I made a post a few weeks ago about some strange things going on with the stock trigger on my Big Cat. The first time I noticed something was wrong was when I cocked the gun and the barrel tried to slam shut before I even had a chance to get a pellet loaded. Luckily I had not let go of the barrel and managed to catch it before it had a chance to slam closed. I thought that maybe I had not taken a full cocking stroke and the lock up had just barely hooked up. But after that happened I then realized the trigger was completely different than what I had become accustomed to. Instead of very little free travel then a significant creep before it would go off, every so often it would have a long bit of no resistance and then go off with the slightest touch. So I knew something was not like it should be. Then this weekend down at the dairy farm the thing tried to slam shut on me again and just like before I was lucky to catch it and keeping in from slamming home. Well I cocked it again, making sure to make sure a used a full stroke and bottomed the travel out. I loaded a pellet and was in the motion of shouldering the gun without my finger anywhere near the trigger when it went off. With that I thought I had to fix the problem because now the gun had become unsafe to be around.
Well tonight I finally had a few minutes to tear it down and check it out. I was sure I was going to find a badly worn cocking shoe or something like that. But upon disassembly everything looked square and no really rounded or worn parts to be found. The stock power plant was replaced long ago with the Tarantula spring, custom spring guide, new top hat and apex piston seal. I was anxious to see how everything was looking inside too. I was very impressed with how the good the seal looked and spring wasn’t perfectly straight but all in all it looked like the new power plant was holding up. I went over the trigger with extra care and the only thing that really stood out was how much foreign material was in there. I removed what appeared to be a large piece of straw that was well covered with lube. And it was right in the sear area. I have posed the gun on straw bales several times for photo ops. So some chaff must have some how got into the trigger internals. Upon cleaning everything up and re assembling everything, with the help of Double Diamond, I went to the basement to do some testing. Well after 35 to 40 shots the trigger seems like the trigger of old. Still the crappy stock Gamo trigger, but one I’ve learned to shoot. Every shot was just like the last, very little free travel, a constant amount of creep and then finally a sharp release. The only thing I can think is that the large piece of chaff was frequently getting in between mating parts and preventing positive lock up and consistent trigger action. Seems like a lot of work for a trigger that will soon be replaced by the gold trigger, but I had to know what was going on in there.