Trigger issues High Standard Victor

Gentlemen,

Today was my first range session with a new-to-me High Standard Victor (Hamden) pistol. It has the trigger adjustment screw at the rear of the slide. Accuracy was very good and the quality overall appears to be be very good as well. The problem was, irrespective of ammo used (which included Aguila Match, SK Match and Eley Tenex) a "dead trigger" issue that occurred about every 10 rounds. By this I mean the action apparently failed to cock, the trigger felt mushy and the pistol would not fire. Upon ejecting the round in the chamber and cocking the pistol, the pistol would fire normally. I have made no adjustment to the screw at the rear of the slide which is about 3mm deep to the outer surface of the rear of the slide.

Suggestions as to how to approach this would be appreciated. Thanks.

Turning the adjustment screw in (detents in half turns) puts more spring tension on the sear and so adjusts trigger pull weight.  If your gun passes a trigger weight check there should be enough to operate the sear correctly.

Also the left side plate has the safety detents, if that works loose the safety can flop around on its own, and under that plate is the sear bar and sear bar spring (tiny) which can get out of place if the plate is loose.

You might also check the trigger stop screw. It may be set too deep.

A good cleaning especially the sear nose and hammer hooks, then proper lubrication.

If the over travel screw is not turned in enough, the trigger may not reset reliably. And that condition can also damage the sear nose, because the sear may not be clearing the hammer hooks and half cock hooks reliably. That can damage the sear nose.

Get in touch with High Standard in Houston.  The employees there are probably the people who built the pistol in the first place.

Not sure if you have a "gold" plated trigger but I'll add that my brother-n-law had trigger problems and when we disassembled the trigger by removing the cross trigger pin and found  it was partially corroded in place. It was originally hard to even punch cross pin out. Soaking with Kroil oil helped free it up. We installed a new cross pin and cleaned up the trigger pin hole as best as possible. Plating was flaking off from corrosion. We used gun grease during reassembly.

Personally, as an owner of 2 HS (Hamden, CT) Victors and a Citation, and past owner of several others, it sounds like your hammer may be following the slide. This is caused by either damage to the sear nose or someone stoning the sear nose.

When racking the slide after a "dead" trigger, can you feel the tension of cooking the hammer?  If so, send it to a reputable smith for a new sear.  If not, it sounds like the trigger overtravel screw is adjusted in too far.  Back it out 1/2 turn and try it.  If you remove the barrel and slide you can hold the hammer, squeeze the trigger and see if you can feel the hammer hooks touching the sear as you rock the hammer back and forth.  That will tell you if you need to adjust the overtravel screw out even more.