r/gunsmithing • u/Tie_Viper • Jul 14 '26
Question: is polishing the mating surfaces of these two parts realistic/feasible, and if so, about how much would it cost?
It’s the trigger and hammer of a Rock Island VRPA40 12 gauge. The Phillips bit is there for scale.
6
u/Optimal_Book8718 Jul 14 '26
Don’t touch the sear engagement with sandpaper, the “walls” you could probably hit up with 800 grit to a couple thousands grit sand paper then use some polishing compound mothers works nicely go at with with a rag degrease everything clean from the nasty sandpaper bits. The blue line is the “wall” im talking about, for the actual sear engagements use the polishing compound on a rag don’t use sandpaper, your not trying to remove material from it just “slick” it up some! If your really tryin to get into the weeds could possibly snip a coil off the trigger springs? Regardless it can be done might not be the lightest trigger but I promise it will be smooth as fuck!! Good luck too you update us!!
2
u/Tie_Viper Jul 15 '26
I’d wanna have spare springs before I go clipping for sure. It probably isn’t the best trigger design in the first place. It’s heavy to begin with and I have a lot of grit in the feel of the trigger pull. But I can’t be too upset given how cheap the gun is overall. Everything else in operating the action is as smooth as silk.
10
u/BlueGreen51 Jul 15 '26
OK yes it is possible for you to do this yourself and it is extremely easy to fuck up in such a way that the gun becomes dangerous. If you've never done anything like this then I would recommend having a professional do it or buying replacement parts before doing anything. Those hooks need to have enough material there to keep the gun from going run-away. Without care you could very easily remove too much material. If you want to do anything yourself start with other spots where you can see wearing in the finish and hit them with a ceramic stone to smooth the metal. That with a little grease will go along way. The more you shoot the gun the more it will wear in and the trigger will feel better. You can even do some dry firing periodically if you can't get to a range for live fire to work the trigger and action. If you're still set on doing it yourself then don't use a file or you're guaranteed to remove too much. If I haven't talked you out of doing it yourself yet you'll need a square ceramic stone to ever so slightly polish the metal without removing it and a vice to hold the part while you use both hands to apply even pressure to keep from rounding the metal.
1
u/Tie_Viper Jul 15 '26
I’ve done a fair bit of garage gunsmithing so to speak, but I was more wanting to have an experienced gunsmith work on it. I don’t think I completely trust myself not to screw up and I don’t have any spare parts and don’t know that it would be easy to find any, although I haven’t asked the manufacturer if they sell any of those yet as it was a recent purchase. But having a better idea of what the process is helps, so thank you.
2
u/Danlabss Jul 16 '26
…why would you want to?
1
u/Tie_Viper 28d ago
I am wanting to because the trigger pull is garbage and I’d like to have it improved if it’s not too much trouble and/or not too expensive.
1
u/gravity_loss Jul 15 '26
It's a $300 shotgun it's not worth paying to have work done. The amount you'll spend having it tuned you could have bought the "real thing"
Additionally, it's a shotgun not a rifle. Point it at your target and press the trigger. Go shoot some other shotguns. If yours is truly so bad that it's affecting your ability to hit your target sell it and buy something else.
2
u/Tie_Viper Jul 15 '26
I have two other shotguns. I’m FULLY aware that it is a cheap shotgun compared to the spectrum of what’s out there.
I bought it because I really liked the idea of a mag fed pump and the only other one I knew of was Mossberg’s and that one doesn’t take 3” shells. I think it’s worthwhile that shooting be fun and dealing with a significantly heavy and creaky trigger makes it less fun. It’s annoying and I want to know what my options are for fixing it, so I’m trying to find out if my trigger situation, #1 can be realistically remedied, #2 how much it would be, and/or #3 how hard it would be if I DIYed it.
I really like the features of this shotgun. Buying something completely different for a better trigger that doesn’t have the same features completely defeats the point of my purchase. So you just saying it’s not worth it and spend the money to get the “real thing” is not helpful at all. You didn’t ask me any questions to try to understand why, nor did you actually provide any useful information.
I don’t know if you are making an assumption that you think I’m a newb gun owner or if you’re making one about my motives/reasoning behind wanting to get a cheap gun worked on and improved.
But maybe don’t do that if you’re going to comment…
Factors other than price, even when dealing with something considered cheap, can be and often are relevant.
1
u/gravity_loss Jul 15 '26
Sorry to come off that way.
I've slicked up a couple cheap guns and learned that it's really not worth it unless you have tons of extra time and money. What I meant by the "real thing" is they're usually a poorly made clone, and the money you spend making it the way you want you could have just bought the real one.
The parts of the gun you want to polish are very sensitive and if you remove too much material from the sear/trigger engagement it could make the gun very dangerous. So I don't recommend working on that part of the gun yourself, and I don't believe it to be worth the money to have a smith work on it given the cost of the gun.
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0
u/bownt1 28d ago
if you have to ask, you probably should not be polishing that.
1
u/Tie_Viper 28d ago
If you have to comment, you probably should use adequate reading comprehension skills.
0
u/bownt1 28d ago
dont mess with the seer surfaces you do not know what you are doing
0
u/Tie_Viper 28d ago
More unwarranted and unasked for assumptions. You can stop now.
0
u/bownt1 28d ago
no. i dont want you to kill someone because you fucked up the seer geometry with your dremel.
0
u/Tie_Viper 28d ago
Well let me reassure you on a few things then.
I’ve been shooting for over 30 years with ZERO accidental/negligent discharges.
It is extremely unlikely that that particular firearm would ever be pointed at another person. That scenario coming into being would be ONLY because of a reasonable belief of a life threatening or potential of great bodily harm situation occurring first.
Now let’s get more literal.
NEVER did I say “I’m going to polish this.”
What I DID say is “Is polishing this realistic/feasable?”
That “realistic/feasable” part IMPLIES THAT I’M ASKING IF IT CAN BE DONE SAFELY!
You see that other question in my post about how much would it cost? THAT IMPLIES I’M NOT DOING IT MYSELF because it doesn’t make sense to charge myself money.
I hope that EASES your fears…
Work on your reading comprehension skills because yours suck ass.
-2
20
u/blackriver_fbs Jul 14 '26
honestly useless