Rugers and the Volquartsen Trigger

I am interested in the quality of trigger pull one can expect w/ the title unit? Do they often need tuning after installation? 
I tried a friends Ruger with the Vq trigger today and found it to be very poor. Lots of creep and very mushy.

Thanks!
Ron

My VQ trigger is outstanding.  I wonder if your friend installed all of the parts correctly.  I think your friend should contact Volquartsen and get help to correct his trigger system.


Cort

The typical Ruger Mk II needs a little more than a VQ sear and trigger. I recommend installing a Clark bushing and honing all the flat surfaces of the internal moving parts. The VQ trigger will allow you to remove any creep until the sear is engaged, and to adjust the over travel. Even with this work the VQ sear and trigger may not give you the trigger feel you want. For those who are looking for a very short, crisp trigger, I recommend you hone the stock sear until you get the pull you want, combined with a VQ trigger and the Clark bushing. Most VQ triggers will need to be fit to the frame opening which will help remove some of the lateral slop of the stock Ruger trigger. You can also make and install a shim that will remove the lateral movement in the trigger. I have a pdf that explains how to make the shim.

I have a Volquartsen trigger, sear and machined disconnector in a SS Mark III Target. I shimmed the trigger to take out a lot of lateral slop but still intend to drill and bush it to make it fit better on the trigger pin. A bevel was ground on the right side of the trigger face to make for a smoother pull (I'm right handed). The machined disconnector had to have its forward edge trimmed to keep from being a trigger stop against the forward barrel lug and all surfaces were polished before installation. The trigger spring plunger was also polished to remove rough edges. On the to-do list is replace several pins with drill blanks to take out more play. I kept the Ruger springs as the replacement springs felt too light. The trigger is adjusted for about a 1/16" of free play/take up for reliable resets and about a 1/16" of overtravel. A blast shield helps keep everything clean so the trigger won't get gritty after use.

On a scale of excellent trigger (Walther LGR) to lousy (Glock, Kel-Tec or Arrow stapler) I'd call my Ruger's trigger good and not distracting.

The inside of my stainless steel frame was very rough as delivered, with a lot of burrs, scratches and chips from manufacturing. Next time I turn it into a pile of parts I plan to check that all the holes are drilled perpendicular to the frame.

I've been working on Ruger's since 1988. I don't care for the Volquartsen drop in kits because they never have aworthy BE trigger pull in my opinion. My opinion is based on fixing many Rugers with the drop in parts. Just because a pistol might hold 2# doesn't make it a good trigger job. I prefer the Clark steel trigger because it's not soft like the aluminum Volquartsen triggers (over travel screw hole burrs from adjusting and requires chamferring). Volquartsen triggers feel spongy to me when pulled. Also the quality of their so called polished parts is unacceptable for the money. If anyone is serious about shooting BE with a Ruger they should have a pistolsmith do the trigger job. Speaking of Rugers, they are mighty fine pistols for the money; I started with one and shot high 880's with it until I moved on to another pistol.

Roddy does an excellent Ruger trigger.  So does this guy
http://www.oregonprecisionarms.com/

Thank you all for the time and the information you have supplied. After trying the borrowed gun I'm not surprised that most everyone tuned or had tuning after installing the VQ trigger.
I've always had triggers done by 'smiths, unless a used gun which already had been so modified.
A drop in that was good to go would be great but I've never been very lucky!

Again.
Thanks,
Ron

I found that the Volquartsen kit made a really noticeable improvement in my Mk II. That is not the same as saying that it is a 'Bullseye Gunsmith' quality trigger. Having shot some fairly nice (rifle) triggers, I expected that I could drop in the kit and make my debut into shooting Bullseye (Go ahead and laugh). My clubs 'summer league' started up and for the first week my always reliable (for about 20 years) would hardly feed what I remembered to be (OK, there's one problem) it's favorite ammo. By week two it had been scrubbed and cleaned, had a new Volquartsen kit installed, I had ammo that would feed and I had dry fired it over 100 rounds. When I started my Practice time I learned that sometimes the shot would break when the trigger was pulled and sometimes it would not break until I began releasing after the shot SHOULD have fired. I know that 'release triggers' were popular with shotguns once upon a time but .... I did not find it a help in Bullseye! One of the other shooters quietly mentioned that 'those Rugers are not all that precisely made' (or something to that effect) and that I should consider adding a little 'extra play' to my adjustments to allow for the tolerances. It was great advice, everything was again disassembled, lots of the rough areas (on the gun AND the trigger kit) were polished, I took note of how much play was present in the fit of the pins and when I set it up again I did not try to make it as 'tight' as my Anschutz free rifle.
If/when I get to the point where the gun is holding me back (not looking to happen soon by my scores), I would most certainly send it to a real smith for a trigger job. The Volquartsen kit, some time with a few stones plus REASONABLE expectations will allow me to shoot and learn for now!


Bruce