Pardini SP Trigger Issue

I went to the range yesterday and after shooting about 20 rounds the trigger on my Pardini SP just stopped functioning. I ejected the magazine and it had 1 round left in it. I tried to eject the round that was in the chamber and it would retract but wouldn't eject. After several more attempts I just gave up and left the range.

Later I called Pardini U.S.A. and talked to Vladimir about the problem. He said he would try to walk me through a fix on the phone or I could stop by the shop later in the day. I just purchased the SP after the Holidays and am not at all familiar with the workings of the pistol. Luckily I live in Tampa and was close by. I thought it best to visit the shop and let Vladimir walk me through the fix.

I met Vladimir at the designated time and he welcomed me and my wife to the facility. He then took the next hour educating me on what had happened to my pistol, described the trigger time line and walked me through the trigger adjustment process. He was very patient and readjusted things several times to get things working to my liking. The pistol now dry fires very nicely and I can't wait to take it to the range and try it out with these new trigger adjustments finished.

If I understood correctly the minor trigger adjustments I had made previously were the cause of the problem. Evidently I had adjusted things to the point where after things heated up from firing a few rounds the sear would not re-engage. The chambered round would not eject because I had taken the magazine out and evidently the ejector is part of the magazine.

Vladimir is truly an asset to Pardini USA and provides outstanding customer service and technical support.

Thank you Vladimir !

Don't go turning screws or making adjustments till you fully understand the functions and operations of each adjustment. 


ADJUSTING THE PARDINI SP/HP TRIGGER 
This pistol is designed to have a two stage pull and most shooters who take the time to get acquainted with a two stage system end up liking it and doing better than with the American "High Standard/Model 41 " trigger. To use a two stage pull, you pull through or "take up" the longer "1st stage" quickly to where you feel the sudden increase in resistance which is the onset of the "2nd stage" which is short and crisp. As the 2nd stage is "squeezed" through more slowly, the gun fires. The take up of the 1st stage is automatic on recoil during timed and rapid fire and becomes hardly noticeable in a very short time. 

OK. Lets take the Owners manual in hand and open it up to the middle of the book where it shows the trigger mechanism and the instructions on adjustment. As we will be doing lots of "dry-firing" be sure the dry fire plug is in the chamber of the pistol on the SP (not really necessary for the HP.) We need to start with screw "CP" which accessible only after taking the grip from the gun. 


The SP trigger Assembly 

1. Back out screw "CP" counterclockwise about 2 turns. 

2. Back out strews "PG" and "TS" counterclockwise about 2 turns. At this point you should have play between the trigger bar/dis-connector and the sear and you should have plenty of sear engagement with the hammer. You may or may not have two stages to the trigger pull. 

3. Back out "PS" counterclockwise about 2 turns. Back out "CS" a couple of turns. Now you should have a long continuous creepy pull with lots of "free-play" or take-up. At this point, while the trigger pull is like that of a double action revolver, you will at least have a "safe" gun. Now lets refine: 

4. Turn "CS" in clockwise until you feel the "2nd stage" appear about at the end of the pull. (You will have contacted the spring loaded ball bearing inside "CS". The load on this ban is determined by "PS".) You can fine tune the length of this "2nd stage" by tiny adjustments in "CS" until you get the kind of feel you like. Most shooters want this to be "crisp" or in other words a short 2nd stage (the part you squeeze off at the end of the pull). 

5. Now there are two parts to the "front" part of the pull. or "1st stage" . The initial part is the taking up of the gap between the trigger bar and the ear of the sear - this is usually called the "free play" The other part is the real "1st stage" and in this pistol design you are sliding the sear almost all the way out of the hammer notch during this stage. YOU MUST HAVE SOME OF THIS "1st STAGE"!! The most common error in trying to customize the feel of the trigger on this gun is to "dial out" all the 1st stage and make the trigger like a Model 41. This is what makes the gun "double" and not hold. etc. We control this amount of sear engagement and thus the "1st stage" with screw "CP". So, now: 

6. Turn in screw "CP" so you have some definite 1st stage travel (after the free play take-up). Leave as much of this travel in as you can tolerate. At the end of this 1st stage travel and before the hammer falls you will contact the spring loaded ball bearing and be at the 2nd stage which is short and crisp. If not, go back to 3 and 4 and play around until you do. 

7. Now turn in screw "PG" to adjust the free play or take-up. Make sure that the trigger bar will go up into position after the gun is cycled and the trigger released and then leave just a tiny bit more for reliability. 

8. Now we are ready to adjust the weight of the total pull. This is to be 2 lbs. for NRA rules and 1000 grams for UIT rules (2 l/4Ibs). The weight of the 1st stage is controlled by the sear spring (which is essentially non adjustable) and by screw "PP". The weight of the 2nd stage is controlled by screw "PS" which is inside "CS". The total weight is usually divided up equally between the 1st stage and the 2nd stage. This makes the pull "self-calibrating". When you are in a match, the arousal level often creates deceptive sensory input and one day the trigger will feel very heavy and another day very light. With this kind of set-up at least you know that when you take up the 1st stage you have applied 1/2 the required pressure. This can be very comforting in a major match where you don't want to be too conservative on the trigger and lose time and yet also don't want to "shoot a snake in the nose" while at the 45 degree ready position. So, turn the appropriate screws the appropriate amount until you get the balance of weights on 1st and 2nd stage you prefer. 

9. Finally, lets adjust the over-travel of the trigger after the hammer falls. This is done with screw "TS". Turn it in until you have the amount of over-travel you prefer (you have to leave some, you know!) 



Good 'Shooting

NYGORD PRECISION PRODUCTS 

And it won't eject without a mag in place. Ejector is on the mag

JD Mahan wrote:And it won't eject without a mag in place. Ejector is on the mag

I’ve seen a few scratched heads over that

I went back to the range again this morning. I was eager to try out the new trigger settings.

I did much better than I ever have with the trigger set up this wa.

As I mentioned, I just purchased this pistol after the Holidays and I don't get to the range as often as most of you. I don't even average once a week so my improvement has been slow. I could really see the difference in my groupings since the changes to the trigger settings.

The photo is a typical group I shot this morning. My near time goal is to get 5 shots in the heavy orange diamond, all touching, at 10 yards. Then I will move to longer distances until I get to 25 yards. I know this isn't impressive to the shooters on this Forum but I think it is a realistic goal for me. I've never even tried to shoot at 25 yards. I'm not sure I could hit paper at that distance.

Ljohns wrote:I went back to the range again this morning. I was eager to try out the new trigger settings.

I did much better than I ever have with the trigger set up this wa.

As I mentioned, I just purchased this pistol after the Holidays and I don't get to the range as often as most of you. I don't even average once a week so my improvement has been slow. I could really see the difference in my groupings since the changes to the trigger settings.

The photo is a typical group I shot this morning. My near time goal is to get 5 shots in the heavy orange diamond, all touching, at 10 yards. Then I will move to longer distances until I get to 25 yards. I know this isn't impressive to the shooters on this Forum but I think it is a realistic goal for me. I've never even tried to shoot at 25 yards. I'm not sure I could hit paper at that distance.

I don’t think you are doing yourself any favors st those distances or with those targets. Try the 25yard timed and rapid targets or the 50ft versions of the range has limited distance

I agree with Chris on your target selection.  Waaay too much going on there and at close range I'm sure your eye/focus is darting around quite a bit.  The USMC workbook has you shooting on a blank target for a reason.  Your brain will move you to the center of the paper and smaller groups.  Try it you might surprise yourself.

https://www.bullseyeforum.net/t5966-usmc-pistol-team-workbook

- Dave

dronning wrote:I agree with Chris on your target selection.  Waaay too much going on there and at close range I'm sure your eye/focus is darting around quite a bit.  The USMC workbook has you shooting on a blank target for a reason.  Your brain will move you to the center of the paper and smaller groups.  Try it you might surprise yourself.

https://www.bullseyeforum.net/t5966-usmc-pistol-team-workbook

- Dave

Thanks for the target help guys.

Like I mentioned, I'm a novice at this. I just assumed that a target with horizontal and vertical lines would help me line up the sights correctly and help me recognize when I was shooting high/low or Left/Right.

I'll give the targets you suggest a try.

Ljohns wrote:

dronning wrote:I agree with Chris on your target selection.  Waaay too much going on there and at close range I'm sure your eye/focus is darting around quite a bit.  The USMC workbook has you shooting on a blank target for a reason.  Your brain will move you to the center of the paper and smaller groups.  Try it you might surprise yourself.

https://www.bullseyeforum.net/t5966-usmc-pistol-team-workbook

- Dave

Thanks for the target help guys.

Like I mentioned, I'm a novice at this. I just assumed that a target with horizontal and vertical lines would help me line up the sights correctly and help me recognize when I was shooting high/low or Left/Right.

I'll give the targets you suggest a try.

The workbook is a good start as well blank target (flip target backwards)

Don't be afraid to go to official 25 and 50 yard targets. You have one of the worlds finest shootin' machines there. 

You'll find it's not as hard as you thought. I guarantee you'll have fun. 

Jim

Under 2 inches at 10 yards, should be all in the black at 25 yards, which is at least Expert scores.

I have my SP and HP set with a very short roll, minimal over travel, and minimal take up. Once you get weight on the trigger it really just slips out from under your finger.

I went to the range this afternoon and bought a 25 yard Slowfire Pistol target to see what I could do. I've never tried shooting at 25 yards before. Boy, does that target look small way out there.

I shot 25 rounds at 25 yards. Surprisingly they all hit paper. 2 were outside of the target rings, 5 were in the 2 outer white circles and 3 were in the red bullseye. The rest were in various black rings.

I stopped at that point and shot my regular targets at 10 yards to finish out the session.

This particular range allows .22 cal. rifles and even tactical shotguns on the pistol range. By this time two young guys had taken the lane next to me and were shooting a .223 with a 30 round magazine. Very distracting.

That distraction is excellent practice for Camp Perry!

Ljohns wrote:I went to the range this afternoon and bought a 25 yard Slowfire Pistol target to see what I could do. I've never tried shooting at 25 yards before. Boy, does that target look small way out there.

I shot 25 rounds at 25 yards. Surprisingly they all hit paper. 2 were outside of the target rings, 5 were in the 2 outer white circles and 3 were in the red bullseye. The rest were in various black rings.

I stopped at that point and shot my regular targets at 10 yards to finish out the session.

This particular range allows .22 cal. rifles and even tactical shotguns on the pistol range. By this time two young guys had taken the lane next to me and were shooting a .223 with a 30 round magazine. Very distracting.

25yard slow fire is tough For everyone