Browning Maxus Shotgun Troubleshooting

Billythekid,

Any report from you on avoiding the trigger trapping?

My gun repair is finished at Browning and it will be shipped out ground today. I'll report what I find in 7-10 days.

In the past 2 weeks I've shot 16 rounds of skeet, intentionally doing more doubles than usual just to test the gun out. I changed the way I pulled the trigger by using the pad of my index finger instead of the crease at the first joint. I had no problems at all with the doubles. But I have shot the Benellis for a year and a half, using the crease without ever having a problem. The travel of Benelli's trigger to reset is definitely less and there seems to be a much louder click when it occurs. Being in Florida, I don't have to worry about gloves trapping it. I'll hold off getting any trigger work for now.

I heard on the shotgunworld forum that Browning may be using the Winchester SX3 triggers in the Maxus now. At least that's the way I understood it. It would be interesting for us Maxus owners to pull and photo our trigger groups and see how they compare. I have not had any trigger or safety lock issues on my Dec 2013 Maxus Sporting and now wonder if I may have a different trigger group. I'll see if I can post photos tomorrow since Dallas temps are dropping from 80 to 25 in 18 hours.

Here are photos of my Dec 2013 purchased Maxus Sporting trigger group.

Any different from yours? If so, when did you buy it, and post pics if you have any.

Thanks for taking pics of your trigger group. My "repaired" Maxus will be delivered via UPS today and I'm very curious as to what my new/repaired trigger will look like and behave.

A person replied on the shotgunworld website and he said I have the SX3 /Silver trigger group. I think the hammer is slotted to reduce weight but otherwise basically the same. I wonder if Browning replaced yours with this same one.

Well I just tried about twenty rounds with the repair and was not able to trap the trigger. I pulled hard and long on single shots and the second and third shots were immediately available with the slightest pressure release. Good first step. I'm going to yank and compare the trigger group to what I see above next.

I have carefully compared my newly replaced trigger to the images posted above and it is an identical match. Let's hope the problem is solved. I'll be a lot more confident if I can get through several hunts next season w/o any problems.

Thanks for all the input guys.

Great, snap some pics and we can compare with the group I got in my Dec 2013 gun, above.

Sorry bud!! I wish I had seen this 2 hours ago with everything broken down for cleaning. Just put her away in the safe

I doubt my pics would reveal anything other than what is visible from your excellent close-up shots. I compared each full screen images to my trigger group and the they were identical.

Oh okay no problem, I was probably wondering the same thing as you, if maybe they're replacing the trigger group with a different one - reportedly the same they're using in the SX3 and Silver. I think they did hollow out the hammer to make it lighter and maybe one other mod, but that's about it.

Sounds like you got the new one and all is well. I have had NO issues with mine.

Did you end up with the "blunt" or "pitchfork" style lifter? Here's the two types identified, the "pitchfork" (top) is the older lifter and the "blunt" (bottom) is the newer lifter:

Your trigger group from your early 2012 photos looks just like the ones I posted.

I don't understand how it can be different. Maybe they're all the same, or the differences are very subtle.

I definitely got the "blunt" lifter this go around.... which got me thinking that I probably had the pitchfork last time. Wish I had taken a picture before shipping it off repairs or I wasn't over 50. The little details seem to slip by me now.

Maybe it's an optical illusion and maybe I'm just being anal, but if you look at the pix of Dallas CMT's spring that controls the trigger pull and reset, it has 8 coils to it. On Billy the Kid's pix as well as both of my trigger groups, there are only 7 coils. I wonder if that has a bearing as to why we had trigger trapping problems and Dallas CMT didn't? More coils, more tension, quicker reset? I'm not an engineer, just asking.

Looks like eight coils to me -

Billy, it looks like yours as nine coils on the spring. I'm counting the shiny high spots.

Is this the same spring?

Gifters spring has seven coils. I give up. :cry:

Well it sounded like a good theory anyway. Talking with a friend who is a Remington 1100 aficionado, he said that guys with 1100's who wanted to increase the trigger spring tension (same type of trapping problem) added spacers at the attachment end. I showed him the Maxus trigger and he said that would be really tough to do on these, if not impossible.

It just dawned on me that I didn't have the trigger trapping problem on my 1st Maxus for the first 6 months. It began immediately after I cleaned it a few weeks ago. I did something different. I blew the trigger group out with Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber. It cleans well, but takes the oil and lubricants off along with the dirt. In reading the Maxus manual, it seems they are not keen on using too much oil so I went very sparingly in all areas. The 2nd Maxus had the problem right out of the box. I did the initial cleaning as they recommend but didn't touch the trigger.

3 weeks ago I oiled both triggers with M Pro-7 gun oil LPX. This stuff is thicker than most oils and clings well to where you put it. I hit each side heavy where the trigger rotates and all areas where metal moves on metal. In the older trigger it was obvious because the paint was worn off. I have now put 16 boxes through each gun in skeet and sporting clays and haven't had a problem with doubles since. But like I mentioned earlier, I did change my trigger finger pull slightly.

I almost cleaned out my trigger group with some Gunslick spray cleaner, it's similar to Gun Scrubber in that it removes everything, including oils. The Maxus manual even recommends this type of cleaning. Now I'm glad I didn't, it just wasn't all that dirty after 325 rounds. So I just blew it out and slightly oiled some pivot points.

They do make spray gun cleaners that leave a slightly oiled residue. Maybe this would be better to clean the trigger group with.

I'm glad you found a solution. This could be a key factor for all.