As mentioned in a previous thread, I recently ordered a Jard 3# adjustable trigger kit to replace the stock trigger on my 15-22.

AR-15 AR CUSTOM TRIGGER KIT - Brownells



First of all, I have to say that I'm very impressed with how easily it went in (I'm a noob at this sort of upgrade and expected it to be somewhat more challenging than it actually was). It was a very straight forward installation. It took me a bit over an hour, but that included a LOT of time reviewing the instructions and making sure I knew every step in the correct sequence and understanding what every screw was for and how every component operated.

The only adjustment that posed the greatest investment of time and trial was the trigger disconnect adjustment, but even that only took about 15 minutes.

I wish that I had a trigger pull gauge so that I can give an accurate measurement of pull weight (I will be getting one soon). All that I can say until I do get one is that I can physically feel that the trigger is much, much lighter to release (like "scary keep the muzzle always pointed down range" light...not that I ever do otherwise). I dialed the new trigger in so that there is < 1/8" of trigger slack and virtually zero creep. The release is as crisp as potato chip snapping between your teeth!

Tomorrow will bring on some real results when I take it to the range for some live fire testing. I'll post about my experience with that and give my overall impression of its performance then.

I'm glad it went smoothly.

when you buy a TP gauge, skip all the mechanical ones, even though they are cheaper, and buy the Lyman digital.

Lyman Products Your Primary Source for Reloading Equipment

Most places sell it in the $50-$55 range.

It will let you do cumulative measurements and give you the average for the total number of tests. It's well worth the money. IMHO.

Thanks, major, I already looked into it and will have a RCBS premium trigger pull scale arriving this friday. It's cost is $37.36 with free second day shipping (gotta love Amazon Prime).

Anyway, I had an interesting day at the range this afternoon...will report on it later. There are definitely some interesting issues to mention.

I have the Jard 3# non-adjustable in my 5.56 which I like a lot. It's definitely on the light side and requires caution until you get used to it.Thereafter, it's just fine. I opted for non-adjustable because I firmly believe in Murphy.

I had thought to put one in the 15-22, but I do a lot of drills on a timer. The .22 is quite light and a 3# pull on it, moving fast, is just a bit light for me. Not much there to damp things down and get the control I want. 3 seconds on a reduced target isn't a whole lot of time. The .22's pull on the Lyman gauge is about 6# but decent, and it works for me.

I have over 3000 rounds on the Jard with no issues; nice unit.

How did it work?

__________________
Stu

Okay, so I arrived at the range Wednesday afternoon with 6 fully loaded 25 round magazines (5 w/CCI Mini-mag HP's and 1 w/CCI Stinger Hypervelocity rounds). After setting up targets at 25 and 50 yards I proceeded to shoot.

Within the first 10 shots fired, I knew I had some adjustment issues. I had 4 trigger reset failures. Apparently, I had dialed in the disconnect adjustment just a tad too tight. No, problem, I had the Jard instruction manual and the correct allen wrench with me. I swiveled open the lower and made some minor tweaks until the trigger was again resetting properly. After that it was just pure shooting fun through five magazines and it was the first time (in 3 range visits with my 15-22) that I haven't had a failure to feed issue.

So, I'm thinking "Wow, this is great! Bring on that two gun match!" My shot groups are noticably tighter, this trigger is pure pleasure to use, I've got this suched!

Then I put in the last mag, the one with the Stinger loads and again, failure to reset. Dammit, but this trigger is touchy. Okay, no problem...I fixed this once, I can do it again, but no. I opened up the rifle to adjust that disconnect adjustment. I tweaked this way and I tweaked that way, but it's a no go. I can't get it to work. There's a lot of powder residue all over everything, so I pack up and head home ready to pull out the unit and bring out the Dremel, polishing pad and Flitz.

However, I get home and before removing the trigger and starting the polishing job (which I will eventually do anyway) I spray the whole thing down with Hoppe's Elite solvent (my favorite, BTW) and scrub everything with some small brushes. then I spray it all down with Rem Oil, put it back together and try it out. Surprise, surprise...there's absolutely no problem!! Everything works pefectly again!

Unfortunately, last night we had almost every COPD'er in town show up with shortness of breath at our emergency dept. and I was pretty wiped out this morning, so I never made it to the range today, as I'd planned, to put the rifle through the paces before tomorrow's IDPA 2-gun match. So, hopefully, I won't have the same problems crop up during the comp, but I'm bringing the Hoppe's and tools just in case.

On a side note, my new RCBS trigger pull scale arrived at my doorstep yesterday and I'm happy to report that I get a very consistent 3 pound release with my new Jard trigger. I wonder what it will be once I finally break out that Flitz and Dremel??

Proper lubrication, including the trigger and hammer pins is a must. Sorry you had the problems before discovering that.

Is this the Jard trigger replacement you used?: AR-15 NON-ADJUSTABLE TRIGGER KIT - Brownells

Had a great day with my 15-22 Jard trigger set up today at the local IDPA 2-gun match. I love, love, LOVE its performance! There were a couple of other guys on my squad with the same trigger (one on the M&P's bigger brother in .223 and the other with the same 15-22 model I have). Both had nothing but good things to say about their upgrade.

I had none of the previous adjustment issues present themselves. The only thing is that now I want to (must!) do some trigger work on my CZ-75BD pistol I use for these comps. This trigger has spoiled me!

On the last rifle stage I gave a heads up to the SO that I was gonna dump the mag. He just smiled and understood and had no problem with that. Our squad did run out of target pasters though LOL. Oh, and I nicked one civilian target, oops.

You should not be using any kind of solvent that will get on the AR15-22's polymer, you should be using a CLP product, preferably a synthetic one. And personally as a competition shooter the only thing I use Rem Oil these days for is to spray a little in my Ultimate Cliploader in the winter months when loading my Buckmark racegun mags or to lube the wheels on my gun cart. I don't let it touch my guns at all. Everything gets Eezox only, except my open centerfire racegun that needs a little grease in one area and it gets Militec-1 grease.

I run the Jard 1.5# in my varmint ar15 in .223 and LOVE it

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psalm 23:4 cause I'm armed

Your post really got me to wondering if I'm doing, or have done some harm to the polymer components of my rifle (as well as my Ruger Mark III Hunter 22/45, Ruger LCP, Glock 23, or Mossberg 930SPX). I spray it on the metal parts only, though there will always be some splash. Granted, I've only had to clean my rifle 3 times since I've owned it, but I've examined it very carefully (even under a loupe) and for the life of me, I see and feel no damage whatsoever.

I've asked friends with far more extensive firearms experience than I will ever have what they thought about using Hoppe's Elite on polymer and nobody has expressed any of the concern you have with your post. I read through the cleaning and maintenance part of the owner's manual and the label on the Hoppe's Elite bottle and found no warnings about its use on plastic at all. I did learn that the product is water-based, biodegradable and environmentally safe.

I also spent quite a bit of time researching this issue extensively on other online gun forums today. This was the best and most comprehensive post I found on a wide variety of cleaning solvents and lubricants: Reviews of gun care/maintenance solutions - Shooting Sports Forum ...."[Hoppe's Elite/Mpro-7] will not harm any plastics, wood, or metals that I've yet noticed on any of my firearms."

While I appreciate your advice, I believe you're wrong about Hoppe's Elite. On the other hand, you have enlightened me about Eezox and from all that I read on that product, I will be making the switch to that from the Rem Oil I'm currently using.

Thanks!

I'm still waiting for him to explain his earlier statement that Hoppe's 9 will damage the 15-22's chamber.

According to precision rimfire competitors any solvent that gets into the chamber will permeate the metal and cause premature wear by reducing the metals's Rockwell number. According to them this can allow any moisture to start damaging it also. I suppose this would be important if you happen to be shooting a $3k Bleiker precision .22 or something of that class. In an AR15-22 I would be more worried about the effects of the solvent on the polymer receiver around the chamber area. They also don't believe in metal chamber brushes either, even copper.
I figure why take chances. My rimfires will likely have 50-100k rounds or more through them by the year 2015. I know that since switching to Eezox as a CLP, counting this last weekend, I now have completed 42 straight matches with no malfunctions, light strikes, FTF, or FTEs in my Buckmark race gun. This dispite having only used a bore snake in the barrel the last 6 months and only lubing the slide rails. My AR15-22 I have had since last July has had one rod and patch through it, the rest also being a boresnake and also the only parts I lube are the bolt rails, if you don't count putting some grease on the S3G trigger contact points. I discovered a couple of years ago that my rimfires got even more reliable the less I did to them. This was something long time competitors knew already. Now I don't clean them before or after a match unless they look particularly dirty and I mean so black you can't see the surface of the feedramp. The only thing that makes me clean more and more often is weather. If it rains I will likely do some cleaning at the range during a match, or if it is dusty with a lot of wind I will be cleaing more.

Interesting ...

I have a 1963 High Standard Trophy Supramatic that was used by the Ft. Benning AMU for several years. The shooter sold it to me back in the late 70s. He put 30k through it and used Hoppe's on it after every match. I've probably put another 10-15k through it since I bought it. About 15 years ago I put it in a machine rest and 25-yard groups were all in the X-ring on a standard 25-yard slow-fire target.

I don't think I am going to get too worried about what Hoppe's Elite does to my 15-22's chamber. I'd love to see the results of actual hardness tests to substantiate that theory that Hoppe's softens metal.

I ran a job a few months ago that involved milling on several hundred large hex nuts. The customer told me they were going to be Grade 2, so that's how I quoted the job. When I picked them up they were Grade 5. Luckily, he's a good guy and suggested right away that I adjust the price to make up for all of the inserts I would eat up. Didn't know I could have just soaked them overnight in Hoppe's!

Okay, so after another range day yesterday and a thorough cleaning (yep, photo, I'm still using the Elite to clean ) and maybe 400-450 total of CCI Mini-mag and Stinger rounds on the new Jard trigger, I put the trigger pull scale on my 15-22 just for gits and shiggles.

Well, lo and behold, the trigger is now breaking crisply and consistently at 2lb-10oz! I was not expecting that at all. The performance actually seems to have improved a full 6oz from the day it was installed.

I am a newb on this subject, so can someone explain to me how that happens and when I do eventually break out the Dremel and Flitz to polish it, will the trigger pull weight improve even more dramatically???

Heating with flame and or quenching would affect hardness, don't believe sunlight or Hoppe's can affect metal hardness. LOL : With the Polymer, the plastics ability to ward off ageing from ultra violet light would be my sunlight worry, if applicable.

I've never had to break out any solvent for either rifle, yet.

But, after reading this I'm going to be cautious using any on the 15/22's polymer lower.


I've had good luck removing the carbon deposits from my 15/22's lower with some spray CLP, nylon brushes and elbow grease. I use some nylon dental tools, too.

I started adding a little grease onto the 15/22's bolt rails (TW 25B,Mil-Comm) and my AR's bolt carrier cuz I noticed some wear points and the CLP seems to dry up while shooting, but that's another subject.

Good info for cautionary dudes like me, tho.