Mods to help cocking my AEA HP Varmint?

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My AEA Backpacker was so hard to cock the last 1/2" I had to use two hands. Felt like it was coil binding so I tore it apart. The hammer spring guide had a divot on one end about 1/2" up. Filed that off and polished the spring guide, lubed with 30wt. it works much easier now.



Another thing you can do is add o-rings to the bolt handle. Gives you more surface area to pull against.
 
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Like FelixS said, use your thumb to help. Here is what my Bantam looks like and it works great:



bolt22.1643916549.jpg


Don't think silicone should be used for metal to metal contact. 




 
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i have 2 x's AEA 22 hp semi autos ist is ist gen , the 2nd one i got little over a month ago before i got sick , anyways it is a hp +, i only shot 1 mag thru it , both are extremly hard to cock to put the mags in, i have bone on bone arthitis in my left thumb , & my right hand was broken 2 x;s, i am currently looking for a bigger cup or something to install on the cocking knob
 
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Through some experimentation I figured out that it is a LOT easier to cock the AEAs (at least the semi autos) by breaking up the cocking process into 2 steps.

First put the stock against your shoulder, fingers of your right hand around the cocking handle, and the thumb of that hand behind the gun’s action. Now when pulling the cocking handle use your thumb to supply more strength and at the same time also pull the stock INTO your shoulder to cock the gun. (It is the combination of using the thumb to push and fingers for pulling against your shoulder that lightens the perceived workload remarkably)
Release tension when the spring is compressed and the sear is engaged.
Important here is to leave the magazine totally out of the eqation! (Meaning do not try to insert it, or even keeping it in your supporting hand while performing this first step.)

Secondly, only AFTER the gun is cocked as in the step above, with the bolt fully FORWARD, insert the magazine with your supporting (left) hand against the side of the closed probe (i.e. put it in until it can’t go any further as the probe in forward position is blocking it. It is in only about half way, but it is clamped and will not fall out. Now pull the bolt back, which will be easy for the first 75% of the way, as there is now only little spring tension since the sear is already holding the valve spring as accomplished in step one. Then pull the last 25% of the way, (to clear the probe fully into the action) and push the magazine all the way in, then release the bolt to it‘s forward position.
I have these cocking supports (see pic below) but by using the technique above, I find that I mostly don‘t need to use one of them at all…

9C6030B1-37D2-4C72-89E3-F734CE547317.jpeg



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Stretch said:
I just got my AEA HP Varmint (in .22) this afternoon. I read lots of posts warning about the trigger, so I was prepared for that (although it wasn't as bad as I expected). But the bolt (holy cow!) that thing is tough! I sprayed some Ballistol to help smooth it out but I feel maybe some sort of silicone grease might be better. Any other suggestions?
Click to expand...
Krytox for metal on metal I am told. Worked well for me in the Max.
 
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I got the trigger group out of the gun and "stoned" the sear and trigger catch. This improved the trigger break immensely.

I hand polished (machine polishing with wheels rounds edges) the contact points then chucked up the hammer and used 1000, 2000 & 3000 grit paper to polish up the hammer so it would not drag on the sear.​


I then hooked up the grinder post and sharpened the hammer shoulder for a crisper break.

Rubbed in molly to the contact points and the trigger is much better though not what I would consider "good" by any means.

The trigger still has slack that you have to take up but it doesn't always take up the same from shot to shot. The break is not perfectly crisp, I would like to make a new set or replace this trigger group and hammer to see if it's all of them since my HP MAX looked the same and I was able to get that to break crisply.
 
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