Stevens 200 trigger spring

[4given]

I have seen several posts were people have replaced the trigger spring on Stevens 200 with "music wire" and had great results.

What is "music wire" and were do you get it? What size do you use?

Thanks!

[LaOtto222]

Piano supply house (it is piano wire). Use .040" diameter wire, but you may do better with a slightly smaller diameter. The .040" is the most common.

[Huffmanite]

I'm a recent buyer of a Stevens 200 who also decided to do something about its trigger pull of 8+ lbs.  I too, googled adjusting Stevens 200 trigger.  Of course, I found adjusting the set screw on the end of the straight trigger spring and posts about replaceing the straight trigger spring with piano wire/music wire and such.  To answer your question, music wire is wire in pianos and such.  Did you see a post about use of a spring made from a safety pin?  Anyway, having no piano wire, I decided to just thin out the factory spring along its area that rests on the catch between the ends of the spring.  Except for bottom area of spring that rests on catch, I thinned rest of diameter of spring.  Slight metal removal with use of my bench belt sander and then additional thinning with 220 grit sandpaper.  Just a guess, removed 20% of metal along 3/4 inch of spring.  So, between adjusting set screw and my thinning, got trigger pull down to 3-4 lbs.  Hardly a bench rest trigger pull now, but acceptable to me, even though I don't hunt and shoot from bench one day a week at range.  My Stevens rifle now easily capable of 1" or less 100 yard groups.  Much less, when I do my job and have right hand loads.   Somewhere I saw a post proclaiming, "Don't lower Stevens 200 factory trigger below 4 Lbs", reason, safety problems then possible with closing bolt and trigger accidentally being released and etc.  

[oldandslow]

"Don't lower Stevens 200 factory trigger below 4 pounds". Baloney. I got mine down to a tiny bit over three pounds with the stock spring and that was measured with actual weights, not a guage. With the new spring it's at 2 1/2 pounds. Yes, you can adjust it to where it is unsafe. You just have to find where to quit where it works right. It is also said not to stone the trigger and sear because it is only case hardened, not fully heat treated. I left the trigger assembly alone just in case this is true.

Music wire is spring steel. It can be found at hobby shops that cater to the model airplane crowd and at hardware stores. I got mine at a hardware chain called Westlake Hardware. Hobby Lobby used to have it but they quit carrying at my local store. Brownell's has a music wire pack but it would be very expensive for one trigger and I don't think they sell individual pieces of wire.

[4given]

Thanks for the info guys!

After reading your replies I got to thinkin'.........

I used the spring steel wire from an old spinnerbait I grabbed out of my tackle box. It worked great!  I don't know what the diameter is but is was probably around 2/3 the diameter of the factory spring.

I don't have a trigger pull guage so I don't know how many pounds but with this spring I can adjust it from too darn light to I would guess about 3 - 4 pounds max. I have the screw adjusted alomst all the way in and it feels about right.

[ONE HOLE 4570]

Spinner bait spring that what I used as well

[Bowhunter57]

I adjusted the trigger spring on my 200 all the way out, until it stopped clicking and then turned it back in, 3 clicks. It feels like about 3# and it shoots very well. It's a .25-06, long action that I purchased for coyote hunting and it's extremely accurate.

Good hunting, Bowhunter57