home made trigger weight

I recently struggled with getting my air pistol to pass the trigger weight test at a match. I thought that I had it set at a previous match but I was just short of minimum weight. So I modified a home made trigger weight another shooter made up for rifle to use with pistol.

Its a plastic peanut butter jar with a bent rod attached to the lid. Similar to the official NRA weight set but I use either bullets or pellets to set the weight. of course an accurate postage scale is handy to have too.

I like it. I'll have to start working on one just for fun. I think I have a bag of lead shot someplace in the garage.

I use the same basic idea xcept that I use water instead of lead. Scott

Scott,

doesn't the water slosh around on you? I would think that the little bit of the base moving about would increase the weight.

-s

Looks good. Makes my similar "scale" with the 1 qt zip-lock look Paleolithic.

I have not noticed such a problem. Typically I set the bottle on the floor that is attached to the bracket that goes on the trigger and gently raise it, if the trigger doesn't break I just give it a slight jerk to see how much more it takes to get it to break. I use a good kitchen scale that measures in grams and tenths of an ounce that is right in line with the "Official Cub Scout Pinewood Derby Scale" and if any of you have a son in cub scouts you know how insanely serious those people take their pinewood derby so it must be right. I have my LP10 set at 510grams with this scale and last year at the nationals at Fort Bening it didn't make weight on the first attempt (you get three) so the second attemt she lifted it more gently and it held fine. Just a different way of getting around buying the $140 official set.



Scott

By the way thats a nice set up you made there. I couldn't use good pellets though, that would drive me nuts knowing I have good useable pellets sitting there that I can't touch:) Scott

Thanks. I like the design too but it can stand some improvements. If I ever make a new rod for it, I would shorten the knife edge side to center the pull directly over the center of the jar.

On the other hand, I know where I can find pellets for practice. It's almost as good as finding spare change in the sofa.

I too made one of these to set up my AP. I used a vitamin bottle and mounted my rod in the center of the cap. I shaped the lift rod in a squared off question mark (?) shape to get the weight directly below the center of the trigger when lifting. I couldn't bring myself to use new pellets so I used a combination of rejected cast bullets and pellets taken out of my pellet trap for the finer weight adjustment on the postal scale.
The beauty of this type of trigger weight is that it is almost infinitely adjustable and with one lift rod and four weight containers you can have a trigger weight for your air pistol, .22, Wad Gun, and Ball gun. Even a different one for your revolver if you wanted for fraction of the cost of a commercial set of weights.
Scott