pre-travel screw hole.

Sorry I didn't answer this one earlier. The long one goes into the front of the trigger block. The Allen end should be facing downward so it can be adjusted from the outside with the trigger installed. This screw adjusts pretravel. The shorter one goes into the trigger face. The Allen end faces forward. This screw adjusts overtravel.



Hope this helps.

R,
Bullseye

No worries, Bullseye. I ordered a trigger and sear from VQ, but they sent me an extractor instead of the sear, and the pretravel screw had a messed up head, so I had them send me a new one of those too.

Thanks for the info, I'll get the stuff installed as soon as they ship me the parts. Didn't see any reason to go out and buy an Allen screw when it was their mess up.

They are real good about making things right when there's a goof. I have nothing but kind words for VQ. I wish some of the other parts suppliers were as personable as Volquartsen Inc.

R,
Bullseye

Bullseye wrote:They are real good about making things right when there's a goof. I have nothing but kind words for VQ. I wish some of the other parts suppliers were as personable as Volquartsen Inc.

R,
Bullseye

I called them, chitchatted with a gal, and she was very apologetic, and said the parts would go out today. I can't wait!

This is an old thread, but it helped me out when it turned up in a search so I thought I'd comment.

I installed a VQ trigger kit today in my Mk II based on this thread and other research. Wow - what an improvement in the trigger.

I don't know if it was a mistake on the part of VQ, but my MK II kit came with MK III instructions. That was a puzzler as I searched and searched for the magazine disconnect and magazine disconnect spring parts specifically mentioned in the disassembly and reassembly instructions. Couldn't find them in my MK II exploded diagram, either.

It's probably common knowledge, but it was a new factoid for me to find out that the MK III has a magazine disconnect ( ) whereas the MK II, of course, does not.

If anyone puts a VQ kit in a MK II with MK III instructions, just ignore all references to magazine disconnects, it will make no difference in the installation.

FWIW.